Early Beginnings in the Military
Jackie Aina first created her YouTube channel in 2006 while living unhappily in a marriage in Hawaii. At the time, the 18-year-old was also serving in the military reserve.
With YouTube growing rapidly in popularity for makeup tutorials, Aina’s best friend convinced her to start her own channel to express her creative talents and passion for beauty.
As Aina recalls, “I felt like I was stifling my creative side.” She began following popular white and Asian YouTubers and recreating their looks for darker skin tones like her own.
Filling the Representation Void
In the early days of the beauty community on YouTube, Aina noticed a lack of representation for people of color. She shares:
“At that time, it was mainly white women and Asian women in the beauty community. So I was taking these looks that the more popular vloggers were doing, and I was basically showing people how to make them work for brown skin.”
Aina quickly realized she could teach techniques and looks that were inaccessible for many people of color in the industry. Though starting slow, her channel began gaining popularity in the Black community.
Impacting Millions
Over a decade later, Aina has over 3.5 million YouTube subscribers and 7.3 million followers across platforms. She is deemed “the most influential voice in beauty today” by Harper’s Bazaar.
Though she only casually posted for the first few years, Aina eventually made YouTubing her full-time career. She has earned awards like NAACP’s “YouTuber of the Year” and continues using her immense platform to advocate for inclusion and representation.
What the Future Holds
Looking ahead, Aina aims to show more dimensions of her life beyond beauty through platforms like her new lifestyle website. But no matter what content she creates, Aina remains committed to uplifting people of color and speaking out when the industry falls short.
Over 13 tireless years, Jackie Aina has cemented her status as a pioneer who transformed the online beauty community. And at just 34 years old, there is surely much more history-making to come.
Watch her video from 14 years ago below:
