The Create & Cultivate 100 returns for its 4th edition this year! The annual list honours 100 forward-thinking women who are taking the world by storm. Each category honours 10 women who are bucking tradition, making history and fighting for change in the workplace and the world.
Following Freddie Harrel and Asiyami Gold , who were honoured last year, Nyma Tang and Kiitan Akinniranye are honoured on the 2020 list in the Beauty and Content Creator categories.
“You don’t have to settle for what people think you deserve”
Nyma Tang has accumulated over 1 million (!) YouTube subscribers in just three years. For the uninitiated, the beauty vlogger posts videos in which she puts the deepest shades of makeup on the market to the test in a series appropriately named “The Deepest Shade.”
In drawing attention to the importance of inclusivity in shade ranges, the 28-year-old has garnered a cult following of like-minded makeup fanatics—and big-name beauty brands like Maybelline, E.L.F. Cosmetics, and Bobbi Brown have taken notice.
In her interview, Tang shares what it’s like being a woman of color in the beauty industry, the changes she’s like to see in the market moving forward, and the thoughtful advice she’d give to her younger self if she could go back in time.
Click here to read her full interview
“We’re really living in a golden era of content creation where all you need is an idea, some material, and an iPhone to sell your content and build a following.“
To say that Kiitan Akinniranye has built a successful platform for showcasing her sense of style via social media is a bit of an undersell. By the numbers, the fashion influencer has garnered over 556,000 followers on Instagram and 259,000 subscribers on YouTube—no small feat in the golden era of content creation. And, notably, she’s managed to parlay her social media success into a popular headwrap brand called Atarah Avenue.
So, how exactly has she garnered such an impressive audience? Her style is definitely a reigning factor, but it’s her pearls of realdom that have cultivated a community. Like this recent poem that she shared via Instagram: “You Dear Brown Girl, Don’t be afraid to shine. Your hair is so beautiful. And your skin is divine.” At our Self Care Summit, she reinforced why she’s one of our favorite people to follow on social media by telling us: “I have a job title of being an influencer and I don’t take that lightly… it is my duty to make sure I am spreading positivity.”
In the interview, we ask the fashion influencer and entrepreneur to fill us in on how she stands out in such a saturated space, her secret for growing (and maintaining) an engaged social media following, and the mistakes she’s learned from along the way.