Featuring: Brelynn Hunt, Dreaming to make ‘Beauty and Brains’ into a non profit organization
Brelynn has a passion for inspiring the youth and encouraging them to achieve higher education. She serves as a Spelman College student ambassador as well as a Peer Assistant leader where she was awarded Most Popular among all the New Student Leaders during the 2015 New Student Orientation. Her skills are also displayed on Brelynn’s popular YouTube channel where she creates vlogs and college advice videos sharing her journey at Spelman College achieving over one million views in total.
How were you inspired to begin your channel? Where did you start?
I am a very proactive individual. I take things that interest me the most into my own hands in order to make the change I see possible in various situations. Becoming a YouTube content creator sparked from the shortage of an admirable and successful African American young women pursuing her college education in America. I saw the need for change so I worked diligently and efficiently to provide a role model for young ladies on a broader spectrum.
What inspires you and keeps you moving forward? Why are you passionate about it?
My subscribers keep me the most motivated! I consider every subscriber my little mentee. I am truly dedicated to helping others inside and outside of my community and its just my passion for inspiring the youth and encouraging them to achieve higher education.
What’s your favorite aspect of the beauty & cosmetics industry?
I love how the beauty and cosmetics industry is actually an artist community. From branding and product designs, to the makeup artist that bring the beautiful colors to life, make-up as a whole is art! I always tell people I can’t draw, or paint portraits, but I can kill a colorful eye-shadow look, and that’s my form of art expression. Its a unique path, but its beautiful nonetheless.
What makes your brand unique from other beauty channels?
Definitely the fact that I don’t focus on just beauty. My channel is a melting pot for all things young girls are interested in. From my college vlogs, showcasing my real everyday life at school. To my back to school clothing hauls, and advice videos about college application or boys! I also focus on hair, one of my favorite sections of channel are my “Bundles on a Budget” hair reviews. I try a range from expensive to affordable hair and rate it all on my “Brelynn Bundle Scale”. Everything on my channel is 100% real (sometimes a little too real). But that real life connection allows me to relate to every girl in at least one way, and that’s why my channel is unique.
How do you organize/plan out your content?
Scheduling is key! I am a full time college student, so I base filming around my classes. My secret is to wake up early and go to class with a cute outfit, and make up and hair done, then when I come home to my dorm I film as many videos as I can think of. From there I edit videos in between classes and I can schedule my uploads on the Sunday before classes start up again.
What is your goal for your channel? Dreams?
My dream is to make Beauty and Brains into a non profit organization. Our goal would be to educate young women of how to properly prepare for college. To provide a scholarship for young women to help pursue a college education. To promote higher level learning to our surrounding communities, and to increase the self esteem of the young women we serve.
Do you have any tips for others trying to break into the beauty industry?
My biggest advice is to be unique! YouTube is heavily saturated with so many young talented girls, so I would encourage anyone who wants to be successful to think outside of the box and create an innovative channel. It breaks my heart when I see small but talented YouTubers lack success because there are 100 other bigger channels that produce the exact same content. Regardless of your quality, people will only watch if you’re one of a kind!
What are your favorite beauty products or your go-to skincare regimen?
I love the banana powder by Ben Nye, that was an old cult favorite on YouTube a few years back, but I’m still not over it! I use it daily because it just gives my makeup this flawless matte finish that I can’t find in from other products.
What products are you currently using on a daily basis?
I start off all of my looks with the NYX eyeshadow base in neutral, and I love the hot pot shadows from coastal scents. I usually use their shades every day to start off a smooth, warm transitioning regardless of what look I create.
What’s your personal style?
I love fashion, so I do a little bit of everything. I love retro looks inspired by the 90s, but I also dabble into bohemian styles in the summer. Recently I’ve added the minimalist look to my repertoire. I love the classic and timeless vibe I get. But my go-to style is fun, flirty, and girly. I love dresses and skirts, and always a slight peek of skin here and there.
How does your personal style influence your branding?
Being a girly-girl influenced my channel as a whole! As a young adult in High School, it was often assumed that I would not continue on to pursue a higher education, unless I focused on topics such as beauty and fashion. I was constantly discouraged as an aspiring doctor who wanted to major in STEM, and one day attend medical school. Beauty and Brains was created for young women to feel welcomed and accepted when they’re truly being themselves. I wanted the ladies in my community to be able to be beautiful and fabulous, as well as educated and talented. My goal is to break the stigma of beautiful women. So my channel colors were Barbie pink, and yes I did make up tutorials, and talked about hair and fashion, but I also talked about college preparation and increasing your education.
What’s your favorite brand and why?
My favorite brand will always be MAC cosmetics. They’re the OGs! Being a woman of color, they were one of the first brands to offer a variety of makeup for our skin tones. They’re classic and original, and I feel like most successful brands today modeled themselves from MAC products.
