La Bronze James AKA Jackie Aina
Ms. Jackie O, the rose-gold army vet.
DISCLAIMER : Okay so, because this is a critical review, I’m just gonna put it out there. I LOVE JACQUELYN AINA. Now that I’ve admitted my bias, I pledge to look at her from a most critical view (I’ll try).
In 2009, Jackie Aina, U.S. army veteran turned professional makeup artist, started a Youtube channel with the simple goal of creating beauty content for women of colour. Nearly ten years later, Aina is a beauty guru and a social media mogul.
Youtube — 2.2 million subscribers
Twitter — 308k followers
Instagram — 899k followers
Facebook — 160k followers (across all pages)
And she’s still going.
The objectives of her social media platforms as well as her consistency allows her maintain and grow this following. It’s clear that Jackie uses each one of her social media for specific reasons. Her Youtube channel is her home base. This is the starting point and the account with most followers. All makeup reviews/tutorials, lifestyle videos, collaborations and work related content are posted here. Her twitter is her place for follower engagement. Taking the form of memes, PR statements and other commentary, Jackie directly connects with her followers . Her snapchat is where she opens her followers to inside look at her personal day to day life; life from her perspective . Jackie has always been a very private person so her followers get a look at her family, her home, goofing around with her fiancee (someone no one saw for eight years), things you can’t find on any of her other platforms. Her Facebook acts as more of an advertising space, lots of ads and links to other sites. Finally her Instagram is a like a condensed version of her YouTube with more of an overview personal and professional life. Her fashion sense, sponsored posts, trailers for her YouTube videos and events where she’s partnered with different brands. Finally her website, encompasses it all. Lifestyle blogs, tutorials, fashion, makeup and so on.
But how did she get here in the first place? She’s not related to any celebrities and she didn’t gain fame from a viral meme. It’s safe to say Jackie has come a long way. I’m talking makeup tutorial through slide show. Take a look,
I love you Jackie but I’m also cringing. But we all gotta start somewhere. With only a YouTube Channel, Jackie focused on improving her tutorials (which did get better, much better) and then went on to build her brand and a very strong one at that.
Over the last ten years Jackie Aina has built one of the strongest personal brands in the YouTube community. Jackie’s main focus has always been sharing and teaching others about makeup with her loud, fun and goofy personality. But honestly, that’s not much different from any other makeup YouTubers. What makes Jackie stand out is her commitment to transparency and her activism. This brand has opened her up to unique opportunities to collaborate with makeup giants like NARS and TooFaced as well as other major brands such as Dove. Her notoriety reaches well past social media as she had the honour of receive a NAACP award this past year.
Let’s start with her transparency. Jackie serves the real tea (the truth). Jackie is not only a YouTuber but an influencer. Due to her large following, hundreds of brands reach out to Jackie in hopes to build a partnership. It’s important to note that Jackie is amongst the first YouTubers to gain this status. As Jackie began to pick up a large following, the social media influencer strategy blew up. When partnering with an influencer, companies usually also send a list of key features of the product they would like their influencer to mention in product reviews on YouTube, sponsored posts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Suddenly, instead of getting a simple review, all your favourite YouTubers were trying to sell you something. Who could you trust? Well, Jackie. She has a disclaimer for every company that sends her product and its very simple: If she doesn’t like your product she will say so. (in a fun and goofy way of course )
In almost every video of a product review Jackie pledges to give her most honest review. There is a risk involved in this of course. Brands won’t invest in an influencer that doesn’t influence viewers to buy their products. It’s obvious, I know. So why does it work so well for Jackie ? Consistency. If Jackie consistently remains transparent about which products came from PR packages and remains unbiased in very review across the board, she becomes a trusted source. In a sea of YouTubers turned advertisers, you know you can trust Jackie to tell you whether she actually likes a brand/product regardless of if she’s getting paid or not. Hard to believe but it’s true. In 2016 Jackie made an “Anit — Haul” featuring some Tarte Cosmetics products and the brand cut all ties with her.
Jackie shows her followers that she is willing to take a risk in order to put them first and to give them the truth. This is also true in her personal life. From personal opinions on other areas, fashion, politics, clothes, celebrities and even gossip or rumours about herself Jackie remains real.
Jackie also remains firm in her beliefs and uses her platform as a voice for change. Jackie’s main goal is to create a space for people of colour in the beauty industry and uplift black owned businesses. Many of her YouTube videos cater solely to people of colour in terms of foundation, nude lipsticks, blushes and eyeshadows. These products are sometimes non-existent for people of colour.
Many people claim that this makes her videos exclusionary. Yet her following varies, her artistry and techniques are universal and her commentary is hilarious. (Also things like ingredients, coverage, longevity and other qualities of a product are also universal.) She also provides insight for professional makeup artist who are not people of colour. She receives a lot of backlash for this, claiming that she makes everything about race. Jackie periodically addresses this concern and she usually responds by standing firm in her opinion, staying true her brand.
This attitude has paid off as it has opened up unique opportunities for her. In 2017, Too Faced Cosmetics announced they would partner with Jackie to create a shade extension. As a darker skinned woman, lemme tell you they could use the help. Jackie also had the opportunity to collaborate with Artist Couture to create a highlighter called “La Bronze”. Encompassing her favourite colour, rose gold, Jackie ensured she picked a pigment that sat well on darker skin tones. (Highlighters often times come out ashy on darker skin)
These are HUGE names in makeup. These opportunities are due solely to her consistent activism, messaging and loyal fan base. Brands are now listening to the call for a more diverse range in makeup and Jackie has set herself up to be the perfect advocate. Jackie has also been recognized in other ways due to her advocacy. She became one of the first YouTuber ambassadors for the United Nations (WILD, I know). As mentioned earlier, Jackie also became the first receipt of the “YouTuber of the Year Award” from the NAACP.
However , there is one major downfall to attaching your brand to a specific cause. Jackie is now held to the impossible standard of calling out every single makeup brand that releases shades or products that exclude people of colour.
This can be exhausting and as more and more makeup brands pop up, it will become more difficult for Jackie to keep up. She has and will continue to expand her brand. Her partnership with Dove and Fashionova (a clothing line) are definitely two major ways, among others, of bring a new side of the Jackie Aina brand to light. This is also in addition to her lifestyle YouTube channel “Jackie and Denis” which features vlogs and YouTube challenges she manages with her fiancé Denis.
Furthermore, as we all know, there is a dark side to social media. The victims are usually people like Jackie and in the makeup and fashion world, people can be especially brutal. However, the way that Jackie addresses it is part of the reason why people like her. Jackie opens up to her fan base in fun and healthy way. From her favourite rapper (Drake), to her favourite outfits, Jackie makes her followers feel like her best friend. Outspoken, Jackie shares what she loves. She stays very professional when it comes to work but when she plays with her followers she doesn’t hold back. Being able to make fun of herself from time to time.
Jackie usually uses memes or funny videos to address hateful comments. She always reinforces her brand while doing so as it’s usually because of her outspokenness or her advocacy that people usually don’t like her.
Finally, Jackie’s quality of content has improved significantly, always on point and always on trend. Her Instagram in full of photoshoots, travel and fashion inspo.
While her twitter is full of hilarious commentary on trending topics and memes to accompany it. Everything Jackie does strengthens her brand, showing that she not only walks the walk but talks the talk. This allows Jackie to be a trusted source for her followers, therefore becoming an asset for many companies. Through social media, Jackie Aina became your favourite aunty, your older prettier sister, and your brutally honest best friend.
Find her on all social media @jackieaina
