Beauty Blogger: ChristiJae
“I define pretty as being confident to share negative situations with others and show that a positive outcome can happen. A pretty person encourages others to embrace themselves and to live their life, without fear!”
Meet the 18-year old, beauty blogger and vlogger who advocates inner beauty and self-confidence, Christian Jackson. You may know her as CHRISTIJAE on her YouTube channel, that continues to grow every single day. The Georgia-born peach attends Columbus State University and wants to pursue a career in business management. Over the past few months Christian has reached over 20,000 Youtube subscribers, and she plans to grow her channel even more, before the year ends!
I asked Christian how it felt accomplishing that milestone.
The Visionary Boss: Describe the feeling of reaching 20,000 subscribers.
“I was so excited, it was a goal that I didn’t think I would reach until later on, in the year.”
With over 800,000 views on her beauty, style and hair tutorials, Christian’s channel has definitely grown in the past eight months.
What have you learned from starting your YouTube platform?
“I’ve learned to just be myself, have fun and take each day as it comes.” Christian says.
Sounds like good advice, whether you’re independently growing your own platform or need a few keywords of encouragement to accomplish a goal.
When did you start getting into makeup?
“A lot of people at school were interested in how I did my makeup,” Christian reveals. She started getting into the makeup world during her sophomore year of high school. “When I joined my school’s dance team, we had to wear makeup. From then, my passion for makeup grew.”
For her senior prom, Christian decided to do her own hair and makeup. “It was very stressful--I was almost late because of it.” the self-taught makeup guru shared.
Since graduating high school, Christian attends Columbus State University. She started her first semester, a few weeks ago and really likes being apart of the Cougars. “I’m enjoying going there.” she says. “The atmosphere is great!” Although Christian does not stay on campus, she takes advantage of the campus amenities, like the gym and library.
Christian has a variety of beauty videos ranging from ‘Soft glam’ looks, ‘Campus Slay’ to ‘Instagram Baddie.’ With all of those glam beats, I had to know if she would consider doing freelance at Columbus State. “Maybe sometime in the near future,” Christian responded. “It’s been a huge transition coming to college, so I’m just focusing on school and not overworking myself.”
How do you find a balance between beauty blogging and school?
“I make sure to have everything in order for school first and focus on Youtube second.”
That’s a really mature perspective to have. What are your future goals for your YouTube channel?
“My next goal is 30k [subscribers] of course. And building a stronger relationship with my supporters. I’m really grateful for the people who support me.”
There is no doubt that there are many up and coming Women of Color beauty bloggers on social media. Christian looks up to Aaliyah Jay and Teaira Walker to name a few. “I looked up to them [for fashion and beauty] even before I started my YouTube channel. Now that I have a channel, I get lots of inspiration from them.”
At times there feels like a lack of representation, marketing and products geared to girls with browner complexions. In mid-September, the cosmetic brand, Colour Pop received lots of backlash for having distasteful names on their browner/darker contour sculpting stix shades. They used names such as “Dume,” “Yikes” and “Typo” for the darker pigmented shades. Bad call, Colour Pop! Not only were their name options offensive, they were racially insensitive. Colour Pop’s choice of naming darker shades is a bad representation to melanated young girls who are getting into the world of makeup.
Do you think the makeup industry is lacking when it comes to makeup geared towards WOC?
“Yes,” Christian agrees. “I believe it has been lacking, but now you see [makeup companies] making more products that I’m loving.”
At the moment, Christian is loving Anastasia Beverly Hills products. “My top beauty products are the new Anastasia Beverly Hills foundation sticks and [their] cream contour kit.” Christian spills. Anastasia Beverly Hills’ new foundation stick have a large variety of shades, gearing towards women with browner complexions, such as “Chestnut,” “Cocoa,” and “Expresso.”
Christian’s beauty essentials also include Mac’s Lipglass in “Spite,” Sacha Butterup setting powder and Ruby Kisses bronzer. When it comes to high end versus low end beauty products, Christian mainly cares about quality. “I will wear any price range of makeup, as long as the quality of the product is nice, and the product is useful.”
One must go, Christian. Fleeky eyebrows, contour or glow highlight.
“Wow, that’s a hard one,” Christian couldn’t help but laugh. “But, definitely contour. I could not live without fleeky eyebrows and highlight is a must have.” A poppin’ highlight is Christian’s favorite beauty trend at the moment. “It looks good on almost anyone, and I am definitely living for it right now.”
Her other favorite trend is consistently changing her hairstyle. On her YouTube channel, Christijae, Christian switches up from curly hair to a wavy Brazilian to a Peruvian straight. She often reviews different hair companies and has tutorials on how to make wig installs and achieving burgundy-colored hair (which was her favorite hair color to try). “My favorite hairstyle has been my red hair. It was something so out of my comfort zone, and I enjoyed it.”
Anyone scrolling through the gram or watching beauty channels on YouTube can clearly see that there is a huge emphasis on slaying, having laid hair and being snatched. But there is so much more than than that. I had to ask Christian what she thought of beauty that was ‘au naturale.’
Being glam, trying new looks and having a beat face is nice, but what is your definition of having self-love natural beauty?
She had a great response! “Being natural is just as great as being glam. Self-love is being comfortable in your own skin.”
Do you have words of advice for young girls of color on YouTube and who have platforms?
“I would definitely tell them to be who they are, and [to not be] afraid to take chances. Go for your dreams and shoot for the stars.”
