Latest / Mini Scroll / The Career & Impact of Jackie Aina: How One YouTuber Changed the Beauty Industry

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The Career & Impact of Jackie Aina: How One YouTuber Changed the Beauty Industry · Mini Scroll

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  Click the link in the show notes to get all the event details and
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  secure your free spot. On August 4th 27th 17 YouTube,
• 1:01
  Jackie Ina celebrated her 30th birthday.
• 1:03
  Jackie had been creating beauty and lifestyle content online
• 1:06
  since 2009. Since posting her first video, a
• 1:10
  slideshow style tutorial of a purple Smokey eye, Jackie had
• 1:13
  amassed over 1,000,000 followers and had collaborated with brands
• 1:17
  like Elf Cosmetics and Sigma Beauty.
• 1:19
  So Jackie was already among the ranks of the platform's most
• 1:22
  prominent creators. She was about to make history in
• 1:25
  the beauty YouTube community. On her 30th birthday, Jackie
• 1:28
  announced a new collaboration that she had in the works, one
• 1:31
  where a brand was giving her creative control to help them
• 1:34
  expand their shade range. Quote.
• 1:36
  I can't think of a better day to announce the biggest project of
• 1:39
  my career to date. I've been keeping a little
• 1:41
  secret for the past few months, but it's finally time to
• 1:44
  announce that this year I will be working with one of my
• 1:47
  favorite brands, Two Faced, to help expand their Born This Way
• 1:50
  Foundation line and create darker and deeper shades for all
• 1:53
  of you, she wrote on Instagram. The announcement was huge, but
• 1:57
  the launch was even bigger. In June 2018, Jackie revealed
• 2:01
  eleven additional shades that she created for Born This Way.
• 2:04
  The new shades quickly sold out and the deepest shade, Ganache,
• 2:08
  was actually the 1st to go. Quote brands will maybe get
• 2:11
  backlash for doing certain campaigns that maybe didn't
• 2:14
  resonate with women of color too nicely.
• 2:16
  You can avoid instances like that by giving us a seat at the
• 2:18
  table to make sure we are visible behind the scenes and
• 2:21
  making sure that everyone is represented fairly.
• 2:24
  I think if anything, it just speaks to being represented
• 2:26
  fairly, and we can't do that if someone else is writing the
• 2:29
  story for us, Jackie said of the collection.
• 2:31
  Jackie's Born This Way collaboration was an industry
• 2:34
  first, solidifying her as one of the power players in the beauty
• 2:38
  YouTube space. But if you know anything about
• 2:40
  the beauty community, you know that 2018 was the start of an
• 2:45
  avalanche of drama that consumed the space for years to come.
• 2:49
  It was the beginning of the end for the beauty YouTube community
• 2:52
  as we knew it. And though Jackie's career was
• 2:54
  stronger than ever, it soon became clear that audiences were
• 2:58
  done with beauty tutorials and interviews, forcing some of the
• 3:01
  most prominent creators, including Jackie Ina, to pivot
• 3:05
  from Centennial world. I'm Lauren Meisner, and this is
• 3:08
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 3:11
  economy, and how social media is shaping.
• 3:14
  Jen Zed. Welcome back to Infinite Scroll,
• 3:16
  everyone. All right, this is my 6th
• 3:19
  podcast episode that I have recorded this week.
• 3:21
  I mean, normally I record what for, I guess, and then this one,
• 3:24
  but I recorded one earlier today for a marketing podcast, which
• 3:29
  is really exciting because I actually, Oh no, I have been on
• 3:31
  a marketing podcast before. We were on a marketing podcast
• 3:34
  last year. But yes, very exciting.
• 3:36
  It was such a beautiful space. I was like obsessed with their
• 3:38
  studio and I was just looking at it being like, Oh my God, mine
• 3:40
  is like so tragic compared to this one.
• 3:43
  But you know what, this one is mine.
• 3:44
  So I'm going to love it. Anyways, I am so excited today
• 3:48
  to be bringing you guys the life and impact and career and
• 3:51
  history of Jackie Ina. She was one of the first beauty
• 3:55
  gurus that I followed. Like she just really is among
• 3:58
  the biggest, you know, So if you were really into like beauty
• 4:01
  YouTube back in the day, she would have been one of the ones
• 4:03
  that you would have followed. I have just been watching her
• 4:06
  for years. I'm so obsessed with her
• 4:08
  content. And I recently got really
• 4:10
  interested in her rebrand and her pivot.
• 4:13
  It's not that she's not a beauty creator anymore, but she has so
• 4:16
  successfully taken herself from almost like an education based
• 4:20
  creator to this beautiful like luxurious lifestyle creator.
• 4:25
  But she's done it in a way where she's maintained relevance and
• 4:29
  her audience has continued to grow.
• 4:31
  And I got really interested in looking into her career because
• 4:35
  I don't know if you guys saw, but on TikTok a few weeks ago,
• 4:38
  there was a big discussion because Jackie actually asked
• 4:40
  her followers to stop calling her Auntie Jackie or Auntie
• 4:44
  Jackie. Sorry if I mispronounced that.
• 4:46
  And it caused this kind of whole debate in her community amongst
• 4:50
  her fan base. And that kind of kicked off my
• 4:52
  interest into looking at this evolution for her.
• 4:55
  So as always, if you like my podcast, if you like this
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  episode, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  It means so much to me. It helps me grow.
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  It helps me keep going. Please sign up to our newsletter
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  called Infinite Scroll. On Wednesdays, we send out a
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  commentary article about a trend, creator drama or news.
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  Internet from that week. And you can also join our Geneva
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  group, which is also called Infinite Scroll, where we chat
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  with other people who are obsessed with Internet culture
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  and creator drama. NT and you can chat with me.
• 5:26
  OK, I wanted to read one little review.
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  Our YouTube is like popping off this week so there was way too
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  many comments for me to choose from, which was such a good
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  problem to have. Please keep it going.
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  But I wanted to read a cute little Spotify comment from
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  Ricky who said the inserts of the audio quotes were extremely
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  polished. I really liked how an insert
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  didn't need to be introduced. The editing was seamless.
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  Great work Danny, hope I spelled that right.
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  First of all, you did. That is how you spelled Danny's
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  name. So sweet.
• 5:52
  Thank you so much Ricky. Honestly, we have been working
• 5:54
  away here to like figure out what the new schedule is, what
• 5:57
  the vibe is. And if you guys watch on
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  YouTube, you'll have, I've noticed there's been quite the
• 6:01
  level up over the last few weeks with our content.
• 6:03
  I mean, literally when I started these deep dives by myself, I
• 6:06
  was sitting at my house in our studio and I had my laptop on my
• 6:10
  lap and I would read my script and that was literally all the
• 6:13
  videos were, I remember early days, I got a YouTube comment on
• 6:17
  one of my first videos like that.
• 6:19
  Somebody just said, are you really reading out your script
• 6:22
  to us? Like, is that really what this
• 6:23
  video is? And I was so upset and offended.
• 6:26
  And when I got that comment, I was like, fuck, OK, I really
• 6:29
  need to figure this out. So I'm still, you know, I'm
• 6:32
  still kind of in my reading journey.
• 6:33
  I think I need to get like a teleprompter.
• 6:35
  But I feel like there has been definitely a glow up and the
• 6:39
  editing has been a massive part of it.
• 6:41
  So yes, Denny's editing is amazing and we're obsessed.
• 6:50
  All right, so before I get into the full deep dive, I did want
• 6:53
  to let you guys know that my team reached out to Jackie Ina's
• 6:57
  team for the podcast episode to ask if she would want to be
• 7:00
  interviewed or had any commentary on anything we were
• 7:03
  going to talk about. And unfortunately, a
• 7:05
  representative for Jackie did not immediately respond to
• 7:08
  Infinite Scrolls request for comment.
• 7:10
  So sadly I could not get Jackie Ina on the podcast.
• 7:14
  Jackie Ina was born on the 4th of August 1987 in Los Angeles,
• 7:19
  CA. She was born to an African
• 7:21
  American mother and a Nigerian father.
• 7:23
  She grew up in California's San Gabriel Valley and was the
• 7:26
  eldest daughter to African immigrant parents.
• 7:29
  Jackie was reportedly very responsible from a young age,
• 7:32
  taking on cooking duties for her family while her parents worked
• 7:36
  and ran a quote UN quote child care Center for her three
• 7:39
  brothers and three sisters. Despite her upbringing, Jackie
• 7:42
  initially failed to live up to the quote UN quote good
• 7:45
  immigrant daughter narrative, as Jacqueline Lobel writes for Vox
• 7:48
  quote. Jackie's family expected her to
• 7:51
  pursue a traditional career path, with her first obsession
• 7:54
  being fashion. Jackie told Darian Simone Harvin
• 7:57
  for BuzzFeed News in 2019. Quote, that was really my first
• 8:00
  love. I would sketch and I would
• 8:02
  design clothes. Nevertheless, she pursued a
• 8:05
  degree in pharmacy at Cal State San Bernardino in her sophomore
• 8:09
  year of college. In 2008, she decided to join the
• 8:12
  Army Reserves, and she ended up serving for eight years.
• 8:15
  While this may seem like a bit of a rogue decision, considering
• 8:19
  that we now know Jackie for her makeup and entrepreneurial
• 8:22
  spirit, she was swayed by her then boyfriend.
• 8:25
  Quote Girl, I don't know what kind of midlife crisis I was
• 8:27
  going through, but I was like, I need to do something different.
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  It was the best experience for me.
• 8:32
  Jackie said in that same interview for BuzzFeed News.
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  She subsequently married her boyfriend and moved to Hawaii
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  with him. While being stationed in Hawaii,
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  Jackie got a job at a Mac counter, further cementing her
• 8:43
  obsession with makeup and beauty.
• 8:45
  But given that she was in the Army Reserves, she was only
• 8:47
  working part time, and this is when she fell in love with
• 8:50
  YouTube. After spending more and more
• 8:53
  time watching YouTube, Jackie started posting under Little
• 8:56
  Pumpkin Pie 05 in 2009. Best Friend encouraged her to
• 9:00
  start a channel, and she essentially decided to start
• 9:03
  posting because she didn't see anyone else that looked like her
• 9:06
  doing makeup on YouTube, at least doing makeup as good as
• 9:10
  she could quote. There was essentially no one in
• 9:12
  that space focusing on beauty for darker skin complexions,
• 9:15
  Jackie told Leanne Jackson for The New York Times in 2019.
• 9:19
  Jackie has also opened up about how her YouTube channel was a
• 9:21
  great source of comfort for her, especially given how unhappy she
• 9:25
  was in her marriage. The couple ended up divorcing
• 9:28
  shortly after getting married. In a 2017 video where Jackie
• 9:31
  recreated her first makeup tutorial, she reflected on that
• 9:34
  period of her life, saying. I wasn't around very positive,
• 9:38
  uplifting people at that time. YouTube was literally the only
• 9:42
  thing that kept me going. Jackie's content was quite
• 9:45
  amateur to start off, as was almost all of the content on
• 9:48
  YouTube at that time. The first video available on her
• 9:51
  channel is titled Electric Purple Smokey Eye and was posted
• 9:54
  on August 14th, 2009. Unlike contemporary tutorials
• 9:58
  where creators addressed the audience directly, her early
• 10:01
  content resembled a PowerPoint presentation, incorporating
• 10:05
  images and slides of text. Appearing on the Netflix docu
• 10:08
  series Black Beauty Effect, Jackie spoke about her early
• 10:11
  days on the platform, saying that looking back, Quote, it was
• 10:14
  actually so embarrassing. I feel you, Jackie.
• 10:17
  I wish I could delete like, the first three seasons of this
• 10:19
  podcast. As for the types of products
• 10:22
  available for Black people at that time, Jackie noted that
• 10:25
  there were barely any options. Quote, makeup was rough.
• 10:28
  You do not have options. It was very orange or ashy.
• 10:32
  Pick your poison. You better learn how to color
• 10:34
  correct quickly. In fact, that was part of the
• 10:37
  reason why Jackie decided to start her channel.
• 10:39
  She wanted to empower Black women to use makeup and find
• 10:43
  products that suited them. In Black Beauty Effect, Jackie
• 10:46
  specifically mentioned how she used to feel walking up to
• 10:48
  makeup counters. She noted that even when she
• 10:51
  mentioned a specific product that she wanted to try,
• 10:53
  employees would say things like quote not for your complexion.
• 10:57
  I felt other and it was very, very obvious they were not used
• 11:01
  to seeing people with my complexion, she said.
• 11:03
  That was another reason why I started my channel, because I
• 11:05
  got sick and tired of people telling me what I was supposed
• 11:08
  to look like. In various interviews and
• 11:10
  videos, Jackie has spoken about how when she first started
• 11:13
  posting on YouTube, it was before the platform really took
• 11:15
  off. However, by 2014, the pendulum
• 11:18
  shifted with more and more beauty gurus posting content.
• 11:22
  During the early days of her channel, Jackie admits that she
• 11:24
  quote was there for vibes and looks and having fun.
• 11:27
  She wasn't pursuing YouTube professionally for for the first
• 11:30
  three to four years, but by her fifth year on the platform,
• 11:33
  things started picking up for her and she basically had to
• 11:35
  make the decision to focus on YouTube or pursue other
• 11:38
  opportunities. In an interview with the CFDA
• 11:41
  Council of Fashion Designers of America, Jackie remembers her
• 11:44
  first truly viral moment pointing to a New Year's Eve
• 11:47
  theme video at the end of 2014. The video, titled Makeup Trends
• 11:52
  We're Ditching in 2015, took a more comedic approach than her
• 11:56
  previous content quote. I woke up the next day and
• 11:59
  confused. Normally I would get 2000 views
• 12:01
  on the first day and if I'm truly lucky I could get 10,000.
• 12:05
  This video had quickly garnered 50,000 views overnight.
• 12:08
  I had never really let loose on my channel like that before
• 12:11
  because I'm teaching so my mode would be customer service.
• 12:14
  Jackie. This was my first satire video
• 12:17
  and it won people over. From then on, Jackie was no
• 12:20
  longer just known for her educational content but also her
• 12:24
  personality quote. She also injected more of her
• 12:27
  personality into her videos. Well timed jokes, twerking in
• 12:30
  her chair, goofy but still cute facial expressions, writes
• 12:33
  Cosmopolitan. She figured out the influencer
• 12:35
  blueprint, spontaneity and authenticity and formed
• 12:38
  relationships with her viewers. She replies to tweets, likes,
• 12:42
  their Instagram comments, and they call her Auntie Jackie.
• 12:45
  Like I mentioned in the intro, she actually has asked her fans
• 12:48
  to stop calling her that. Jackie managed to balance her
• 12:51
  fun personality with her honesty, becoming the go to
• 12:55
  creator for frank reviews on popular products.
• 12:58
  Of course, with her focus on helping black people navigate
• 13:00
  the beauty industry, quote, people definitely see me as the
• 13:04
  authority on diversity and complexion, she told fashionista
• 13:07
  Quote Ines bluntness and humor endear her to viewers who love
• 13:10
  her straight talk, writes BuzzFeed News.
• 13:12
  She will tell viewers because if a product is too light or ashy
• 13:15
  for her skin tone or if a line doesn't contain enough variety
• 13:18
  of colors to serve darker skinned women.
• 13:20
  And it's important to note that Jackie was doing this prior to
• 13:23
  other beauty influencers or the beauty community as a whole
• 13:27
  discussing, you know, diversity and inclusion in the way that we
• 13:30
  discuss it now. This was genuinely revolutionary
• 13:33
  for the time, but it was also a little bit risky.
• 13:35
  As Jackie's channel grew, so did her follower base with viewers
• 13:39
  of all backgrounds enjoying her content quote.
• 13:41
  I always do my best to say that if you come to my channel, you
• 13:44
  don't have to necessarily relate with what I'm going through, but
• 13:47
  I want you to understand and I also want you to learn
• 13:49
  something. Jackie said in that same
• 13:51
  Fashionista interview. This educational approach,
• 13:54
  alongside her pursuit for diversity has underscored her
• 13:57
  influence in the beauty industry over the years, especially at
• 14:01
  the height of the beauty YouTube community in the late 2000 tens.
• 14:04
  Throughout this era, Jackie collaborated with some of the
• 14:07
  most well established and popular brands including
• 14:10
  Anastasia Beverly Hills, Elf Cosmetics, 2 Faced Artist, and
• 14:14
  Sigma Beauty. From eyeshadow palettes to
• 14:16
  highlighters, in every collab Jackie worked to expand product
• 14:20
  ranges to better suit darker skin tones.
• 14:22
  While each collaboration was wildly successful, it was
• 14:26
  probably her work with Two Faced and Anastasia Beverly Hills that
• 14:29
  skyrocketed Jackie to new heights in the beauty industry.
• 14:33
  As mentioned in the intro, in 2018 Jackie collaborated with
• 14:37
  Two Faced to expand the shade range of the iconic Born This
• 14:40
  Way Foundation. The collaboration expanded to
• 14:42
  include 11 traditional shades, nine of which were Co developed
• 14:46
  by Jackie. This extension brought the Born
• 14:48
  This Way Foundations line up to a total of 35 shades.
• 14:52
  Jackie was approached by Two Faced CEO Jared Blandino around
• 14:55
  a year before the launch. Blandino recognized that the
• 14:58
  shade range for the Born This Way Foundation was not inclusive
• 15:00
  enough and he thought Jackie would be the perfect person to
• 15:03
  help him expand that range. On June 23rd, 2018, Jackie
• 15:07
  posted a YouTube video going through all the shades that she
• 15:10
  helped create. At the time of recording, it has
• 15:12
  over 800,000 views and 68,000 likes.
• 15:16
  Quote I felt the proudest working with the brand Two Face.
• 15:19
  I was chosen to expand the Born This Way Foundation shade range
• 15:22
  and it was the first time an influencer had ever made that
• 15:24
  type of contribution. I loved working with the Two
• 15:27
  Face team and it truly felt like my voice mattered.
• 15:29
  Jackie said in a 2022 interview with the CFDA.
• 15:33
  The new shades sold out soon after they launched, reiterating
• 15:36
  the importance of Jackie's mission of bringing diversity to
• 15:39
  the beauty industry, according to Allure.
• 15:41
  Jackie noted that while brands might continue to expand on
• 15:43
  their shade ranges, they must also make these shades with
• 15:46
  people of color on board. Quote, just because a brand has
• 15:49
  a lot of dark shades doesn't mean that people are wearing
• 15:52
  them. By bringing on someone with dark
• 15:53
  skin to create these new colors, Two Faced really wanted to get
• 15:56
  it right. The following year, another
• 15:59
  major beauty brand tapped Jackie.
• 16:01
  That, of course, was Anastasia Beverly Hills.
• 16:04
  She collaborated with the brand to create the Jackie Ina
• 16:07
  Palette, a collection of 14 eye shadows made with darker skin
• 16:10
  tones at the front of Mind Quote.
• 16:12
  I creatively loved working with the brand Anastasia when I made
• 16:16
  the Jackie Ina Palette because they were willing to do whatever
• 16:19
  I wanted and they believed in me and whatever I aligned with.
• 16:22
  We're so used to hearing no, so to have that full autonomy felt
• 16:26
  great, Jackie said in that 2022 interview.
• 16:29
  Thanks to creators like Jackie, the beauty industry started
• 16:32
  considering inclusivity in their shade ranges when it comes to
• 16:35
  foundation. However, other products like eye
• 16:37
  shadows seem to be lagging behind.
• 16:40
  Often the colors and popular eyeshadow palettes end up too
• 16:43
  ashy or too chalky on darker skin tones.
• 16:46
  This was Key and Jackie's experience in making the palette
• 16:49
  with Anastasia I'm. Tired of getting of, like,
• 16:52
  emotionally invested into a palette with the dark matte
• 16:55
  brown. But sometimes they're ashy.
• 16:57
  Sometimes dark enough. The collaboration was extremely
• 16:59
  successful, as Jackie noted in an interview with Forbes after
• 17:03
  the pallets release in 2019. Quote.
• 17:05
  The pallet has gotten a ton of buzz and it's doing amazing at
• 17:08
  Sephora. We just found out it's now the
• 17:10
  number one palette at Sephora, which is awesome.
• 17:12
  It goes to show when you make a product, people will buy it.
• 17:15
  There's still a huge myth that Black women don't buy makeup,
• 17:18
  and I wanted to challenge that and I wanted to make a palette
• 17:21
  that was good that people would be drawn to at the store and on
• 17:24
  shelves, even if they didn't know who I was.
• 17:27
  While the Hallett quickly sold out, Jackie did start receiving
• 17:30
  backlash for the name of one of the eye shadows upon its
• 17:33
  release. The eyeshadow in question was
• 17:35
  named Wigglies, and some viewers believed that the term was
• 17:39
  referencing a slang word used against white people.
• 17:42
  Soon, Jackie was facing racist allegations.
• 17:45
  Even though you literally can't be racist to white people.
• 17:48
  Her fans defended Jackie, noting that the eyeshadow name was just
• 17:52
  a reference to wigs or quote UN quote wig language.
• 17:55
  Quote. Racists hate Jackie Ina so much,
• 17:57
  jumping through hoops talking about how she used a slur in one
• 18:00
  of the names of the eye shadows for her palette, one Twitter
• 18:03
  user wrote, as reported by Tonya Chen for BuzzFeed News.
• 18:06
  The conversation later shifted where quote those who had even
• 18:10
  questioned Ina's palette and or character were also swiftly
• 18:14
  being labeled as racist. Of course, this is not
• 18:17
  necessarily the case, but we all know that black women are often
• 18:20
  held to a much higher standard than others.
• 18:23
  Nevertheless, many social media users hoped that Jackie would
• 18:26
  step in to speak out against her fans, who are labeling critics
• 18:29
  as racist. In the end, Jackie efforts to
• 18:32
  promote diversity in the beauty industry and shed light on the
• 18:35
  challenges faced by people of color pushed her to the
• 18:37
  forefront of the online beauty community.
• 18:40
  For better or worse, Jackie has had her achievements recognized
• 18:43
  through a number of awards and different opportunities.
• 18:46
  In 2016, for example, Jackie was one of seven female YouTube
• 18:50
  stars to be named Change Ambassadors to the UN.
• 18:53
  In this position, she was tasked with promoting EU NS 2016
• 18:57
  Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality.
• 19:00
  Sharing the news in a YouTube video posted on March 9th, 2016,
• 19:04
  Jackie explained that she, alongside the other women, will
• 19:07
  be using our. Voices and our audience to raise
• 19:10
  awareness to why gender equality is so important, what it means
• 19:13
  to us. Like what role do we play in
• 19:16
  trying to make a world a better place?
• 19:18
  Just two years later, Jackie was awarded the N Double ACP YouTube
• 19:22
  of the Year. The N Double ACP, an acronym for
• 19:25
  the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People,
• 19:28
  was established in the United States in 19 O nine.
• 19:31
  Over the years, it has been a pivotal force in grassroots
• 19:34
  movements advocating for civil rights and social justice for
• 19:37
  minority communities. Having established herself as a
• 19:40
  voice for change, it's no surprise that Jackie was also a
• 19:44
  part of President Joe Biden's pro vaccine campaign throughout
• 19:48
  2021. In case you missed it, President
• 19:51
  Biden was interviewed by a number of creators as a way to
• 19:53
  encourage Gen. Zed to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
• 19:56
  It was an initiative organized between the White House and
• 19:59
  YouTube. In the opening of her video,
• 20:00
  Jackie thanked YouTube and the White House for the opportunity
• 20:03
  and explains that YouTube had reached out to her as a
• 20:06
  representative of the Black community and a voice for Black
• 20:08
  issues. This initiative cemented
• 20:10
  Jackie's place on social media both as a prominent creator and
• 20:14
  as a voice for the African American community.
• 20:17
  That being said, Jackie has had her brushes with drama and
• 20:21
  scandal, as has most influencers associated with the beauty
• 20:25
  community. Jackie is mostly renowned for
• 20:27
  staying in her lane. Considering her presence in the
• 20:30
  community, she has done a great job of staying out of drama,
• 20:33
  especially during drama. Get in one, drama, get in two
• 20:36
  and drama get in three. As Bella Ciatori for Glamour
• 20:39
  quote, Ina brings an unparalleled joy to a space that
• 20:43
  can sometimes devolve into pettiness and drama.
• 20:45
  Instead of engaging in the internet's prevalent call out
• 20:48
  culture, she voices her thought with the intent to create
• 20:50
  change. This has included calling out
• 20:52
  brands when they aren't being inclusive, holding other
• 20:55
  influencers accountable, and addressing colorism in the
• 20:58
  industry with conviction. However, one notable scandal
• 21:01
  that Jackie was involved in was in 2018.
• 21:04
  Essentially, Jackie accused drama YouTube petty Paige, now
• 21:08
  known as, of hacking her e-mail and her bank account.
• 21:12
  In the now deleted video, Jackie didn't mention Page by name.
• 21:15
  However, she left many hints as to who she was talking about.
• 21:18
  Soon, Internet users came to the conclusion that it was Page and
• 21:22
  she was sent a lot of hate. Jackie suspected that by issuing
• 21:25
  a copyright strike against a video that Paige had posted.
• 21:28
  The ensuing dispute granted Page access to her personal e-mail.
• 21:32
  Following this, Jackie alleged that Page had hacked into her
• 21:35
  e-mail and stole $1500. Paige posted a video about the
• 21:38
  situation to her YouTube channel, saying.
• 21:41
  It didn't happen. I did not steal any money from
• 21:46
  Jackie Ina. Of course, if some suspicious
• 21:49
  things happened after I obtained her e-mail, I couldn't
• 21:53
  understand why she might I think that way my she might be
• 21:56
  paranoid about it. Before assuring that she did not
• 21:59
  do that to Jackie, Paige then shared that there was a privacy
• 22:02
  hack through Google around the time that Jackie's e-mail was
• 22:05
  hacked and speculated whether Jackie had been part of that.
• 22:08
  The time frame and the time period of which this alleged
• 22:12
  hack happened for Jackie Ina fits perfectly into the time
• 22:17
  frame that the alleged Google hack had actually happened.
• 22:20
  Jackie later apologized to Paige writing quote.
• 22:23
  I'm a real person. I let my my emotions get the
• 22:25
  best of me. I should have never posted that
• 22:27
  video. I want to apologize to Paige,
• 22:29
  Christie and also my subscribers.
• 22:31
  Paige, let me know if you'd like to speak more on this privately.
• 22:34
  I would love to have an honest conversation with you so we can
• 22:36
  move forward positively. Aside from Paige, Jackie has
• 22:40
  also found herself sucked into the drama with Jeffrey Star over
• 22:43
  the years. In 2017, Jackie made an anti
• 22:46
  hall talking about brands that she refused to use.
• 22:50
  In it, she mentioned that she won't use Jeffrey Star Cosmetics
• 22:53
  for moral reasons, where she said.
• 22:55
  I just have a deep issue with the anti black like comments and
• 22:58
  things that have been made publicly.
• 23:00
  Jeffrey later blocked Jackie on Instagram, and when Jackie
• 23:03
  publicly brought attention to this, Jeffrey responded calling
• 23:06
  her a rat and falsely claimed that he had blocked her two
• 23:09
  months before the anti hall video.
• 23:11
  The following year, Jackie issued an open letter to every
• 23:14
  star on Twitter calling him out for his racist behavior quote.
• 23:17
  I have not and will not excuse his blatant racist behavior and
• 23:21
  not his past references to me in derogatory terms, his use of the
• 23:25
  N word, nor his efforts to eliminate spaces and
• 23:28
  opportunities for people of color.
• 23:29
  No one in the community should feel like they are protected
• 23:32
  enough to continuously say things to make black women feel
• 23:35
  ugly and ashamed in their own skin.
• 23:37
  In 2020, just after Tati Westbrook posted her video
• 23:40
  claiming that Jeffrey had pushed her into a public feud with
• 23:43
  James Charles, Jackie urged for Morphe Cosmetics to be held
• 23:47
  accountable for supporting Jeffrey.
• 23:49
  She also publicly shared that she deactivated her Morphe promo
• 23:52
  code. Quote.
• 23:53
  I refuse to align myself with a company that continues to retail
• 23:56
  anti black racist beauty brands. I strongly encourage other
• 24:00
  influencers to do the same. In the video, Tati apologized to
• 24:04
  Jackie for not validating her issues with Jeffrey.
• 24:06
  Tati had previously defended Jeffrey when Jackie leveled
• 24:09
  racist allegations against him. Quote Jackie, I'm sorry that I
• 24:12
  did not do the right thing and walk away from him then I should
• 24:15
  have not been blind to the reasons behind the accusations
• 24:18
  of his racism. I shouldn't have defended him
• 24:20
  and I regret any pain that I may have caused you previously.
• 24:23
  In March 2020, Jackie had expressed that she and Tati were
• 24:26
  already on better terms recently.
• 24:28
  Tati reached out to me and I feel like we don't really see
• 24:31
  enough of like mending bridges on YouTube, especially because
• 24:34
  of beauty community. We have hoped the worst
• 24:36
  reputation for being messy and toxic.
• 24:38
  While Jackie has always been a voice against racism, she has
• 24:41
  also been on the receiving end of racist rhetoric throughout
• 24:44
  her career. One example is when Jackie
• 24:46
  deleted her Twitter in 2019. This decision came after Jackie
• 24:50
  offered support to beauty influencer Chelsea Worthy, who
• 24:53
  alleged that Manny, MUA and Patrick Star mimicked her
• 24:56
  traptorial video technique. This style of tutorial was to a
• 25:01
  popular hip hop pop song that would be quite fast-paced and it
• 25:04
  would employ graphics and transitions.
• 25:07
  While this may sound like a popular style now, we have to
• 25:10
  remember that this was right before TikTok really blew up.
• 25:13
  The drama started after Patrick posted a trap torial style video
• 25:17
  using Jackie's Anastasia Beverly Hills palette.
• 25:20
  Chelsea quote tweeted the video writing.
• 25:22
  I was a Patrick Star Stan. This is the ugly industry we are
• 25:25
  in though. I have never been welcomed or
• 25:28
  wanted and this fully solidifies that.
• 25:30
  It's never groundbreaking breaking until someone else does
• 25:33
  it. This particular tweet prompted a
• 25:35
  conversation around how Black women are often overlooked when
• 25:38
  they invent trends, a conversation that really has
• 25:41
  been ongoing, especially with the rise of TikTok.
• 25:44
  Jackie's decision to repost Patrick's video left many
• 25:47
  feeling disheartened. Shortly after, she deactivated
• 25:50
  her Twitter account when faced with a barrage of racial slurs
• 25:53
  from trolls on the platform. Quote.
• 25:55
  The drama has also illuminated how Black women are used as
• 25:58
  scapegoats for larger systemic issues, writes Nylon.
• 26:02
  The only people suffering in this scenario are Black women.
• 26:04
  In addition to Worthy's frustration, Ina, who should be
• 26:07
  celebrating the launch of a product that the beauty industry
• 26:10
  desperately needed, is now the subject of undeserved abuse and
• 26:14
  being antagonized by people who don't otherwise engage in her
• 26:17
  content. Though the online beauty
• 26:19
  community is often a volatile place, it's clear that Jackie
• 26:23
  has used it to her advantage. By 2020, Jackie decided to
• 26:27
  expand her brand, launching her own company, Forever Mood.
• 26:30
  Jackie and her fiance say Dennis launched the company on her 33rd
• 26:34
  birthday on August 4th, 2020. Much like Jackie's earlier
• 26:37
  efforts to make the beauty industry a more inclusive place
• 26:40
  for people of color, she is doing the exact same thing with
• 26:42
  the launch of Forever Mood. As noted by Forbes, the
• 26:45
  fragrance industry is often criticized for its lack of
• 26:48
  diversity Quote. The global perfume market was
• 26:51
  projected to grow from $48 billion in 2023 to $69 billion
• 26:57
  in 2030. As lucrative as the industry is,
• 27:00
  the numbers about diversity don't add up.
• 27:02
  They're rarely reported. When speaking with Jackie about
• 27:05
  the lack of diversity in the industry, journalist Lydia T
• 27:08
  Blanco for Forbes notes that Jackie quote finds it odd, but
• 27:11
  not surprising due to the elitism's associated with high
• 27:14
  end luxury items, racism and social constructs around class.
• 27:18
  Forever Mood launched exclusively online with a four
• 27:21
  piece collection of candles and other accessories including a
• 27:24
  silk pillowcase and headband. While many of Jackie's fans
• 27:27
  expected her to launch a makeup line, she decided to venture
• 27:30
  down the luxury self-care route due to her long standing
• 27:33
  relationship and obsession with fragrances Quote.
• 27:36
  I have had a long standing relationship with fragrance that
• 27:38
  stems all the way back to childhood.
• 27:40
  I grew up with hyperhidrosis. When I was young, I had no idea
• 27:43
  this condition and had a name. I just knew that I sweated
• 27:46
  excessively, Jackie told Allure. With fragrance That helped me
• 27:49
  open up and not be as shy around other people and not be
• 27:52
  embarrassed about the problem. According to WWD, Forever Mood
• 27:56
  sold $700,000 worth of product in its first four hours of
• 28:01
  launch and had sold more than 200,000 candles by the middle of
• 28:06
  2021. Despite this initial success,
• 28:09
  Jackie did find herself in some hot water after the launch of a
• 28:12
  new collection in 2022. 2 The Awambe collection was meant to
• 28:16
  reflect, quote, the essence of a Nigerian celebration.
• 28:19
  One of its candles was named Soros Sokay.
• 28:22
  I'm really sorry if I butchered that.
• 28:24
  A phrase that translates to speak up.
• 28:26
  I actually did Google how to say that term and I could not find
• 28:29
  anybody actually saying it. I could only find videos of
• 28:32
  people speaking up. So this decision to name the
• 28:35
  candle that drew ire from Internet users as the phrase
• 28:38
  gained prominence during the 2020 Nigerian hashtag and SARS
• 28:42
  protests, which sought to end police natality, an issue that
• 28:46
  Jackie remained notably silent on.
• 28:48
  Consequently, many labeled the decision as tone deaf to call
• 28:52
  their candle that. In response to the backlash,
• 28:54
  Jackie issued an apology on Instagram.
• 28:56
  Quote As the brand owner of Forever Mood, I understand our
• 28:59
  decision has severely hurt members of my Nigerian community
• 29:03
  with the naming of the candle Soros.
• 29:04
  OK, we missed the mark on this and it will never happen again.
• 29:08
  We accept full responsibility and I recognize the gravity of
• 29:11
  this error. To that effect, this candle will
• 29:13
  be pulled from the market production immediately.
• 29:16
  Recently, Forever Mood has expanded into perfumes,
• 29:18
  launching 4 new fragrances, Hard to Get, I Am Her NDA and You
• 29:23
  Remind Me earlier this year. Jackie has long been cultivating
• 29:26
  this more luxurious a vibe and showing her audience what it
• 29:30
  means for a black woman to exist in a luxurious space, A niche
• 29:34
  that was typically dominated by white people and specifically
• 29:37
  white women. This shift started before the
• 29:40
  launch of Forever Mood, with Jackie sharing luxury beauty
• 29:42
  halls and skin care routines, but Jackie really lent into this
• 29:46
  aesthetic over the past couple of years.
• 29:48
  In a conversation with Doctor Michelle Daff about black girl
• 29:51
  luxury, Jackie observes that I. Think people have a problem with
• 29:55
  successful black women being proudly successful?
• 29:58
  She then went on to express her desire to demonstrate to her
• 30:00
  followers, especially other Black women, how someone like
• 30:03
  them can thrive in this extremely exclusive space.
• 30:06
  And this is exactly what Jackie has done.
• 30:09
  In 2021, for instance, Jackie attended her first Met Gala, the
• 30:13
  pinnacle of luxury and exclusivity in the world of
• 30:16
  entertainment. Her attendance marks the first
• 30:18
  time that a Black content creator was invited to the
• 30:21
  event. Staying true to the 2021 Met
• 30:24
  Gala theme in America, A lexicon of fashion, Jackie embodied
• 30:28
  Barbie as she captioned her Instagram post from the event
• 30:31
  with Quote American fashion, but make it black Barbie.
• 30:34
  Her social media content has also shifted, especially after
• 30:38
  she took a break from YouTube. Towards the end of 2021, Jackie
• 30:41
  took a hiatus from YouTube and stopped posting between November
• 30:44
  of that year and September 2022. Throughout this time, however,
• 30:48
  she wasn't totally offline, where she started posting more
• 30:51
  content on TikTok, and a lot of it was luxury based.
• 30:55
  In her first video back titled Why I Left YouTube, she
• 30:58
  explained the reason behind her hiatus, noting a sense of
• 31:01
  burnout from constantly having to try twice as hard to get half
• 31:05
  as much as a Black creator. Speaking with Refinery 29, she
• 31:09
  spoke more about her pivot towards luxury content, noting
• 31:12
  how she felt like her followers were resistant to it, largely
• 31:15
  because it was so far removed from the type of content that
• 31:18
  she started on the platform. Quote.
• 31:19
  It took me some time before I started getting comfortable
• 31:22
  sharing that part of my life. I knew I didn't want to open the
• 31:24
  door because I knew what people would say about it.
• 31:27
  So I was just enjoying it. Privately, there's a lot of
• 31:29
  anxiety, I think about being a proud and successful Black
• 31:32
  woman. You should be successful, but
• 31:34
  not that successful. But I had to get over that
• 31:36
  insecurity. While Jackie continues to post
• 31:38
  beauty content, she has also started a new platform called
• 31:41
  Lavishly Jackie, where she completely leans in to the black
• 31:45
  girl luxury vibe quote. I have taken a break to reinvent
• 31:48
  myself. I'm exploring other avenues of
• 31:50
  creativity and created a new platform, Lavishly Jackie.
• 31:54
  This allows me to show a different side of myself beyond
• 31:56
  the world of beauty, yet still provide content that my
• 31:59
  followers will enjoy. Jackie explained to the CFDA.
• 32:02
  Years after Jackie made history with her Born This Way
• 32:05
  collaboration, she is as relevant as ever.
• 32:08
  Despite a hiatus and a content pivot 2 decisions that would
• 32:11
  sink many influencers careers, Jackie has had longevity in an
• 32:15
  industry that is notoriously fickle.
• 32:17
  Her career has been marked by helping the beauty industry
• 32:20
  shift the goal posts and breakdown barriers for women of
• 32:23
  color. Though she's had a handful of
• 32:25
  controversies here and there, Jackie uses her influence to
• 32:28
  create change. And in an industry filled with
• 32:31
  big personalities and even bigger drama, maintaining
• 32:34
  relevance while staying in her own lane is a notable
• 32:37
  accomplishment in and of itself. Infinite Scroll is a podcast
• 32:41
  written, produced and presented by me, Lauren Meisner for
• 32:44
  Centennial World. Additional research and
• 32:46
  reporting is by Annabelle Ben David.
• 32:49
  Preliminary research is by Nick Meisner and editing is by Danny
• 32:52
  Fennick. Thank you guys so much for
• 32:54
  listening. I love you guys.
• 32:56
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe and I will talk to
• 32:59
  you guys next week. Bye.