Known as the internet’s ‘it girl,’ content creator and entrepreneur Allyiah Gainer has become the crown jewel of the YouTube scene. Referred to as Allyiah’s Face on her channel, Allyiah has garnered a loyal fan base of 2 million+ followers across all of her platforms and over 900K subscribers. Since starting her brand in 2015, the former FAMU student has become a staple in the digital beauty and fashion community, inviting viewers into her world and her life through her weekly vlogs. At the beginning of her YouTube journey, Allyiah began to amass her following by filming content such as fashion hauls and GRWMs. Now, years later, the influencer has expanded her reach into luxury and fashion spaces, working with brands such as Jimmy Choo, Tatcha Beauty, Amazon, and Marshalls. Most recently, Allyiah turned her love for fragrance into a collaboration with perfume brand Dossier to create two of her very own fragrances, ‘Better Days’ and ‘Of the Hour.’ The duo sold out within 24 hours, with Allyiah herself describing them as the perfect daytime and nighttime scent. In this interview, Allyiah shares her journey with YouTube, the challenges she’s faced, and what it was like partnering with Dossier.
Her Agenda: Tell us how you got started with vlogging and documenting your life, and what was that like in the beginning?
Allyiah Gainer: I did a chit chat, get ready with me. And everyone was like, oh, you need to talk more. We like that. That was very entertaining. We love your personality. From there, I kept doing that. Then Vlogmas came around in my second year on YouTube in December. And I was like, okay, cool, I’m gonna do Vlogmas. I vlogged, I did one episode, and people were like, we need more of this. I did Vlogmas that entire month. The feedback that I got was so great. I realized I really liked it. I used to vent. It just used to be kind of like a personal diary, if you will. I would get on my camera and say whatever. This was way back before anybody cared a lot about what I had to say. People were a lot kinder and treated it like they were talking with their homegirl. From there, I just kept doing it, and more and more people loved it. That’s really how it started. It was people telling me to do it, so I did it. They loved it, so I kept doing it. Now here we are.
Her Agenda: What was the moment that you realized being a content creator could be a sustainable career for you?
Allyiah Gainer: It was when I quit my job to do it full-time. However, that would be a lie, because I wasn’t really making that much money from it at all. I think I was maybe making $1,200 a month, which is not a lot to live on. I’m a very rebellious person. I was working at MAC, and they wouldn’t give me the time off that I wanted, so I quit. And I was like, okay, well then I quit. You would think that I would say that my social media career was lucrative, which it was not. Three and a half years in, I realized that this would be lucrative for me when I got a 12-month contract with a hair company back when I used to wear wigs. I used to do hair influencing heavily on YouTube. That would always be a part of my vlog. I would usually start the vlog off with a new wig. I got a year-long contract that was gonna pay me basically around five to seven grand a month just to talk about wigs. I thought, oh, I’ve made it, and I can make money doing this for real. In that moment, that’s when I moved to Atlanta. I was like, yeah, like we’re going big time.
Her Agenda: What challenges have you faced as a content creator, and how did you overcome them?
Allyiah Gainer: One of the really big challenges that I faced was from being online for so long; your digital footprint is very real. You look back at young you and you’re like, I cannot believe I wore that, or that I said that. Having it on video or photo for years, when you go back and look, you’re like, yo, what the h*ll? I think it’s important learning boundaries on what to post because young me didn’t have any. Anything and everything would get posted. I didn’t care because I didn’t realize the amount of people who had access to it. While I have created such a beautiful community online, it isn’t gated; anyone can join. Anyone can take, perceive, and do with whatever I post online as they wish or will. So, being a lot more conscious of just making sure that whatever I’m posting, I am comfortable with it being representative of me to any and everybody that comes across it. I think every content creator will tell you about the hate comments and criticism. I’ve been in this for so long, I truly have built what they call tough skin. I genuinely feel like people don’t think they’re talking to Allyiah. When I think about it like that, it alleviates any anxiety or negative feelings that come with criticism.
Her Agenda: What would you say has been the most rewarding part of your journey so far?
Allyiah Gainer: I would say something for me that’s extremely rewarding from my journey is that some of the people who were watching me in 2015, before I even ever posted a vlog, are still watching me to this day. I can recognize them, and they still comment. I’ve been doing YouTube for over 10 years, and I don’t have a million followers. I don’t have a million followers on any platform. I truly believe that my platform is an example of slow and steady wins the race. While my growth number-wise is “slower,” the level of connection that I’ve built with my audience is so immense. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I feel like being a place where people can come to just simply relax, enjoy, or just have a moment of disconnection from whatever they’re going through is valuable. I’ve had people express to me how I’ve been able to get them through dark places just by posting my silly videos and just feeling like they have someone there with them.
Her Agenda: Most of your life is mostly on camera, but what are some ways that you de-stress when you need a break from vlogging?
Allyiah Gainer: I sleep. I love a good old nap, a good old sleep. For me, it’s about finding boundaries of what works for me online and what doesn’t, so that I don’t experience that kind of burnout. I really do save a lot of things in my life for offline, such as romantic relationships and family. I feel like it helps to keep work and personal life separate because in content creation or influencing, especially [for] lifestyle creators, the overlap is heavy. At this point, we’ve gotten to where the authentic life that you live has now become your content. Sometimes you have to put in strong boundaries to separate the two so that you can have a moment to decompress and relax.
Her Agenda: Within the next five years, what are you hoping to accomplish with your career?
Allyiah Gainer: I feel as long as I have a platform that people are interested in tuning into, and it’s still fun for me, I would absolutely love to continue creating content until it’sn’t fun anymore. As far as my brand, we have some things in the works. That’s all I can say for now.
Her Agenda: You’ve been a Dossier girl for many years. What was it like in that moment to find out you’re getting a Dossier collab?
Allyiah Gainer: It was actually really shocking for me because I’m not an expert; I just love good-smelling perfumes. When I brought fragrance into my channel, it was just me kind of exploring. I was never technical with terminology. I’ve never researched deep into the back ends of perfumes. When they came to me, I was like ‘oh no, I think you guys need a professional.’ They were like ‘no no no no we want you.’ My manager was like ‘girl, stop thinking like that. They want your nose, and they want your vibe, your feel, to create something that they can’t do on their own.’ It felt surreal. I do experience a little bit of imposter syndrome sometimes. I used to think that was a bad thing, but I watched a Mel Robbins podcast the other day. I’m tuned into her podcast, and she said, imposter syndrome is a good feeling because it’s showing that you’re trying something new. I was like, you know what? She’s right. Screw it. I feel good about this. It felt crazy. I was excited, but nervous, because this was my first product adventure; however, it was really fun in the end. That was a complete 360 moment, considering that Dossier used to sponsor me when I first started. I feel like Dossier is a lot of Black girl vloggers’ first sponsorships. They were a brand that invested in our community. It was really, really nice to be able to create something with them.
Her Agenda: What was the inspiration behind your Dossier fragrances? How did you go about picking the scents?
Allyiah Gainer: When they first approached, the idea was that we were just going to do one perfume. I was like, love that, but I would really like to do two. I asked [if] I could do two perfumes because I’m a multifaceted person. My interests in life vary. Like my taste in perfume, style, and food, everything is just so multifaceted that I felt I could not conjure myself up in one bottle. Even two was hard. I wanted to channel my bubbly personality, that aspect of myself, in my daytime scent. Obviously, you can wear it at any time of the day or any part of the year, but it is marketed as a daytime scent. It’s a bit lighter, flirtier, and very inviting. It’s such a breath of fresh air in my opinion. That was for that first fragrance.
For the second one, I really wanted to channel the sexy, almost baddie-esque moment. I feel like if you see me by day, you’re like, oh, she’s such a sweetie cutie patootie. Then at night, I mean, a girl’s going out, you’re like, oh, I didn’t know you had that in you. That’s what I wanted my perfumes to be. I wanted them to be complete opposites, but they work so well together.
Her Agenda: What advice would you give to us as young women who want to get into starting a YouTube channel?
Allyiah Gainer: They’re not going to like this, but my big piece of advice is that you need to figure out what your why is. What I mean by that is with the emergence of social media, in all of these new forms, we are seeing that people are getting rich from this. There are different motivators as to why you want to be a content creator.
When I started, we didn’t know people were rich. I don’t even think people were rich yet in 2015, off of social media. Quote me if I’m wrong, but we didn’t know that. So our whys back then were truly out of just having a hobby or a talent or maybe a lack of community to share your interests with. That’s what mine was. For the girls who are starting now, you have to be honest with your why, because I feel like sometimes people aren’t honest about their why. If your why is because you just like to create, then you won’t really find any difficulty in anything. If it’s going to become lucrative, especially on YouTube, it’s going to be slow. It took a minute for me. You have to play the long game, girls.
If you’re doing this because you’re like, you know what? I’m seeing that people are making money. I want a cut of the pie. Then I think that there are a lot of strategic ways that you can do your content and your platform so that you’re able to monetize very quickly and effectively. If you’re someone who wants to garner a true community and share whatever it is you want to share, whether it’s your personality, makeup, hair, whatever, do it and have fun with it. It takes time, but it’s worth it. Whatever comes of it, you have to be grateful for it.
Her Agenda: Who is Allyiah in a nutshell?
Allyiah Gainer: What I would say is, one thing about me, I’m always going to be okay, and I’m always going to do what I want to do. That’s just what I do.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
