Before she entered the world of beauty and lifestyle content creation, YouTube Influencer Crystal Nicole set her sights on a career as a civil engineer. Day in and day out, Crystal dealt with construction, formulas, and maintenance, but in her spare time, she was developing a hobby that would soon change her life. Driven by the need to educate, Crystal took the leap of faith and dove into creating content full-time, leading to the birth of her online persona “CurlyCrys.” She shared her natural hair journey, hoping to help others going through the same process. As her fanbase grew, so did her need to branch out into different areas, going from “CurlyCrys” to Crystal Nicole. With nearly 10 years in the industry, the New Orleans-born Influencer has amassed over 1 million followers across all of her platforms and has partnered with several skincare and beauty brands, including Charlotte Tilbury, Shea Moisture, Olay, and Aveeno. Crystal has continued to use her platform to share her personal experiences, forming a deep connection with her audience.
Combining her engineering expertise with her flair for content creation, Crystal has created educational yet engaging videos that laid the groundwork for a successful career as an Influencer. The Skincare and beauty guru talked with Her Agenda on her journey, transitioning careers, and what drives her to put her all into this industry.
Her Agenda: Tell me about your transition from civil engineering to content creation and how you made that choice
Crystal Nicole: When I started creating content in college, it was just for fun and educational purposes, and to be able to teach people about their natural hair while I was also learning myself, because there wasn’t much information on socials about it. It was around the time when the natural hair movement was just beginning, in the sense of regaining its popularity. Relaxers and perms were the norm at that point. I had a relaxer for 10 plus years at that time, and I decided to just go natural. I was discouraged by a lot of people, but I decided I shouldn’t allow anyone to discourage me from learning about myself naturally, and about what comes out of my scalp. I decided to take the leap and cut off all of my relaxed hair. First, I transitioned. Then I decided to cut it all off. When I was in college, everyone would ask me, oh, what products are you using? I decided to [document my] natural hair journey. Instead of me trying to give them step-by-step answers every single time, I said, let me just make a video about it. That’s how [the] YouTube started.
It was never an idea of pursuing a career in content creation. It was just for fun and to educate people. Once I started making videos, people started to like them, and I got more and more attention. Then, five months later, I got my first partnership, which was $50. In college, that was a lot. Once I graduated from college, I moved to Austin, which is where I had my first engineering job. That’s when I took it more seriously in the sense of making more consistent videos, and I started to get more and more offers. It never dawned on me that this could become a career; I always viewed it as a side passion. I could be wasting my time, but I enjoy it.
Once I moved to Austin, I started being more consistent on YouTube. That’s when I saw my numbers and revenue go up from YouTube alone. I was making maybe $300, $500 a month. I was like, okay, if YouTube can pay my car note, I’ll continue doing it. That’s how I measured that. It got to the point where I calculated my numbers, and from partnerships and YouTube, I was making three times the amount that I was at my engineering job. I was doing engineering from nine to five and then content from six to midnight to 2 AM. I got to the point where I saw my revenue from my content creation was multiplying. I measured that for about six to eight months. It got to the point where I decided to just quit. During the pandemic, I didn’t even do a two-week notice. I quit the same day. That was the biggest leap I’ve ever taken.
Her Agenda: What are some of the challenges that you faced early on when you started to switch to content creation?
Crystal Nicole: The main thing is that everything now relies on you. When you’re working in engineering or any nine-to-five with a corporation, and you’re working for that corporation, you just have to show up, and they’re telling you what your assignments are; their structure is already set. When you’re working by yourself, you become all of that. You become the one who has to create the structure. You become the one who has to maintain that deadline. You become the one who has to review all of this work that you’re doing. You are literally every single role. Your success is based on your discipline. That’s when I was like, oh, shoot. It may have been fun in the beginning, but this is now a job. I have to treat this like a corporation. Whenever someone becomes a freelancer or entrepreneur, there’s so much more time. When you don’t have that structure that you used to have in that nine-to-five, you have too much freedom, and that’s what limits you, because now you have so much time to do something that you procrastinate. You really have to be disciplined, and that was the biggest wake-up call for me.
Her Agenda: Since starting your journey in content creation, how have you seen yourself evolve and grow with the content that you put out?
Crystal Nicole: When I first started, I was only creating natural hair content. My name used to be Curly Crys. When I started, everyone had Curl or Kinky or something like that in their name because that was the identifier that all your content was about natural hair. That was all my content was from 2017 to 2021. The first four years, I only did hair content, and I didn’t venture out into any other areas. I decided I wanted to become more than just my hair because how many twist-out tutorials can I make? How many braid-out tutorials can I make? I’m literally creating repetitive content at this point, and since my job is content creation, I have to find a way to sustain this over time. At the same time, I was simultaneously going through a skin care transformation, where I had so much hyperpigmentation. I was like, you know what? Let me document this. Let me just see if they’re going to like it. I documented my skincare journey. It ended up going viral on all platforms.
Many people tuned into my transformation because of how authentic I was. Then I decided to apply for Sephora Squad. In Sephora Squad, the audience I wanted, as far as brands go, was skincare. I wanted skincare partnerships. I had only really had hair partnerships. I wanted more beauty. By getting on Sephora Squad, once I made it, they gave me a foot in to branch out into a different niche. Now I’m being put in front of the brands that I want to attract. Now that I’m on their radar, I need to make sure I do a good job, an exceptional job. I have to make sure my content is better than everyone else’s. My needs changed from natural hair to Crystal Nicole, who I am as a person. That’s when the biggest transition happened for me, and it opened up so many doors
Her Agenda: What is the driving force behind your passion for working in this industry and sharing your life?
Crystal Nicole: My passion is helping people. That’s been my driving force from the beginning. The reason why I created my YouTube channel in college, it wasn’t for money. It wasn’t for notoriety or anything. It was to help people who were confused about their natural hair. Still to this day, that is my driving force. When I do my skincare videos, it’s to help people who are struggling with their skin. When I do my natural hair videos, it’s to help people who are struggling with their natural hair texture. Even with makeup, such as content reviews, product reviews, it’s all to help people and give people that insight with someone who looks like them, so that they can have a reliable source. My passion has always been to help people, even when it comes to sharing my personal life and the struggles that I went through with my relationships and everything, as well as to empower other women and to help them on their journey. We need people who look like us to be inspired by, to feel like we can also do that same thing. It’s always been about helping people.
Her Agenda: What feedback have you received on your content that makes you really happy and gives you confidence in what you’re doing?
Crystal Nicole: To this day, I still have people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, my God, I wouldn’t have known what to do with my hair without you.’ You helped me with my twist-outs. You helped me with my braid outs. You helped me love my natural hair. I also have people say the same thing about their skin. The biggest reward that I’ve gotten from sharing my story authentically is when I was getting my hair braided in Austin, and a lady walked in, and she immediately dropped everything and started crying. She was like, oh, my God, are you Crystal Nicole? I said yes. She just starts weeping. She’s like, you helped me leave my abusive relationship. I was like, what? She said I left my man because of your strength and courage to share your story, and you made me realize I was worth more. I started crying with her at that moment because you never know who your content is reaching, and you never know who you’re helping. When God puts something on your heart to share, you have to be obedient to that. What I went through, it was extremely hard for me, but I knew it had a reason, not only to make myself better, but also be an inspiration to others and to be able to help others. It’s been a full circle, without a doubt, and just a journey that I’m so grateful for. Even though it was hard and tumultuous, I’m so happy that I was able to experience everything I have in my life because I see how it’s benefiting other people.
Her Agenda: What would you say is a milestone in your career that still kind of feels unreal to you that happened?
Crystal Nicole: I would say going to Korea with TIRTIR. That was insane. To be able to break into an international market, all from setting up your phone and recording a video, and then sending you across the world for a short period of time, just to meet you, just to have your presence there, it’s a feeling that I will never forget. It’s a connection and a relationship that I’ll always cherish forever. It was an amazing experience to be able to be in Korea. I still haven’t fathomed it all the way. I went there just to meet the brand, just to see where they work, just to have that connection with them and that community. They wanted me there. They knew who I was when I traveled 18 hours across the world.
Her Agenda: In terms of your career, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever
received? Crystal Nicole: To not sacrifice my comfort to please others. That’s extremely important and something I actually do live by. When it comes to work, I don’t overextend myself without there being accountability on the party that I’m overextending for. I never overdo something to please someone else. I get all my work done, and I’m a great client to work with. I accomplish all the duties that I have to do, but I never overextend myself at the sacrifice of my own personal and mental health. I don’t put anyone or anything above that. I fully live by that. In this industry, if you don’t have that balance, you will be worked to the ground. The people who work you to the ground will just use you and discard you. This is all a business. When your life becomes a business, you have to have that balancing factor put in place. It’s not up to anyone else to do it because they’re going to continue to take advantage because it’s a business. If you’re not wise enough to know when you need to stop overextending yourself, or you need to stop trying to please others, then you will run yourself to the ground, and you will be continually pouring out of an empty cup and wondering why you’re not getting anything in return.
[Editor’s note: This article has been edited for length and clarity.]
