When considering the “It Girl”, Kirah Ominique is top of mind.
She had no intentions of being a full-time content creator. In fact, she had first envisioned attending an Historically Black College and University, potentially Howard University or Texas Southern University, to obtain a pharmaceutical degree. Although that did not become a reality, her Plan B was to always be involved in the beauty field.
“I was supposed to come become a pharmacy tech first. Girl, I failed pharmacy math like, ‘Yeah no let’s go to Plan B.’ Now Plan B is Plan A, doing something in like the beauty field but a mix with the medical. Or maybe a traveling nurse wouldn’t sound too bad either,” she explained in a YouTube video posted in May 2024.
Ominique has stayed true to her interests in diving into the beauty world through content creation, which also encompasses fashion and lifestyle and has led to a strong social media presence.
@kirahominique Get Ready With Me For Dinner In Thailand , Its Giving Beyonce In Lemonade 🍋 #grwm
Following
On Instagram she has accumulated 403,000 followers while on TikTok she boasts 334,600 followers and has earned 13.2 million likes, at the time of this writing. Her first YouTube video was shared on Feb. 13, 2018 and she has since posted 529 videos, gaining at over
“I love creating content,” she expressed on YouTube. “I love getting the detail. I love getting a good shot. I don’t know, I just love creating content. It’s basically making a movie and then at the end of the day showing your personality, being vulnerable with your subscribers and just showing them how you can relate to them.”
Her content includes day in the life, get ready with me’s, and try-on haul videos, candidly acknowledging she doesn’t follow a specific content plan. Despite this, her go-with-the-flow approach results in engaging, quality content that has attracted the interest of various brands, even without the guidance of a manager.
“I’m developing relationships with brands as well. I really like that in general because they really like my content and that’s why when I make content, I just really want to make sure it’s good because I don’t have a manager and I want these brands to keep coming back and wanting to work with me,” she explained. “I just make sure that when I do shoot their content I’m making it make sense. When I do sponsorships and stuff, I make sure it makes sense to what I’m doing in real time.”
Partnerships
Among her partnerships includes Adobe, which she claims their Generative AI tool has been helpful for editing her photos.
@kirahominique I’ll Always be main character when editing my photos with the Adobe Photoshop Generative AI #ad #AdobePartner #AdobePhotoshop @Adobe
Additional partnerships within the last year also include but are not limited to:
- Luxe Tribes
- Shea Moisture
- CeraVe
- Aerie
- belif
- Luxe Tribes
- Fenty Beauty
The Business Of Being An Influencer
As it pertains to the business of being an influencer, she recalls when she first received a 1099 form, which is given to individuals who need to report payments that often times are not from an employer, Turbo Tax stated.
“I was like ‘Oh my god, my day they letting me monetize my videos. I can start getting paid,'” she recalled.
During the early days of earning income from YouTube, money management was not being exercised by Ominique, but she acknowledges her sponsorship money would be used for spending, while her earnings from Google AdSense was placed into her savings.
Fortunately Ominique’s financial habits were guided by her mother, who is in charge of all her bank accounts. She also helped her establish a retirement plan when she was 20 years old and helps her track her personal and business earnings.
“My mom has helped me budget a lot y’all, ’cause she is in control of all of my bank accounts. My mom helps me keep track of all my bills every single month, LLC, all that,” she explained. “She sees all the numbers way before me. I just know how much I’m making as far as sponsorships and stuff, but normally I don’t look in my LLC because it’s out of sight, out of mind. So basically she’ll put some money into my checking account, which is plenty of money, but I normally don’t spend all that money in a month, but still, she helps me save.”
Ominique also adds she does have an accountant, which is helpful during tax season. She uses QuickBooks and an Excel spreadsheet to manage her taxes, setting aside 30% of her savings specifically for tax purposes.
“Y’all probably think i’m out here spending every single dollar I make. No. I actually set it aside for my taxes and it’s normally 30%. Whatever I make, I take a 30% of that so each sponsorship every time I get paid from ads and from the links or anything like that, when I get deposited that money I take 30 of that and I put it to my savings account because y’all Uncle Sam, the IRS does not play,” she said.
