Jackie Aina Discusses Taking Breaks, Overcoming Creative Blocks, and the Joy of Collaborating with Her Husband

When 5 p.m. hits on any given Friday, Jackie Asamoah (aka, @jackieaina) checks out for the weekend. In a world that never seems to stop, the award-winning beauty maven, content creator, entrepreneur and all-around social-media megastar prides herself on being able to “turn it off”—no emails, no work calls and no checking her phone.

The same cannot be said for her husband and coworker, Denis Asamoah.

“I spend some Friday nights prying Denis off his laptop,” the 37-year-old laughs when describing her “most trusted” business partner. “Eventually, he’ll get there, too. I just hope it’s soon!”

While she may still be working on her end-of-week level of influence with her husband, since her YouTube debut in 2009, Asamoah’s authority in the beauty space has been nothing short of successful. As a trusted and bankable brand, she has collaborated with top brands such as Anastasia Beverly Hills, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Too Faced, and Sigma Beauty. And the accolades practically speak for themselves: Asamoah has been named the NAACP’s first-ever “YouTuber of the Year” at the 49th NAACP Image Awards, AdWeek Creator Visionary Award, Glamour’s Woman of the Year, Refinery29’s Beauty Innovator of the Year, WWD Beauty Inc Awards’ Influencer of the Year and has been nominated for three E! People’s Choice Awards.

In 2020, she launched her the Sephora-sold brand, FORVR Mood, on her 33rd birthday with the tagline: “Self-care isn’t selfish.” She also has “Lavishly Jackie,” her self-care and luxury content vertical across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Through it all, Asamoah’s goal has been steadfast: To honor her cultural heritage, serve as an example of the power of inclusivity and make sure her mental health and happiness remains top priority.

Yes, absolutely. It all started 16 years ago in Hawaii where, at the time, my ex-husband was stationed. I married really young, and we were both veterans. I was basically doing everything I thought I was supposed to do—getting married, moving to Hawaii, settling down. But I was really unhappy.

At the time, I started becoming a makeup girl. It was something that I organically was drawn to…but doing makeup wasn’t really that popular on someone with my complexion. Sixteen years ago, Black girls were like: “You don’t need makeup. We have great skin.”

I honestly feel like a lot of beauty brands said that…it was like an excuse for not having products for us. Oftentimes, I found myself going to makeup counters and literally being told: “You don’t need that” or “That wouldn’t look good on you.” After a while, that gets really annoying! Sometimes, I’d literally say: “I just want the product. I don’t really care what you think. I’m going to figure out how to make it work.” And that’s exactly what I started doing.

I was experiencing depression, loneliness and I was all-around not happy. I started going on YouTube and I would just create. It was an outlet for me. I would take these tutorials that White women and Asian women were doing, and I would tweak them for my skin tone. My best friend was like: “You love YouTube so much. Why don’t you show people how you do makeup?”

In the beginning, I was not interested in doing that at all. It’s something that a lot of people still refuse to accept about me; I really didn’t like being on camera! I didn’t even like the idea of doing it; I did makeup for friends, and it was something that I was trying to pursue professionally. Back then, artistry was very behind the scenes. You weren’t the face when you were the makeup person. Your work was seen, but you weren’t necessarily seen. I wasn’t even thinking that my face should be out there.

After months of my friend telling me I should start a channel, I eventually just did it. This was the picture-slideshow era of YouTube where I wasn’t even talking in video or demonstrating in a video. It was literally where you would apply one product without blending it or properly setting it, and then you would photograph it, and then it would be “place contour here.” It was a very pictorial style.

Naturally, after a while, I evolved from that to talking in videos. It blossomed into something really special. I didn’t realize it would meet the needs of other people just as much as it would meet mine. One thing that YouTube provided for me immediately was other like-minded makeup lovers. As I started to do the videos, I started finding other people who loved beauty.

Honestly, I felt like I hit Pandora’s box! And I mean that in the best way possible, because I didn’t have a community of dark-skinned women that I grew up with or that were around me who loved makeup as much as I did and loved doing full glam. YouTube exposed me to those people. It truly unlocked something in me. I never looked back! But this all started from something organic. I didn’t even make money my first year of creating content. It literally was just something that needed— I needed a community. And that’s what I found.

Jackie, 16 years ago, was very shrouded in a lot of skepticism. I used to be so indecisive. I could not make a decision to save my life! I wasn’t assertive at all. When I made any kind of decision, there would be a lot of doubt behind it. I wish that I could tell me then: “You got this! Even if you’re wrong, it’s O.K. to make a decision. Do the stuff that people are telling you not to do.”

With my upbringing and my background of being Nigerian—I’m Nigerian-American, but, culturally, this is more so a Nigerian thing: Academics are very important to a lot of Nigerians and the Nigerian culture, in general. There was really no room for the creative side of me to be celebrated. 

I wish that, despite how many people told me to move away from that…I didn’t question it. People used to tease me for loving makeup so much. Now, those same people ask me for makeup. That’s how that always works. First, they laugh, then they copy.

I wish younger Jackie would know you’re on to something, keep it up. Don’t worry about the chatter, and just keep going. It would have saved me years of not really taking it seriously at that time. Yes, it was fun, but I didn’t start it as a business. I did it for the love of the game. I do wish there were things that I would have done to make this a job a lot sooner. Who knows? I probably could have accomplished more, but that’s always subjective. I’m happy, and I feel fulfilled now. That’s what matters.

Yes, and I am vocal about this. Whenever my community and my followers ask me about things like fitness and nutrition, I don’t like to discuss that, in general. Although it’s very flattering, I decided years ago that it’s not the direction that I want my content to go in—simply because no matter how much I add a disclaimer that I’m not an expert in this, someone is going to say: “I’m doing exactly what she showed me. Why didn’t I get results?”

Personally, I don’t want the weight and the pressure and the expectations of having to carry that and be responsible for other people’s literal self-esteem. I’d rather do that via makeup. When it comes down to what I eat in a day, no thank you. It feels a little too invasive.

You have to be really mindful in how you influence people. And that includes the person doing the influencing…a lot of times people forget that as I’m influencing other people, I have to protect my self-esteem, too. That matters to me tremendously. I don’t ever want to open myself up to unnecessary criticism. People forget that the influential can be influenced. It goes both ways. 

Also, I would never exploit my relationship. This goes for a lot of my relationships. One of my sisters is also a creator and people have been introduced to her through me, and now she’s building her own following. Naturally, people want to see us film content together and do things together. But I don’t want us to be pitted against each other…I don’t want to encourage this idea that, if something’s public, it’s up for discussion. When it comes to relationships, I hold them with high regard. What’s sacred should be protected. 

Oh my gosh, all the time! The first time I really experienced that was in 2020. I didn’t realize I was going through it, because it was my first time ever experiencing what was basically burnout. Realizing that was a whole process in itself. You need to know you need help before you get there. 

It was a time where a lot of people were re-evaluating things—personally, professionally, whatever. And I experienced that. Honestly, I’m so glad that I took the time off that I did. It was the first time in a decade on YouTube where I took a break and reset.

We talk about work-life balance with every other job, but we have no clue what that looks like in a healthy way when it comes to social media. Nobody wants to get unfavored by the algorithm. Once you start ghosting the platform, they just pick someone else and act like you never even existed. There’s always that lingering fear…is my audience going to be able to find my content when I come back? You basically have to be in a relationship with this platform.

But that’s not healthy. If I’m not having fun doing this and if I’m not coming up with creative ideas, then I just need to stop—period. I did, and the time I took off was the best thing I ever did. I realized, I do like this job and it’s not that I’m out of ideas, I just needed a break. I gave myself permission to try something new. In that timeframe, I decided I was going to aggressively pursue creating content on TikTok, and playing with things that were not makeup. It was like a test for me.

I started doing home decor and cleaning and lifestyle content, all things I never did before. Before that, you literally only saw me from the clavicle up on YouTube. It really took off and I gave myself permission to not just be known for makeup, which I was too fearful of taking the risk of doing before. I didn’t feel like I had room to do those things.

I feel like it’s already hard enough being a Black creator. You tend to fill a spot that platforms will sometimes only give to a handful of people that look like you, whether they want to admit it or not. There was a lot of fear around like, can I try new things? Are people going to like it? Are people going to hate it? What if I show too much? What if I compromise my privacy and so on and so forth? I really found myself doing that organically through TikTok without compromising the things that I feared before.

That’s how I got over it. I needed to try something new, and it was fun. I didn’t know I was going to love it as much as I did, but I really did. I really enjoyed branching out.

Yes, there’s actually a few. On TikTok, one of my favorite creators is Eni Given Sunday. She was a big law lawyer turned influencer. She talked a lot about how it was like a circumstantial decision as opposed to a personal one. She’s also Nigerian. She does a lot of beauty content, social commentary.

I really appreciate her voice and how she’s managed it all. If I remember correctly, she was let go or she had to walk away because she was given an ultimatum at work to focus on law or quit content creation. She said, “Well, I’m not choosing y’all!” She branched out into her own thing. I think it takes an incredible amount of belief in yourself to do something like that. I can’t imagine being a lawyer and explaining to your Nigerian family members that you are just going to create content. I’m sure it was not a decision that was made lightly. I really respect her for that. She creates awesome content. I love watching and keeping in touch with her.

I also really respect Susan Yara, who is the founder of Naturium. The brand is everywhere now. She’s a creator I discovered on YouTube, and now she’s also on TikTok. She’s done a really seamless transition from creator to brand founder, and she is really an authoritative voice in beauty. I really like her content. She’s dope. From one brand founder to another, I’m taking notes.

I love Tabitha Brown as well, especially considering how relatively quick her social media rise has been. She started as an actor and then went vegan and documented her journey on TikTok and she blew up from there. We all love the kindness and spirit that she offers. Those are a couple off the top of my head, but there’s so many women that look like me that I admire and look up to that 10 years ago would have been there, but harder to find. Now, they’re more accessible.

When we started FORVR Mood, our candles were a little bit like target practice. Since before the brand was even birthed, we always knew fine fragrance was going to be our hero SKU. Now that they’re out and we’re celebrating one year of having launched our perfumes next month—which is insane—we’re excited to keep expanding in the category.

My husband and I had a very specific demographic that we wanted to target when we started FORVR Mood. We wanted to be a luxury brand at a masstige price point with approachable marketing and brand messaging. I wanted people to see people who look like me being included in conversations about fragrance. Black people are obsessed with smelling good, but we’re rarely ever considered in marketing and in visuals and campaigns in the fragrance world in general. The fragrance world in general is still, largely, run by European men. And they’re wonderful, too. I love French perfume brands and the noses and they’re incredible, but I want to see that door and the conversations open for more people.

That’s the thing about scent. It is it’s so unique for every single person, everyone’s point of view is extremely different. Someone from LA might want to smell more buttery, whereas someone from France may want to smell like a rose, or someone from Korea may want to smell a bit more light and more citrusy. There is a very big cultural point of view regarding fragrance. It’s nice that we are now able to add our own voice to that; I can’t wait to keep doing that.

Definitely more juices with FORVR Mood. I’m really enjoying my hashtag #loveletterstoher series that I’m doing on TikTok and my Instagram. It’s really been therapeutic. It’s basically a series where I talk about just rewriting the narrative of things that I wish I could tell my younger self and things that I’m now giving myself permission to fully indulge in and enjoy in ways that I really felt like I couldn’t when I was younger. That’s been really fun.

It starts a lot of connective conversations with my community. Those are the things that I’m here for. I love a deep dive. I love a retrospective moment. I really like talking to people. That’s exactly what that series has allowed me to do—it’s allowed me to connect with my audience and allow them to reflect on things. That’s something I can’t wait to continue doing and talking about.

It’s actually amazing. We have a really good working relationship…so much so that I always tell people the bar is set really high with us. What we have is the exception. It’s not the norm. What we have is very rare.

But it’s incredible. I could not have picked a better business partner, and it’s a business partner I trust completely. You can’t put trust on a resume. You can’t put those things on paper. You only know if you have it when you hire someone and work with them. It is exceptional, really incredible. Yes, sometimes we butt heads on the creative things, but it’s not things that are going to send us to the courthouse. We’re always acting on good faith with each other. We both know when we should lead, and when it’s time to let the other one lead. I absolutely love working with him.

I have a great work-life balance. Yes, I absolutely check out. I absolutely log off. I’m really good at signing off, and I’m proud of that!

But on any given Friday night, I do have to pry Denis off his laptop. He does not have as good of a work-life balance as I do. I’m trying to get him to work on it. He’ll get there eventually!

I’m really good, but I had to learn how to be really good. Honestly, pre-2020, I didn’t really have any work-life balance, and I was struggling. The world was forced to sit down the years that followed that era where we were all stuck at home on quarantine.

Since then, I’ve been able to unplug, and it’s been quite nice. I try to find little ways to implement that in my day-to-day. Just getting off the phone, not checking things, not taking work calls. I don’t check social media when I first wake up, either. Unplugging is key—especially on the weekend and at night. Everything is offline at that point. Everything has to be offline at some point.

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