Jackie Aina: From Homeless Shelters to Beauty Mogul

You couldn't outright tell a brand, "This is not gonna work for me," or you couldn't call out a L'Oreal.

Mm-mm.

You couldn't call out a giant.

You couldn't call out a conglomerate.

Yeah.

Because, like, you would get blackballed for stuff like that.

You would...

People would not work with you.

There have definitely been several moments where I thought, "Mm, I might be pushing it." Like, I might have gone too far.

My career might be over.

Where does that inspiration come from?

I'm the oldest of seven.

Not a lot of money.

We were very broke.

This house was, like, 800 square feet, Dar.

Wow.

And there was only one bathroom.

Spending time in a homeless shelter, especially as a kid-

I'll never forget this day because I came home from elementary school and there was a literal line of, like, Hefty bags, 'cause we couldn't afford no suitcases.

All of our stuff stuffed into garbage bags trailing outside the door, and I just remember going in the house thinking, "What the heck is going on?" Like, and my mom telling us that we were leaving, and I was like, "Leaving to go where?" So we ended up going into shelters.

When we were in shelters is when we were allowed to, like, actually leave and go out.

I used to go to, like, Barnes & Nobles.

Right.

I would go straight to the beauty section and I would sit there.

Mm.

And I would read and memorize the makeup books that I was reading.

Wow.

Was that your first experience with makeup?

I was fascinated with makeup, but I wasn't wearing it.

You decide to drop out of college-

[laughs]

... at a certain point and you join the Army Reserves.

Actually, I was failing every class.

[laughs] Once school was on the line, once housing was on the line, I didn't even wanna be there in the first place, I was like, "I'm just join the Army I guess."

I know you get married very young.

Yeah, I was, and I got divorced very young, too.

Mm.

Seeing some of the interviews you've done, I know you've talked openly about not being in a healthy relationship and even it was an abusive relationship.

I thought I was stuck.

I thought it was too late.

I thought I was just, like-

Right

... well, it's already happened.

Like, there's nothing I can do now.

Most people don't understand, like, why don't you just leave? It's truly not that simple.

All I can think about is Jackie today, who is so outspoken and, like, strong-minded.

I had to rebuild my confidence-

Mm

... from the ground up.

And whatever little voice I had I was not using 'cause I was just, like, exhausted.

At what point do you decide that you're gonna create your first YouTube video?

I made this video and I was, like, telling myself, "Should I do this? Should I not do this?" I was like, "Well," already thinking this might be the last run for me on YouTube.

I upload this video.

Within 24 hours it had like 60,000 views.

I was immediately scared.

My knee-jerk reaction was, "Did I get canceled? Did I just ruin my reputation?"