News — women business

The cigar industry has traditionally been dominated by men, specifically White men. The sector has seen little participation of women. However, two Cuban sisters are changing the narrative on the participation of women in the sector.

The twin Cuban sisters, Yvonne and Yvette Rodriguez, founded their cigar line called Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars in 2014, making them owners of Miami’s first Afro-Cuban, woman-owned cigar company in the United States. They have straddled between African-American and Cuban culture since their childhood.

Born to a Cuban mother and Black Cuban father, the twin sisters grew up around their cigar-smoking grandmother, according to Miami New Times. Their signature Cigar includes “La Clarita” — which means fair-skinned — and is light-medium bodied; “La Mulata,” which means mixed black/white as is medium-full; and “La Negrita”, which means black, their strongest, full-bodied cigar.

Making cigars was not the first career path of the two sisters. After obtaining their degrees in journalism from the University of Florida, they parted ways in Miami. While Yvette took a job reporting for Channel 7, Yvonne began producing and editing programming for Telemundo. Yvette would later leave Channel 7 to create a PR firm while her boisterous twin sister continued her work with Telemundo.

The idea to go into cigar making occurred to Yvonne in a daydream. She then pitched the idea with Yvette, who found the idea intriguing. On a vacation in Costa Rica, Yvette met a Miami Cuban who owned a tobacco farm in Nicaragua.

By 2014, Yvonne and Yvette started creating their own cigar brand. “As women in a male-driven industry, it was more of a shock to the men when we would walk into a cigar shop,” Yvette told the Miami New Times. “I embrace the shock.”

Their business has since grown steadily. Their cigar brands, which have become quite popular among the Black community in Atlanta, are now sold in major shops in cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, among others.

Their journey in the cigar industry has not been smooth sailing. To date, some shop owners and colleagues try to discourage them. Their male counterparts even go to the extent of asking them whether they know what’s in their own cigars.

“Even to this day, they don’t think we smoke cigars, so imagine I’m trying to sell it,” Yvonne said. “We were starting not even at level zero; we were starting at level negative-five.”

In many families, individuals work two or three jobs to bring enough money home to cater for expenses such as food, fees and other bills. Mostly, side hustle jobs are pursued to complement monies made from one’s permanent job.

However, there is a growing trend where people are now turning their side hustles into their permanent jobs due to the money they are making from it and also the fulfillment it brings. Such is the story of Tiffany Grant, who was formally employed and managed side businesses.

Tiffany studied business administration and management at the university and aspired to get a good corporate job and work towards being the executive assistant to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company after university. Her first job was a receptionist but she soon found out that she had little interest in what she was doing.

It was during this period that the idea of being her own boss occurred to her. Tiffany hadn’t accumulated enough resources to start her own business and so made a shift in career path, this time, going into human resource.

“I started at a new company and I loved my work in HR, being able to tackle new challenges every day and help employees at all levels of the company make the most of their benefits. I even got to put on my financial education hat every so often,” Tiffany told grow.acorns.com.

In 2017, she decided to become a ‘dual-preneur’ by starting a side hustle while in formal employment. She started with Money Talk With Tiff, a financial education and coaching service. Today she runs five other businesses with her husband.

They include DanJai’s Natural Products, a homemade soap company, a custom tie-dye apparel company, a video production firm, and a logistics and shipping business and a rental company. Tiffany has now turned her side hustles into a full-time job which now bring in $10,000 each month.

The transition from working a full-time job to turning side hustles into a full-time job had not been easy. For the first year in business, Tiffany ran things part-time and spent more money than she earned. “I was fortunate to have my day job to fall back on and to help me cover some business basics like a web domain, tools, and software,” she says.

Tiffany says when she left the corporate world to focus on her businesses, she had saved up four months’ worth of expenses.” It was a slow start, and I ended up having to use some of those savings to cover the shortfall,” she says

However, three months in she was making enough from working with clients that she didn’t need to rely on the emergency fund.

Tiffany advises aspiring entrepreneurs not to be motivated by money alone but should have a strong foundation for why they want to start an enterprise.

“If money is your only motivation, my best advice is to not take the leap. For most entrepreneurs, cash flow is going to be rough in the early days of your business. You have to have a cause outside of the money that motivates you

“Find your ‘why’ and make sure it is a strong foundation because odds are things will get shaky. My ‘why’ is the lives and financial trajectories I have been able to help change. I personally live with anxiety and depression, and some days are harder than others,” she says.

For her works in the creative industry, the education and training of young poets and writers, and her many other contributions towards improving the industry in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, which operates under the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, has named Dasha Kelly Hamilton as the 2021-2022 Wisconsin Poet Laureate.

Hamilton makes history as the first Black woman to hold the title of Wisconsin Poet Laureate in the 20 years since the award was instituted, TMJ4 reports.  She will hold the title for a period of two years with a $2,500 stipend and a week-long residency at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point.

The main objective for the titleholder is to serve as state ambassador who encourages poetry throughout their tenure. A commemorative broadside and other recognition opportunities come with being the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, including organizing and attending literary events each year.

The Milwaukee native is the ninth Wisconsin Poet Laureate, taking over from Margaret “Peggy” Rozga, the eighth Wisconsin Poet Laureate. From the inception of the award, the tenure for each Poet Laureate was four years. In 2008, it became two years after the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters took over the scheme.

Nick Demske, Chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, spoke about Hamilton’s appointment.  

“Dasha Kelly Hamilton’s infectious energy and demonstrated history of transforming lives through the written and spoken word make her the perfect ambassador for poetry in the state of Wisconsin. Her reputation precedes her, and we know that Wisconsin residents will benefit in many ways from this outstanding poet.”

Hamilton is a poet, performer, novelist who was named artist of the year in 2016 by the Milwaukee Arts Board. She has also been part of the arts envoy for the US Embassy that teaches, performs, and facilitates community-building initiatives with people from different backgrounds under the umbrella of the creative arts. She has been working on cultural exchange programs in Mauritius, Toronto, Botswana, and Beirut.

Not only is she the Poet Laureate for Wisconsin, but Hamilton was also made the Poet Laureate for Milwaukee getting to the end of 2019. This makes her the second person to ever hold both positions after Marilyn L. Taylor.

Speaking of her appointment, Hamilton said, “My practice as a writer and cultural organizer connects me to a spectrum of conversations and communities. For twenty years, I’ve invited folks to lean into the experience of creating and sharing poems as entry points for reflection, for discovery, for celebrating truth.

Her nonprofit, Still Waters Collective, introduced literary arts programming for 20 years, building platforms for many otherwise unheard voices to be honored and heard. The work she does through her organization allows for partnerships on projects and manages a creative leadership fellowship.

“I’ve seen communities built and individuals fortified through poems and spoken word. I’m honored to continue building community across the state as Wisconsin Poet Laureate, and look forward to establishing a poetry exchange between traditional residents and writer residents in Wisconsin prisons,” she added.

Hamilton holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and an MA in Marketing Communications from Roosevelt University and has been an assistant professor at Mount Mary University, Alverno College, Bryant & Stratton, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The spirits industry is a $29-billion-dollar industry. The role of women in the industry dates to the prohibition-era women bootleggers. Their untold stories have led Erin Harris & Dia Simms (HANDS) to partner with Saint Liberty Whiskey to celebrate America’s women pioneers in whiskey.

Simms is a former president at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Combs Enterprises and her partner Harris is the senior vice president there. The two, who have over 30 years’ experience in the spirits and wines industry, are now part owners of Saint Liberty Whiskey, working together to bring to life the untold stories of the Prohibition-era women bootleggers.

Founder and Chief Historian at Saint Liberty Whiskey, Mark SoRelle, told Forbes he is excited to have the power-duo on his team. “We are so thrilled to have HANDS as partners in Saint Liberty Whiskey. With their collective 30+ years’ experience in wine and spirits and disciplined approach to the brand-building they will be an invaluable asset to our team.” 

HANDS, founded by Simms and Harris, is a boutique spirits advisory company that gives strategic guidance and invests in spirit brands. Simms and Harris are adding their voices to other women entrepreneurs in the spirits and wine industry to show their fellow women that there is always a seat at the table for them.

“Women and millennials are the customers in the spirits industry really driving the resurgence and the fast growth of whiskey in the last six years in terms of the fastest growth population. You can’t have an honest, respectful conversation with the customers who are not reflected in your leadership,” Simms told Forbes.

In the 1920s after women had fought for the right to vote, they also had to protest the ban on the manufacture, sale and distribution of alcohol. The unsung women bootlegger heroes like Bertie Brown, Josephine Doody, Mary Curley, and the likes still managed to thrive in such a tumultuous era with their alcohol trade.  

The idea of Saint Liberty Whiskey, now part-owned by Simms and Harris, is to honor each bootlegger with their own whiskey that is “proofed and bottled in the state where each woman originally resided, using the same water source they would have used 100 years ago,” according to PRNewswire.

“We are proud to honor the courage and legacy of these pioneering women bootleggers. The women in the spirits industry today owe a debt to these frontierswomen,” said Simms.

The flagship whiskey, Bertie’s Bear Gulch Straight Bourbon Whiskey, is named after Bertie ‘Birdie’ Brown, a Black homesteader from Montana who was known at the time for making the best moonshine in the country.

According to Simms, it was extremely dangerous for Black women bootleggers at the time but Birdie was resilient. Aside from making her mark with her signature moonshine, Birdie’s hospitality was what made her stand out the most.

“When people went to her place, they felt truly welcomed. Even though she was getting harassed by the law, she was able to forge on.”

According to Harris, she and Simms navigated through the spirit industry for the last three decades with much success because they realized “that the better you treat your customer and the more you know them, the more you get that repeat business.”

Saint Liberty Whiskey seeks to create opportunities for women. Its board of directors is made up of only females, with five percent of its gross profits funding women’s empowerment issues, entrepreneurial and educational efforts.

“Saint Liberty honors women, but the liquid is made for everyone. It is incredible whiskey full of character that is made for discerning Whiskey drinkers. These women represent hustle and spirit. Their stories belong on the forefront of spirits history and the liquid belongs on the backbar of every quality bar. It’s the spirit of revolution,” said Harris.

Asha Grant grew a love for reading at a young age. Even though she loved indulging in different books, she hardly ever saw books that featured characters who look like her. Now, Grant is finally getting her wish and is opening up her own bookstore dedicated to Black women and femmes in Inglewood, California.

When the pandemic hit, Grant didn’t give up on dreams of owning a bookstore. She opted to start a GoFundMe page to crowdfund the start of her new business venture.

“When I was growing up, reading was a really huge part of how I got to understand myself,” Grant said in an interview with NBC Los Angeles.” There’s a huge disservice that our community gets when there is an entire group of people who are missing from that narrative.”

Grant established a goal of raising $65,000 to fund her start-up costs and secure her physical storefront through GoFundMe which she managed to reach and surpass her goal, gaining a total of over $83,000 to start her dream. Grant was able to open The Salt Eaters Bookshop in her hometown and shared with NBC Los Angeles that she plans to officially open its doors by February 2021.

The bookshop celebrated raising all the funds to open their storefront on the official Instagram page, thanking their supporters for bringing them this far.

“In 2020, thousands of you showed up and showed out to help secure a three-year lease for a literary sanctuary dedicated to the stories by and about Black women, femmes, and non-binary people in Inglewood, CA,” she wrote in her caption. “Thank you, thank you, thank you (!!!) for believing in the” dream.”

Najuma Atkinson started her career in finance after obtaining a degree in political science from Fisk University. She worked for SunTrust bank first as an analyst. She then joined Dell Technologies Inc. in 1991 as a tech support manager and has since risen through the ranks to be the Senior Vice President (SVP) of HR shared services at the multinational firm.

With a career spanning 20 years at Dell, she is the only Black woman serving as SVP at the company. Atkinson got a promotion from vice president of human resources to SVP of chief customer office after “cold pitching” the firm’s CEO Michael Dell at a corporate event in 2019, according to CNBC.

She approached Dell about the idea, including telling him about her strength, interest and why she wanted to serve in the chief customer office division.

“I’ve built my career focused on the customer and providing opportunities where we can really enhance that experience. I really like the ability to use data to inform our decisions,” Atkinson told Dell when pitching her idea. “And so I’d like to be given that opportunity, if it ever comes, to move into the chief customer office.”

Prior to the engagement, the two had not engaged each other one-on-one but Atkinson was bold enough to pitch the CEO as she was convinced the move could further her career and give her a comprehensive understanding of the operations of the company.

“We had not really engaged with one another prior to that time so it was almost like a cold call,” she told CNBC “Little did I know that [Dell] was actually paying attention and we were doing some talent reviews,” she said. “I took that opportunity to be bold and to ask for what I wanted, and he reciprocated.”

In 2019, she was promoted twice: first as SVP of chief customer office in August and then to her current role of SVP of HR shared services in September. Atkinson said her ability to solve problems and using data to make informed decisions helped her transition into her current role.

Having successfully pitched her way to the top and becoming the only Black woman SVP at Dell, Atkinson has shared some tips on how others can follow her path. According to her, one has to be articulate with their objectives and what they want to do taking into account the overall objectives of an organization.

Also, pitching ideas require patience. Thus, if one fails, they should not “think of it as a negative” but learn from it, she says. “If you do those kinds of things, those are the individuals that find all the good opportunities and are ultimately successful.”

Finally, one must work out of their comfort zone and be a risk-taker, she adds. “I think that individuals that are successful are those that are risk-takers,” Atkinson says. “They understand what it means to take an informed risk.”

The coronavirus pandemic lockdown was a blessing in disguise for many even though there were a few others who did not find that period favorable. Some lost relatives to the virus while others lost their jobs.

London Warrick decided to send positive vibes to her family, neighbors and friends with every cake she baked during the lockdown period.

The 11-year-old kidpreneur discovered her love for baking during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. So, on Mother’s Day, she baked lots of cakes and wrapped up huge slices for mothers in her neighborhood to bring some cheer to them.

Little did she know seven months ago that she had just sent out samples of what will be her new cake business, Lovely London Delights.

“I started baking in May for Mother’s Day. I made a whole cake and I sliced it and I delivered it to mothers to make them happy,” the Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, native told local news outlet WPVI.

The cake was so lovely that many mothers wanted to order whole cakes after they tasted the slices. “When I got back home, they were asking for whole cakes,” she added.

London rose to the challenge but her mother, Tramaine Warrick, was worried people might not want to go through with their orders if they knew an 11-year-old baked their cakes.

Interestingly, that was not a deterrent as, according to Traimaine, people began hitting her family up for more cakes. “I explained to them that London is 11 and they said, ‘We don’t care. We just want a cake!'” said Tramaine

Just like that, news of the new cake sensation spread by word of mouth and recommendations. “From there so many people we didn’t know were finding out from other people, and they just started to ask us to order cakes,” she added.

The classic Bundt cake with two secret ingredients has been the best seller since the business started and she has sold over 200 cakes and counting. The Upper Moreland Intermediate School fifth-grader makes multitasking look so easy. She has good time management skills and has allocated weekends and school breaks for her budding baking business.

“I do my cakes on the weekend and when I’m on break,” London said.

London still has time to do little girls’ stuff like her other hobby, dancing. She also takes classes very seriously, with math being her favorite subject. She already has her eyes set on Lincoln University and with her tenacity, it will be no surprise that she gets in.

According to ABC6, the kidpreneur is also philanthropic at heart. London donates proceeds from her sales to Gift of Life to honor her grandfather, who had lung disease.

In a unanimous decision by the clergy and lay faithful of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Rev. Canon Paula E. Clark is now the Bishop-elect of the diocese. This makes her the first Black bishop and the first woman to head the diocese and the 13th elected bishop.

On December 12, the Electing Convention was held on Zoom and Clark was one of four candidates slated for the position. Her win came as a surprise to her and she is happy to lead the diocese of Chicago while breaking glass ceilings along the way.

“I’m just honored to be among those who are breaking the glass ceiling and providing opportunities and examples for younger women,” Clark said.

“I am overwhelmed. I’m humbled and filled with so much joy, people of the diocese of Chicago. I can hardly believe it,” Clark told the convention.

The Washington, DC native was baptized at the age of 10 into the Episcopal Church after her family could not integrate into the Baptist church. According to a press release, she was baptized by Bishop John Walker, the first Black dean of Washington National Cathedral and first Black bishop of the Diocese of Washington.

The 1960s was riddled with social unrest and as a Black family in a predominantly White neighborhood, Clark encountered racism and racial inequality firsthand as a child. She hopes to use her position as Bishop to tackle racial division.

“All of the major world religions believe in unity and peace and love…So this is an opportunity for us to have a counter-narrative to some of what we are seeing in our wider society,” said Clark.

“We Episcopalians are strong people who can model for the rest of this country and the world what it looks like to walk the way of love. God is calling us to a new day and a new way of being.”

Currently, she is canon to the ordinary and chief of staff in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Clark first felt the call to priesthood in seventh grade at the National Cathedral School but did not pursue it till after her mother’s passing. Her mother did not approve of women’s ordination.

Clark obtained her bachelor’s from Brown University and earned her master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

For nine years she worked as a public information officer for the Office of the Mayor and the District of Columbia’s Board of Parole. Thereafter, Clark served as the director of human resources and administration for an engineering and consulting firm in Washington for five years.

Then in 2004, she earned a Master of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. It is from this point that the journey to fulfill her childhood priestly dreams began.

The wife of Andrew McLean and mother of five with seven grandchildren worked at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Washington and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beltsville, Maryland. She later joined the staff of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. 

Her predecessor, Bishop Jeffrey D. Lee, retires on December 31. Bishop-elect Clark, who will oversee 122 congregations and more than 31,000 members in northern, central and southwestern Illinois, will be sworn in on April 24. The ecclesiastical authority will oversee the activities of the diocese during the transition.  

As a young girl, Oyinda Janet Oreoluwa Akinfenwa nurtured the dreams of being a lawyer and pursued a law degree at Afe Babalola University. Naturally an introvert, she enjoys making clothes as it is her safe space.

In 2017, she made a top out of her mom’s scarf, and three years down the line, her own clothing brand, JANORE, is best known for making clothes that can be styled in different ways.

The young Nigerian, who is currently at the Nigerian law school, is pursuing her dreams to be a designer alongside her law school. She aspires to break into the international fashion scene one day and have one of her pieces on the red carpet.

She came up with her brand name JANORE by combining her two middle names and has been sewing for the last three years with much success. She did not have a clear business plan but went with the flow and now she has sold some of her works in over five different countries.

“Well, I started with what I had, and I just went for it,” she told Face2Face Africa. “The first top I made was from my mum’s scarf and then from her other clothes. Then I went into smaller materials, eventually, I bought more as I kept going.”

The 22-year-old is from a family of six and the last of her siblings. She lives and operates her fashion brand in Ibadan without getting any formal training in sewing.

“I didn’t particularly learn how to at first, it just seemed like something I could do all of a sudden,” she said. “I tried to learn the basics of sewing and cutting from a fashion designer for about a month which further helped me understand my skills better and also helped me improve but for most part, I’m self-taught.”

Akinfenwa enjoys making clothes and modeling her works and these have helped her get more creative. Her personal style has evolved along the line, she said.

She, however, does not recollect how she came about making clothes that can be styled in different ways. “It just sort of happened”, she said, adding that inspiration pours through everything around her. To date, every single design she makes requires a certain level of attention and precision.

There have been times when she has had to abandon the designs all together because they did not come out perfectly.

To her, what people wear matter a lot because it gives them so much confidence and she wants to play a part in ensuring people feel their best when they step out every day.

Currently, Akinfenwa works on the designs alone but with the influx of orders, she has a small group of people helping her to complete her orders in time for delivery.

Her biggest setback, however, is not having the luxury of time to indulge fully in JANORE because of school and certain restrictions that come with living with your parents as an African child.

She however wants to expand her brand after law school. “In next five years, I see my brand as a top go-to brand for fashion items because I plan to branch into men’s wear and over 50 branches in different parts of the world.”

The support from family, friends and social media has been overwhelming since she posted her first work on her page.

People are always waiting for the ‘right time’ to pursue their dreams but Akinfenwa believes otherwise. “You should start from where you are no matter how little or silly your ideas seem initially. You would grow, and you would be surprised with how great you can get if you keep going.

“Also, do not be afraid to break some rules along the way especially if you are a creative because there is no one way to do anything. So do your thing and do not be discouraged. Turn a blind eye to negativity because it does not help anyone. Just do you,” she told

Previously reported on entrepreneur Adrienne Cooper and her company Moonlight x Mobile bringing classic roller skating rings to your home for special events. Now, she is expanding her empire to include her own line of roller skates called The Moon Boot.

According to Black News, Cooper has garnered over $3 million in sales since debuting the new collection in May 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her early video reviewing the boots garnered over 10,000 views on their YouTube.The skates are available nationwide for international delivery to countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

“The skates like sold out overnight and I was like OMG we have to have employees to sell these skates,” she said in an interview with WRCB-TV. “Inspiring to Black women, inspiring to veterans, inspiring to women in general. They can do something that people think is a niche and maybe one day it’ll blow up.”

Cooper made headlines in late 2019 when actress Taraji P. Henson rented her mobile skating rink for her birthday that she posted a clip of on her Instagram page. She was recently listed on Forbes 30 under 30 list for sports.

In 2009, a newlywed Jackie Aina was a military reservist in Hawaii who was bored sick and unhappy in her marriage. She quit college after two years to enlist in the military seeking new adventures. YouTube was gaining popularity at the time and Aina whiled away her boredom watching beauty vloggers. Little did she know that a little over a decade down the line, she will be one of the most sought-after beauty influencers on YouTube.

Aina has over 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube and she was the first YouTuber of color to garner over a million subscribers. What makes her stand out among other bloggers is her authenticity and advocacy for diversity in the beauty industry.

In the first video that made the certified cosmetologist go viral, she did not demonstrate her makeup prowess but let her personality pour through the screens, doing all the behind the scenes goofiness on screen. It was the end of 2014, and she did a video titled, “Makeup Trends We’re Ditching in 2015” which got over 5 million views and put her on the map.

The Nigerian-American beauty influencer has always had a knack for fashion and beauty. Her parents immigrated from Nigeria to the United States to pursue their own American dream. She was born in California’s San Gabriel Valley and the eldest of seven children: three brothers and three sisters.

“We got kicked out of a shelter, we couldn’t get to another one quick enough. And when you’re a mom of seven? It’s not easy.”

Her family struggled in the beginning especially after her parents divorced compelling them to live in shelters on three different occasions. She told Buzzfeed that she grew up with nothing; she built everything from the ground up.

Fashion was her first love because her mom would always make their clothes for them but then she also enjoyed applying makeup on her siblings whenever she got the chance to.

When her friend convinced her to start her own YouTube channel, she was hesitant because at the time there were not many African Americans in that sector.

Aina worked at MAC Cosmetics selling makeup in Hawaii. It was around that time that a 21-year-old Aina got divorced. According to her, the lack of options for people of color was so glaring. She always wanted to try new trends or learn how to do them on people with darker skin tones, but the most frequent answer was, “the trends she wanted to try wouldn’t work for her complexion.”

That was the last straw for her and eventually, she launched her channel in 2009. She made it her mission to bring diversity to the screens of her then small viewers by sharing her interests and favorite trends with people who could relate to her. At the time, she did not even know she was leading the charge to bring a much-needed representation in the beauty industry.

In recent years, she has had major collaborations with big beauty brands like Too Faced helping them to expand their foundations to include 11 new shades that work well on darker skin tones.

This paid off because, in January 2018, she was the very first person to win the YouTuber of the Year award at the NAACP’s annual Image Awards.

The award celebrated her advocacy for people of color, how she willingly shares beauty tips and techniques for people of all skin tones and the way she uses her platform to call on big beauty brands to be more inclusive with their products.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Aina once more pushed the boundaries and dared to dream a little bigger by venturing into lifestyle with the launch of her lifestyle brand FORVR Mood, which sells a variety of home products. FORVR Mood launched in August this year and the company retails silk headbands and pillowcases, with her scented candles selling fast.

“Starting a business in general is something that poses a lot of challenges but launching one throughout a pandemic was something we never prepared for,” Aina said.

“My mom’s generation has never even experienced something like this, let alone mine. So just being able to do that and do it successfully has made me so proud.”

She has not fully abandoned her makeup career as it fetches her some good income now that YouTube has been monetized. The 33-year-old still shoots and edits her own videos and comes up with original content on her own.

“My career is full of unexpected twists and turns,” Aina told Insider. “But to be honest with you, I feel like that’s been the beauty of it. I’ve always been ready to take on a challenge, and I’m always ready to take risks.”

Although the beauty industry seems saturated, Aina advises anyone who wants to venture into the field to go for it. She believes competition should never stop anyone from pursuing their dreams.

“Even though we’re all basically doing the same thing, we’re all saying it in a different voice,” she said.

“We’re all offering our own individual perspectives, our own takes, our own humor, our own personalities, and those things matter. That’s what people are looking for.”

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing unrests and protests in many cities across the United States, there have been concerns expressed in corporate America about lack of diversity and low investment in Black talent.

Since then, several firms have implemented wide-ranging diversity reform policies and programs and also invested in Black talents. Another company that is also charting a new course is the brewery giant Anheuser-Busch, which has brands including Budweiser and Bud Light.

The company has been in existence for nearly 200 hundred years but had never appointed a senior Black female official until recently when it appointed Natalie Johnson as senior brewmaster, making her the first Black woman to be appointed a brewmaster for the beer brand.

Johnson is a native of St. Louis and according to her, Anheuser-Busch, which is said to be the world’s largest beer company, has strong ties with her community. Before college, she interned with the company through Inroads. She then became involved in the production activities of the company. Through the internship, she acquired lab experience which helped her in college as a science student.

After college, she was hired by Anheuser-Busch where she learned brewing processes and how to conduct her own analysis. She told POPSUGAR in October that as a brewmaster, the “goal is to make sure, regardless of where you have a beer, what brewery it’s produced at, that it smells the same, it tastes the same, and has the same mouthfeel and finish, regardless of which brewery. So the brewmaster’s role is all about process control.”

Johnson’s journey in a field that is white and male-dominated has not been smooth sailing. “This is certainly a male-dominated field—110 percent,” Johnson told St.Louis. “Not only are women in the minority, but Black people are in the minority, too. In a lot of cases, I was an unexpected rarity in the situation. At times, people were shocked by me, and in some situations, I had to showcase my knowledge and talent before they could fully recognize me for who I am.”

41-year-old Johnson is now hoping to help address the lack of diversity in the industry through her position in the company as well as the “Budweiser Natalie Johnson Scholarship”. The million-dollar scholarship fund named in her honor was created to provide opportunities for women of color to pursue STEM degrees. Anheuser-Busch partnered with Dwyane Wade and the United Negro College Fund to create the scholarship fund.

Johnson believes a career path in the brewery sector for women of color is possible and has advised other Black women who are interested in the brewing industry to pursue it. “Throughout my career, there haven’t been a lot of Black women,” Johnson said in an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch this month. “We do want more diversity, not only at Anheuser-Busch but also in the brewing industry.”