I still remember the first interaction I had with Nisi. It was the first weeks of 6th grade, I was in my social studies class wearing my Bethany Mota t-shirt and she said she loved Bethany Mota too and we dived into a conversation about our favorite YouTubers. Fast-forward to freshman year and I was watching Nisi’s own videos on her newly started YouTube channel.

Starting in 2018, she opened a channel under the name “Itznisi”. From interviews, mukbangs, and beauty, her videos covered a range of topics and amassed 4.4K views. What inspired Nisi to start YouTube in the first place? “I always loved watching other people’s YouTube videos and like a lot of the other people in our generation, I thought it looked fun!” Although the channel has been inactive recently, she plans to pick up making videos soon, so stay tuned! One of the reasons for her hiatus is because she’s been focusing more on another platform, TikTok.

Also under the username Itznisi, she has a whopping 24,000 followers and 1.8 million likes across all of her videos. She has multiple TikTok’s with hundreds of thousands of views and even a couple with over a million views. Her biggest one is sitting at 1.3 million views where she takes off her false lashes to an audio explaining to guys that girl’s eyelashes grow so fast they have to rip them off every night. When asked about how it feels to go viral on TikTok she says, “It’s funny to think about actually, as far as followers go I don’t really put much weight into numbers. But at the same time, it can be mind-boggling and while seeing my TikTok get re-uploaded and shared onto other platforms and pages, it’s pretty cool to see that there are others out there who can relate or find humor in my content.”  There’s a lot of people aiming to make their videos go viral, but Nisi says that she’s gotten the most engagement on the content she’s made organically, “You never know what people are going to relate to at the time.”

Ironically enough, lashes ended up making an impact in her life more than once. Nisi started her own false lash business, “When I first started to wear lashes I realized it could be a lot of trial and error finding affordable, good quality products. So when I did find them I always had people asking me about them, I figured why not invest some money so that I can share the things I enjoy.”

The connection between social media and business is huge, many YouTubers and TikTokkers have started their own businesses, guaranteed success due to their huge platforms. More than once have products gone viral on TikTok and are sold out within a week, and at such a young age Nisi is already making a name for herself and getting a kickstart on her career. “My goal has always been entrepreneurship, owning or running a business. Social media is currently an important aspect of all businesses. I anticipate that it will always be an important part of the puzzle. A tool that entrepreneurs can utilize and share their product or services because the reach is truly endless.”

It takes a lot to put yourself and your product out there, confidence is key. Nisi believes that finding confidence in your brand, “Should be easy as long as you move with integrity and do your research. My goal is always to go with products I enjoy and would use myself.” She describes her personal confidence as subjective with many layers, “I think that goes for all parts of life though.” Inspiring her along her journey has been Ermis Asghedom A.K.A Nipsey Hussle. Ermis’ values and perspectives on life have opened her eyes and inspired Nisi to mesh spirituality and entrepreneurship into all aspects of her life.

To many teenagers, doing what Nisi is doing is their dream. “From my experience, my advice is to simply be your most authentic self. You will be surprised to find that there’s always someone who can relate to you and find comfort and humor in your life experiences or opinions. The social media work is big, but as humans, we still manage to share so many of the same life experiences. I’ve connected with girls as far away as Australia, Germany, New York, and even right around my block, how wild is that!”