We recently connected with Asia Mack and have shared our conversation below.

Asia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

One of the biggest trends I’ve been seeing in my industry is “popcorn success” I call it popcorn success because people have this impression that businesses or content creation is so easy to start, that you will instantly profit/get brand deals, and when they don’t, they want to easily give up. It seems as if nobody is necessarily super passionate about the work anymore but want to reap all the benefits. I started creating content in 2011 & I’m so grateful for all of the blessings it has brought. I started my cosmetics line in 2020 directly after the pandemic. It’s literally been blood, sweat, and tears. It has also opened many doors for me as well. I think if the passion goes back behind the work, people will get to experience the beautiful side of it as I did.

Asia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a child, I was bullied for wearing big glasses because I had two astigmatisms. I would break my glasses intentionally so I could fit in with the other kids. That’s all I ever wanted. As a kid, I always loved fashion. In elementary school, I would always doodle fashion designs in my notebook. I also always wanted to live in New York City as well. It was just something about how the city was portrayed in television & movies and how big the fashion industry was.

I begin creating content in 2011 during my senior year of high school. Starting my YouTube channel was a form of truly finding myself and my expression of my love of fashion. I would say I definitely began in the “OG” YouTube Era with creators such as Tiarra Monet, Lover4Fashion, Beauty Crush, just to name a few. During that time, it was just another fun hobby to do another skill to teach myself(video editing). I taught myself everything there is to know about a computer. I took electives such as fashion figure drawing and accounting towards the end of my senior year to really determine what field I would like to go into career wise. Accounting was great to learn & I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really considered taking on accounting but my drive & passion for fashion has always thrived more.

I applied to FIT in New York City but I didn’t get in. I was a little discouraged but I didn’t let that stop me. My guidance counselor in high school had let me that my local community college would be opening a fashion/apparel design program this upcoming fall. I applied & went to the orientation. I got to meet the head of the program. Instantly, it felt like the right fit. So immediately from high school, that summer I attended community college for fashion/apparel design. I truly enjoyed every aspect of it but I couldn’t get past the sewing course. It was literally one of the biggest obstacles I had. It truly made me fall out of love with the creation part of fashion. Also during this time in college, I began a fashion blog posting the outfits I would wear to school or on the weekends.

My college at the time had a transfer agreement with LIM College in NYC. LIM College is a private fashion business based college. On my first attempt to get in, I got in! My dreams finally had come true. The summer of 2016, I moved into my dorm in New York and my new journey began! I took on the major of fashion merchandising.

Unfortunately during the year I was away at college, I developed severe depression and anxiety. I just knew something wasn’t right. I’ve always been like very introverted but I literally only wanted to go to class then to my dorm room. Sometimes I barely wanted to leave the dorm room at all. I believe it started with simply just moving away from home because I had never been away from home for such a long period of time. I also at the time decided to pursue a relationship with someone I had known since middle school, which turned out to be very tumultuous & mentally and verbally abusive. I was no longer in my daily routine that I would be in when I was at home. I didn’t want to make YouTube videos anymore. I was failing basic college algebra. My brain and thoughts were constantly on other things so it caused me to not be able to focus. It pushed me away from building friendships. It really took a toll on me. I was in a very dark place.

After my first year of living in the dorms, I decided that it was best for me to move back home, take a break for my mental health, and try to focus back on the routine that I had known for so long. I feel like this is when I also decided to begin to take my content to the next level. I did my best to shake whatever & move forward. I also began growing significantly organically at this time. When I first began my YouTube channel, I was very scared about it & I wouldn’t tell anyone. As the anxiety and depression started to peel back, I wasn’t afraid to tell anyone now. I was going to show this thing off to the world because it was something special about it.

I changed my major again to fashion media which was more of my speed and would advance me to the next level with content creation. We were required to take a photography class, fashion styling, some creative writing courses, etc. This was much more of my interest. I continued to go to school until the first year of my senior year. The pandemic had hit & things with school had changed so much. Doing college from home mostly everyday on Zoom was definitely a challenge. No matter what, I pushed myself through it. As the semester came to a close, I began to realize that my purpose was bigger than being in school. I had a talk with my mother & grandmother and I told them that I was taking the step to not continue with school. I wanted to swift my focuses.

Also during the pandemic, I realize that job security may have not been an option afterwards. In that time I just felt it was time to have something that was my own. My internet personality name is “Dolly Roman” which is nickname I gained in high school for being a girly girl & my love for Nicki Minaj. Everybody knows me as Dolly so that’s what ultimately lead me to naming my cosmetics line All Dolled Up Cosmetics. Going into my first year of being in business, I decided to add an accessories line. It has just truly been a pleasure with the support I’ve gained through my beauty line and the ability to be able to create items that I love but I know people will equally love as well.

I am most proud of the fact that no matter what obstacles I faced during my journey, I decided to keep going no matter what. I am most proud of being able to find my true purpose in life.

I want my potential clients & followers to know that I will always produce genuine content and always provide products that I would use as well. I pride myself on not doing trendy anything. I love to stand out & be unique as possible.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A story from my journey that illustrates resilience most definitely just happen to me recently actually.

A few days after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I lost my original Instagram page. My page was suspended for “counterfeit goods” which makes no sense to me at all because I have a legitimate business. Its been happening lately to a lot of creators & businesses. I fought with Instagram for over a month to get my page back. They gave it back to me to me for a few days before Christmas & 4 days later, my page was suspended once again.

This page I’ve had since the 12th grade. Its where a lot of my high school and college memories were. I also had an almost 5K following. I was very hurt by this! The stress & anxiety of trying to get this page back was definitely one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my life as a content creator. Without Instagram as a platform, it is very hard to get brand deals as a content creator, etc.

When this initially happen, I considered not even making another page. I was in total fear that something like this would take place again. But something inside of me told me to keep pushing towards my goals no matter what. I created a new page & began to start posting consistently again as well building my following again.

I know that it will take time but sometimes not all things that happen are bad. Sometimes its just a moment to start fresh.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I honestly built my audience organically. It started out with just people I knew such as friends from school, family, etc. This is also because at first I was very shy about the journey I was taking. I’m not sure how people found out but more people started to follow me. I would have people coming up to me in class during community college asking me if I did YouTube. It was so surprising at first.

Then I started to befriend a lot of women who were makeup artists on Facebook. They would invite me into these groups where we could share our posts about makeup, beauty, hair. etc. This was another way people found out more about me.

I just agreed that growing organically & networking would be the best way for me to continue to gain presence. That’s what I continued to do.

My best advice to anyone starting to build a social media presence is to be yourself. What you post should always truly represent you. People want a person they can relate to. I feel like how you are in person with your friends is how to be on social media because it reads off as you’re authentic. Also post what you truly believe in. You don’t have to do anything because its the trendy thing to do. Being authentic sets your content apart from everyone else.

Contact Info:

• Website: alldolledupcosmetics.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/d.roman45_
• Twitter: @asianeisha
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dollyroman5694