We recently connected with Maggie Phipps and have shared our conversation below.

Maggie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea for my nude portrait business originally stemmed from a viral video. I was working as a waitress full-time in 2020 when Covid hit and like many others, I was laid off. I was living in California at the time which meant I was in a complete lockdown for the foreseeable future. There was no chance of getting an in person job at that point and I did not have a college degree that would allow me to get a remote job. Due to the desperation, I started brainstorming, and I came across a TikTok. I never had the app before but like many others, I joined shortly after Covid began and started posting. Ever since I was very young, I have been drawn to art, and more specifically painting. It had obviously always been a dream to do art full-time, but I had always thought that it was too far-fetched, and there was no money in it. That being said, I started posting my paintings on TikTok for fun, but in the back of my mind I was secretly hoping something would come of it. At the time, I was struggling pretty intensely with body image issues, so I decided to start painting my body in order to be able to see it in a different more positive light. I ended up posting one of my paintings of my body in a short video on TikTok, and by the next morning it had reached 15 million views! I started getting hundreds of comments from people saying they wished they could have a painting of themselves and that’s when I thought, “Wait, I could actually turn this into something.” I ended up making my Etsy shop within the next 24 hours and within my first week I had received over 50 custom orders! It was a lot of trial and error from there, figuring out how much I should be charging, (because I definitely was barely making a profit in the beginning) how to stay relevant, and how to manage a business on my own. So, my business was not a long thought out premeditated idea. The opportunity just presented itself and I grabbed a hold of it, and have turned it into what it is today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Maggie and I have been a full-time nude portrait artist for the last 3 years. No, that doesn’t mean I paint while I’m naked! I paint custom portraits of client’s bodies both digitally and with acrylic. The majority of my clientele is women who are struggling with body image issues and would like a to see themselves in a new light. There is something about seeing your body as a beautiful work of art that has proven to be very healing. My favorite part of my job is when I get to send a client their finished custom painting and I receive a message from them saying that they have never felt so sexy and beautiful!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My initial success on social media was from a viral video that got 15 million views on TikTok. It was definitely a huge jumpstart for my career, but that being said, I could not just rely on that one video on that one account to maintain my business. I had to diversify my social medias, which is my biggest recommendation to anyone starting a business! I now use Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok. I post on every platform 5 to 6 times a week which I know me sound like a lot, but it has been the key to my success.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The first story that comes to my mind, when I think about the situation that required me to be resilient would definitely be my accounts continually being taken down and banned. Unfortunately, that just comes with being a nude artist, but no matter how much I censor or how closely I follow the community guidelines, my accounts have all been taken down multiple times. Thankfully up until this point, I have been able to get all of my accounts reinstated when this happens, but when they are taken down, I usually am out of contact with my customers for 2 to 3 weeks. This can be very scary as social media is my primary connection to my clients and my primary income. I have now learned that I need to have multiple back up accounts at the ready so I can still make announcements to my clients if something were to happen, but it is definitely a frustrating situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: Maggiesgirls.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/maggies.girls