We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nia Birt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I quit my job. I was twenty-five years old and just worked for four years as an 8th grade social studies teacher, and in March of 2023, I decided to quit. I have always been an overachiever and I went to college to teach, I thought teaching was the right career choice for me, but it wasn’t. I made the really hard decision to leave my career and focus on myself. After I left, I took some time off to figure out what to do with my life. I had no idea what would be next. I had created a natural hair content page on Instagram the year prior. It started off as a place for me to post photos of my hair and connect with others such as myself that have gone through a self love journey with their hair. After a few months I gained my first 1000 followers! I had no idea how much growth and opportunity were in the works for me. Taking a risk on myself and quitting my job was one of the best things I ever did. I had to be uncomfortable and really understand what I wanted to do. I knew that I loved to teach, and through my Instagram I am able to teach and inspire others to care for and love their natural hair. I have now partnered with multiple companies and have gotten paid partnerships! I never thought it could be possible for me, but I’m glad I took a risk on myself and I would encourage anyone who feels unhappy and lost to take a chance on what truly inspires them!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a proud African-American woman living in the midwest. My creative journey really began when I was in elementary school, I loved art and making up stories of my own. I would say I was always extremely creative and imaginative until I started middle and high school. I started to worry a lot about my grades and being the smartest one in the room. I did excel in my academics and I ended up being the only black person in the top 30 students of high school senior class which had about 600 students total. I earned my scholarship and went to pursue an degree in education. I never really knew what I wanted to do for a career. In elementary school I wanted to be an artist and an actress, but I was told as a teen that those careers don’t make any money! So I choose teaching because a career test I took told me to. In college I decided to join a dance team and become an ambassador for my college. I joined a bhangra dance team with my first friend in college and as a black person this was a big deal because everyone else on that team was Indian! But I absolutely loved it! It was the most fun group to be in and during my Junior year the team voted for me to become a captain of the team! We traveled all over to different states to compete in bhangra competitions. During my time on the team I started our instagram page and started making content and videos for it, this is how I started learning how to edit and post online. Another group I was apart of was an ambassador group for my school that included all black students. We would go to different high school’s and perform a 30 minute skit with singing and dancing that promoted my school! The goal of this group was to inspire young black students to pursue college! This group was so successful the university paid us to go perform in Dubai! After graduation I began working as a teacher but I always felt like something was missing. In college I was able to express my creative side but at my job that just didn’t happen. Then I thought about how I wanted to make content for natural hair back in high school and I had made a few youtube videos but that was it. I decided to try it again! This time I would use instagram and tik tok. I began researching to learn how to gain a following. I started making videos and posts and connecting with others. After 3 years I now have over 15k followers across my platforms and have paid collaborations with different companies. Luckily I already knew how to edit, thanks to my time in bhangra, and I knew about music and story telling from my time as an ambassador. My creative background helped me to get the point I’m at now.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is seeing how my work inspires others! I have gotten countless comments and dm’s on my social media of people of different ages telling me how my work has helped them on their journey of self-love with their hair. I make my content for that sole reason! Black hair is still barely shown in movies, tv, magazines etc. I wanted to change the narrative that natural hair is undesirable. Each time I post I do it for the community and I’m so glad that I have been able to change lives doing so.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building an audience on social media is so crucial to see real success. You can post a video and it may go viral but you don’t just want views, you want to have followers who will engage with your content because they really love what you do! I built my audience by commenting and following others who post content similar to my niche. Whatever niche you are in has a growing community already, you have to start engaging with it in order to get noticed. You need to be real, friendly and inviting to grow your audience as well. Always try to respond back to comments, and answer questions. Make sure to leave comments on others posts as well. You truly need to treat others how you would like to be treated. Then be consistent, make sure your audience doesn’t forget about you! This means you need to try and post every week. You don’y have to post every day, but at least once a week and utilize stories too! This can allow your audience to see a more personal side of you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shesnatural96/