Can You Be a Mom, Work Full Time, and Have a Successful YouTube Channel?

I’m Jenell B Stewart, a super fun mom, wife, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated and let’s not forget a successful influencer. I am the founder of KinkyCurlyCoilyMe.com and have been featured on many large publications most notably Essence magazine and I was a beauty expert on the Dr. Oz show. I have two adorable children, a husband that I adore and more blessings that one person can even handle. My family came to this country from Liberia, Africa with one goal—Get an education. I fulfilled my family’s dream and got my masters in education. I live in Long Island NY, where I challenge myself on a day to day basis to be great!

In March 2010 I did the big chop with the support of my cousin. We made our big chops into a celebration and had a hair cutting party where we had food and drinks. She cut my hair and I cut hers.

My hair care routine

My daily routine consists of pinning my twists up or wrapping my twists up into a head scarf before going to the gym. When I’m ready to get dressed for the day I take my twists down for a twist out and fluff to the GAWDS, take 15 selfies and then go! I have so many favorites products, but my holy grail products would be the SheaMoisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Styling Lotion and the Masque from this collection, the Curls Coconut Sublime Conditioner, the As I Am Coconut CoWash, Coconut Jamaican Black Castor Oil, and the EDEN BodyWorks Curl Defining Crème. [prodmod] I retwist my hair back at night and add a little product if my hair is feeling dry. I put on my bonnet and call it a day. Every wash day is like a new love affair. I feel the strength of my hair in my hands as I wash. When Im twisting, I feel the softness of each strand. And during the day I can’t keep my hands out of my hair!

Working full-time, being a mother = prioritizing

I know that working from home would seem like the easiest thing in the world to do, but it can be very challenging if you have poor time management. Make time for everything or you will have time for nothing. My planner and my desk journal are my best friends. If its not in my calendar, its not getting done. But I can’t just do everything all at once because there’s so much going on outside of my “work”. I have to prioritize my day. I have to juggle school drop off and pick ups. Housework, cooking, and did I mention my 7 month old daughter is home with me ALL day while my 2 year old son is at daycare. My strategy is to decide what needs to get done first, second and last in order of priority and deadlines.

• 6:00am wake up, check and reply to emails, reply to comments and questions on social media.
• 7:30am get the kids ready to take my son to daycare. Make breakfast and get myself dressed for gym.
• 8:45 drop off then head to gym.
• 9:00 work out (one of the only times in my day that is dedicated to ME”>
• 10:30 -7:30pm phone meetings, write, edit and review articles, film and edit videos, emails and social media. All while my daughter is home.

My family stuff gets thrown in the middle of my day as well one of the perks of working from home. Oh and I don’t take days off!

I started blogging in 2005 but at that time I wasn’t a hair & beauty blogger. I just talked about all kinds of things. It wasn’t until I did the big chop in March 2010 that I started blogging about my hair journey. I started vlogging on YouTube several months later.

Being a successful blogger consists of…

Hard work, dedication, and consistency. At the time that I started vlogging there weren’t many women with my hair texture and also with short hair vlogging. I filled that void with my easy to follow styling tutorials and by demonstrating how beautiful and simple it was to grow and maintain kinky, curly, and coily natural hair. The more I shared information about my journey in a way that was educational where others could learn from it, the more people watched. My style and personality is what people are really attracted to. I try to put out at least 1-2 YT videos a week. I post on FB, IG and Twitter multiple times a day. And I host and attend lots of events. As a result of all my hard work I’ve been featured in Essence, Black Enterprise.com, VibeVixen.com, SoloDovePR, CurvyMagazine.com, Essence.com, BlackHairMedia.com, RollingOut.com, JuicyMagOnline.com, NewsDay.com, Examiner.com, ModernSalon.com, TribeCalledCurl.com, and CurlyNikki.com. I’ve been featured as a Beauty Expert on the Dr.Oz television show and have participated on various natural hair panels as well as an Audio Telesummit on healthy food options for kids. In 2012 I was named one of Essence’s top Instagramers and that same year my website, KinkyCurlyCoilyMe won an award for “Favorite Website” of the Natural Hair Community. In 2014 I was listed as one of Clutch Magazine’s 20 YT bloggers you need to know. This year I was also nominated for TheRoot.com’s 100 People’s Choice Award. I have partnered and maintained relations with various beauty brand such as Shea Moisture, CURLS, Karen Body Beautiful, Design Essentials, HairFinity, Soft n Free, Nothing But, Alikay Naturals, Jane Carter, Motions and many more!

Knowing that every day I inspire another Black woman to fully believe in and accept her natural beauty is the greatest reward. Women from all over the earth are watching me and having revelations about what beauty really is. After years of being told “you aren’t pretty”, “you’re too dark”, “your hair is too nappy” or whichever degrading comments they may have been told, they watch my channel and immediately fall in love.

I actually already do a lot beyond YouTube and blogging.

About 35% of my work consists of hosting and speaking at events. I am a great speaker and love meeting with my audience. I’m currently on a Healthy Living Tour where I am unifying my love of beauty with my desires to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

When you start blogging or vlogging focus on building your audience around topics you can see yourself talking about forever. Because my core audience on YouTube and on Facebook was built around hair and beauty, when I tried to discuss other topics there like my children, my marriage, my health goals etc., my audience wasn’t as interested as I wanted them to be. For that reason I created the JenellBStewart brand to allow me a place where I can talk about ANYTHING. If you visit me on FB, IG, and Twitter all @JenellBStewart, you will see that I talk about anything I want and the audience there is always open to it and engaged around anything I share. So for you all, if you decide to build your audience around hair or beauty be committed to talking about only that forever or do what I did and make a separate outlet, but building two brands is no easy task!

I was nominated for @theroot 100 peoples choice award! Please vote for me, voting ends Oct 10th!

As a mother of two high risk pregnancies, that resulted in me being placed on bed rest, prematurity awareness and prenatal care is extremely important to me. I’m currently raising money for the March of Dimes to support their mission. My goal is to raise $5000. To support me anyone can make a donation of any amount here.