Beauty Influencer Nyma Tang Gets Real About the Pressures of Creating Content
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Beauty influencer Nyma Tang has, from the start of her content creation journey, been working to highlight the disparities in the industry when it comes to products that are fit for darker skin. In 2019, she made a video on the bronzers available in-store at Sephora, finding that none of them were made to work for darker skin tones.
Recently, she posted an update to that video, reexamining several of the products that she had taken a look at four years prior. Creating and posting the video brought up some emotions for her, which made it difficult to share. For that reason, in addition to testing the bronzers, Tang took the chance to open up about the difficulties of creating content, particularly if “you’re actually trying to change something within the industry,” she said.
“I’ve actually been having some really bad posting paralysis with this video,” she explained at the start. “Doing this kind of content is not easy. It seems like it’s just makeup to some people, but it’s really not. It effects your self-worth, it effects your self-esteem. Not feeling beautiful in the beauty industry because they’re not showcasing your beauty.”
Tang touched on the difficulties of working as a beauty influencer in an industry that doesn’t cater to her. But, “on top of that, creating content” in general “is not the easiest. Creating content as a Black woman is not the easiest, I’m not gonna lie,” she said.
Around 2019, when she was working on the darker shades series that the original bronzer review was part of, the YouTuber experienced burnout. “I wasn’t taking care of myself. I wasn’t taking social media breaks. I wasn’t giving my mental health time to heal.” Her content was grating on her mental health because she felt she was constantly fighting for something and trying to effect change.
So, Tang’s advice is this: “For all my girlies who are creating content... and you’re actually trying to change something within the industry, take a break. You need it.”
