How this 13 Year Old is Killing it on Instagram

I have two teenage girls. They live and die by Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. That's cool for me, because I still don't really 'get' Snapchat, and while I love Instagram, I don't use it nearly as much as my kids do, so I like hearing their perspectives.

One day, my youngest said, "Julia has over 25,000 followers." Julia is a family friend.

Me: "Um, that's nice, what does she post? How did she do that?"

My daughter: "I dunno. She has a beauty page with really cool makeup tutorials and videos."

Me: "Show it to me....Holy cow. She is rocking Instagram! Her videos are amazing. Wait, that's Julia?"

And so, I HAD to find out how she was doing this. I mean, she's in middle school, she's an athlete, she's busy, and she has 25,500 followers on Instagram and nearly 2,000 on YouTube.

Here's my interview with Julia (aka @beautybyjulia100) - and yes, it is in her voice and writing, because honestly, what makes her so popular is that she's real and authentic!

When did you get started? Which platform did you start first (YouTube or Instagram)?

 i started around a year and a half ago on YouTube, and shortly after i started instagram

Why did you start your tutorials? 

i started my tutorials about a year after i made my account (i used to do videos based off of bath and body works products) and i started them because i realized how much i loved to experiment with makeup and i wanted to get other opinions.

How did you/do you gain your followers? How many do you add each week approximately? 

most of the time i just do my own thing and post regularly and the followers come, gaining each week depends on how many views my videos are getting but i usually gain around 100-500 every week

Who is your target audience? 

my target audience is teens just like me

"my target audience is teens just like me."

How long does it take you to do a post, and what tools do you use to create them? 

it usually takes me around 30 minutes to film and maybe 10-20 minutes to edit, i use iMovie and Phonto for my thumbnails on YouTube

What is your ultimate goal with your social media?

my ultimate instagram goal would maybe be around 50k followers, and i hopefully want to make my YouTube channel a career when i'm older

Are you making any money?

for YouTube i monetize my videos and make money off of them, but i don't get paid for instagram

How do your followers find out about you? 

most of the time people see me on their explore page (instagram) and follow me

Do companies send you products or do you buy them yourself?

most of my products i bought myself, but occasionally i get sent makeup and other products

recently, an app called octoly accepted me into their program and allowed me to pick five products, after i picked the products the company would look at my account and accept or decline me and if i got accepted they would send me the product for free to review!

So, here's my takeaway.

• Julia has GREAT content. It's fun, well branded, and she delivers exactly what she promises to her audience.
• She knows her followers inside and out - why? Because her followers/subscribers are teenage girls just like her.
• She asks for the 'thumbs up', like and follow.
• She #hashtags and tags the heck outta stuff, and makes herself easy to find.
• She consistently posts content and actually 'talks' to her audience in the videos.

And yes, beauty is a super popular space to be, but when you can carve out a niche for yourself, enjoy it, and eventually make some money from it...seems like a smart business gal to me. Thanks, Julia!

Want more marketing tips and social media insights? Head on over to my blog (that doesn't have 25,000 followers, but oh well.

You can also grab my FREE online branding checklist here.

Stay social,

Terri