Owning it: How one Black founder is building a media empire with her curls and content
By filling a much-needed space in the conversation about curls, YouTube content creator Ava Pearl styled herself a successful new career.
Ava Pearl was mocked for her curls when she was in school. There weren’t a lot of Black or people of color in her classrooms, so to fit in, she felt her only alternatives were to straighten her hair or be picked on. As she grew older, she began to embrace her naturally curly hair and as YouTube grew in popularity for creators, she found there wasn’t one central space for curly hair videos and community.
“I feel like that’s how I really took my power back — by owning my hair, putting it out there for the world, and creating a community and a platform where people can come and learn about their curly hair,” said Pearl.
Pearl is now the founder of Curly Culture, a channel and virtual roundtable that was recently picked up by Culture Genesis, a media-tech company focused on multicultural creators and publishers of the culture. As of this writing, the channel has 125,000 subscribers and is growing.
Pearl says it’s about providing community to women who connect over their curly hair and all that comes with it.
“When you have a community of women it’s so much easier to connect and share. Your experiences come together and it has been a hundred percent easier and a lot more fun too,” said Pearl.
To hear more of Pearl’s story and learn how to start your natural hair journey watch “The Reset With Coach Tish,” above.
Letisha Bereola is a life coach who helps ambitious women overcome burnout and reach their career goals so they feel great at work and happy at home. She’s a former Emmy-nominated TV news anchor, Podcast host of AUDACITY and speaker. Learn more: www.coachtish.co.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. TheGrio’s Black Podcast Network is free too. Download theGrio mobile apps today! Listen to ‘Writing Black’ with Maiysha Kai.
