- Blog: LoveBrownSugar.com
- Niche: Women’s Fashion/Style/Beauty
- Founder: Christina Brown
- Twitter: @LoveBrownSugar
Fashion has always pumped through the veins of Queens, New York native Christina Brown. It’s that passion for all things style and beauty that led the now 26-year-old editor in chic to serve as senior fashion editor of the widely recognizable campus glossy, The WALK, during her undergraduate days at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Brown didn’t stop there, she spent her summers learning the ins and outs of the fashion industry, interning at luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, and the ropes of the digital marketing field at BET.
After finding issue with the lack of diversity in fashion and media, the style maven took to the Internet, starting her blog, LoveBrownSugar.com, in July 2009. From high-end designers to mass retailers, Brown’s real-girl approach to covering the highly lucrative and competitive field of fashion has earned her recognition as one of Essence‘s Fab 40 Fashion Bloggers, The Root’s 2012 Black Bloggers To Know, Huffington Post’s Top Fashion and Beauty Insiders on Instagram and Sparkah’s Top 100 Beauty Bloggers, among others. Brown has landed editorial positions at Honey and Uptown magazines, and her insights have appeared on various media sites including The New York Times, Refinery 29 and Elle.com. And if
you thought her empire only existed online, think again! Brown joined forces with LiSi Cosmetics to create her own nail lacquer, appropriately titled LoveBrownSugar.As part of Black Blogger Month, BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the style aficionado to discuss her blooming brand, lessons learned from four years of blogging and why LoveBrownSugar is a sweet online destination.
I started blogging…
In July 2009, I had just graduated from college and I realized that there weren’t many online outlets that catered to girls like me. So I decided to start my own. It was an outlet for me during a time when I had so much I wanted to say and contribute to the fashion industry, but didn’t really have a platform to do so.
LoveBrownSugar stands out because…
I don’t just focus on one thing. My blog is about style–not just fashion, or just beauty, or just celebrities. It encompasses so much more. And it’s also not just a space for talking about style, but a space for talking about it through the lens of self-empowerment. I’m a curvy girl–always have been, always will be–so women with curves find comfort on my site. I’m also a woman of color. I have natural hair, and a myriad of other attributes that make me ‘different.’ It’s the celebration of those ‘differences’ and embracing them for what they are. That’s what sets my site apart from others.
People trust my brand because…
I put honesty and integrity at the forefront of my brand. I always have and always will. My readers know that when I endorse something, it’s because I actually like it. I always disclose when something is sponsored content out of respect for my readers. And I always speak from the heart.
The biggest mistake I ever made in business was…
Hopping onto a project because there was a big brand involved, not because it would help me in building my own brand.
What I learned from that was…
Put your brand first. Even if the big bucks aren’t rolling in yet, always keep in mind that when you devote your entire self–all your energy and all your talents–to building someone else’s brand, instead of your own, you’re setting yourself back in the long run. If entrepreneurship is truly your passion, invest in yourself first.
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I realized blogging was a business when…
I started to see fashion bloggers like Man Repeller and BryanBoy being quoted, making six figures a year, it really dawned on me that there were real revenue opportunities in it. Though I had been working on my site because I was passionate about it, and not for money, I started to question why I couldn’t do something I truly love and still make a living. So I took a leap of faith, quit my day job and started investing 100% of my time into my brand. Best decision I ever made.
What I’ve learned about branding in the digital space is…
Consistency is key. You can’t be Beyonce to one person and Rihanna to another. You have to be the same brand to everybody. That’s why I only have one Twitter account. Who I am is who I am, whether I’m watching ratchet reality TV or covering the latest trends backstage at NYFW.
The best piece of business advice I ever got was…
“Be the woman you want to be.” That’s a quote from my favorite fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her several times, and I even participated in a huge PR initiative she did a few years ago when her fragrance debuted. We marched around NYC spraying people with her fragrance and shouting “D-V-F! Be the woman you want to be!” She’s such an advocate for women’s independence and living a well-balanced life. I really admire her for that.
I measure success by…
Happiness. Yes, I just finished this project, but am I happy with this work? Am I proud? Do I feel fulfilled? If the answer is no, then it wasn’t successful.
In business you should never be afraid to…
Fail. It is inevitable. I cannot say in my entire career that everything I have pursued was a success, but I didn’t give up. It took me three years to finally make it out to Coachella in Cali. Â I wanted to go for so long but was too scared to ask anyone to sponsor me. This year I overcame my fear and pitched myself to a few brands–and I finally went.
Anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps should…
Make a plan, work towards actionable and attainable goals, and believe in the impossible.
Next on the horizon for me is…
Starting a new website with a slightly different focus than that of LoveBrownSugar. I can’t give away too much detail, but keep your eyes peeled. I’m also looking into potentially starting a fashion or beauty line–something I’ve always dreamed of.