Black Blogger Month: The Jasmine Brand, An Objective Side to Pop Culture

Niche: Pop Culture/Entertainment

Founder: Jasmine Brand

When it comes to pop culture and entertainment, there are plenty of websites and blogs that have regurgitated information pummeling the Internet, but do any of them actually make you think? Well, pop culture and entertainment aficionado, Jasmine Brand, created a blog that does just that, with plenty of questions asked.

With the goal of giving her readers something to think about, while gossiping about the latest Rihanna pics posted to Instagram, this Washington D.C. insider developed a now sought after news site that first started as just a hobby. But when her high-paying publication relations firm gave the option of keeping her job or keeping her website, Brand tossed up two fingers with no hesitation and waltzed out the door. So now, three years later, various national magazines–including Black Enterprise–are pinging her email with interview requests and commentary about a blog that was once just a morning activity.

So as BlackEnterprise.com continues to celebrate Black Blogger Month, your favorite entrepreneurial publication caught up with Jasmine Brand to find out the appeal of the entertainment blog space and if she’s held any regrets since leaving her “comfyâ€ corporate lifestyle.

The Jasmine Brand is…

A website that covers entertainment, pop culture, all things celebrity in a nutshell. It’s a way to give readers pop culture news in an objective, journalistic manner.

I’m writing to…

My girlfriends or women that are 24 to upper 30s. I just talk about things that I know I’m interested in, and that I know people are interested in. I’m woman-focused [because] that’s what I know. I’m a woman and it makes sense for me.

When people exit out of my blog, I want them to…

Be entertained, but I want them to think. Maybe talking about Love & Hip —Hop Atlanta seems very ratchet and very shallow, but it’s talking about relationships and things that go on in your life that maybe you don’t want people to know about. I’m not curing Cancer over here, but people have this negative connotation when it comes to pop culture and gossip and don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. [But] that’s why I write the way I write, and I’m objective and I ask questions because I want readers to think, ‘Okay, this is right or this is wrong or maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.’ I’m not trying to be fake deep, but…I want [my readers] to think a little bit outside of the surface of pop culture.

I started blogging because…

When I was younger I wanted to a journalist…then I went to college and found out how much journalists make. So I was like, ‘Let’s just do PR and marketing and see how that works out.’ I always loved writing, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to talk about. So I figured, let me just start this hobby out…and [eventually] started to talk about pop culture. I started breaking stories…and reaching out to who I was talking about or who I was referring to. I wanted readers to decide what they thought about the story as opposed to me giving my two cents all the time.

My blog became less of a hobby when…

[My] corporate, nice, comfy job… basically, they gave me an ultimatum. I was making good money, and [my job] found out about the site and it was cool at first, then it started growing. I was getting up at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning because I had to post and take care of my site before I went to work. It was a lot for me, but my job was like, ‘Look, you can’t do both.’ [They] basically said, ‘Either you run this site or you stick with the job.’ I was just like, ‘Alright, I’ll see ya’ll later.’ And I decided to go 100% and do [the blog] full-time.

I realized The Jasmine Brand was becoming a success…

When other outlets started sourcing me, reaching out to me and using me as someone that was credible. I knew that the traffic was really picking up, so I was like, ‘Okay, these people are reading this,’ but it didn’t dawn on me until…Vibe Vixen reached out to me and named me on one of their lists, and people started referencing me. But I’m nowhere near where I want to be so I’m not patting myself on the back at all.

Over the next five years…

I would like [The Jasmine Brand] to grow, and have different touch points besides the site. The site is very time consuming, so I hope to be at a place where…I won’t have to do as much to the site except oversee it. [Then] do other things besides the site–maybe TV.

Be sure to check out the rest of the digital thought leaders as they’ve revealed each day by logging on to BlackEnterprise.com/BlackBloggerMonth.