Source: Courtesy Of Talent / Instagram
Taylor “Slaylorgang” Mitchell was clutching her brown coat against a harsh February chill when the driver of a Gold Star Buick GMC yelled out the window, “Welcome to Brooklyn, baby!” It was a warm welcome Mitchell wasn’t expecting. “I thought it would be so hard to gather a community here because New York is like, you know, the glitz and glam,” she told HelloBeautiful. “I thought people would have their noses in the air.”
Coming from the South, the Big Apple can be a culture shock. “I’m new here; nobody knows me,” she said. “I was so scared coming from Georgia. I felt so green,” she added.
It’s Mitchell’s authenticity that makes her a top Black beauty influencer in the game. That and her fab fashion and relatable beauty content. Her career is not built on renting fvake living rooms or faux private jet photo shoots. She’s enthusiastic about beauty but not consumed by vanity. “If you find somebody that shows up authentically, that’s like a needle in a haystack,” she said. “I’m not always put together. I don’t always have my makeup done, but I consider myself a beauty girl.”
Source: Courtesy Of Talent / Instagram
“New York is a place where people really tend to mind their own business,” the brown skin beauty explained. Mitchell struggled, at first, to build a clientele so she turned the camera front-facing and began creating content.
“I moved to New York, and I didn’t have as many clients. So I just started making personality-based content, and I just kind of went from there.” Anyone who has seen her luscious curls or heard her hilarious commentary knew that was the smart strategy, but it shook her confidence. “I did in the beginning, have those moments where I was like, uhh, I don’t know how it’s gonna do,” she revealed.
Top Black Beauty Influencer
“I was trying to meticulously curate content,” she continued. “Playing out the grid and doing all types of stuff. Girl, nobody cares, nobody cares. You don’t need an Instagram grid, you don’t need all that. Just post the content; record, and post the content.”
Her concerns were unfounded. Snippets of her winning sense of humor and playful personal style preceded her. She was quickly welcomed into the fold. Everyone wanted to see Slaylorgang pimp her apartment, play with puppies, rock funky frames, and react to the city’s shenanigans.
“When I tell you I have been nothing but embraced by everybody I come across! People that I’ve been watching for years are like, oh yeah, I love your content, and that is insane to me,” she said.
Mitchell didn’t pretend New York was easy. Instead, she took her followers on the journey of getting an extra job, stacking her coins, losing out on an apartment at the last second, and being forced to place her items in storage. Her community grew with each drop of transparency. People stopped her in the street to hug her.
Her energy was familiar to her growing following. Mitchell is matter-of-fact about her appeal.
“They have an aunt, or a cousin or a friend, that’s exactly like me,” she said. “It’s just relatability.”
Opening Up To Sisterhood
Source: Courtesy Of Talent / Instagram
Part of the reason Mitchell might have assumed New York was unsure about her was because she was a bit unsure about it. It can be hard making new friends as an adult, and the influencer space is notoriously treacherous. “I felt a lot of bitterness in my heart from being betrayed in the past by friends,” said Mitchell. “But once I found that healing and let that go, I’m just so much more open.”
“You can’t do anything alone, nothing,” she continued. “If you can do it alone, that’s you, and that’s not God, so the community is necessary.”
She asked questions and answered them. When people encouraged her to stop holding up the wall and join their conversations, she obliged. It was uncomfortable, but it aided her transition.
Mitchell booked campaigns and partnerships that showed her skills and her comedy chops. “Everything that has happened since I’ve been here has far surpassed anything I could have wildly imagined. I worked with Serena Williams. I worked at L’Oréal with Carol’s Daughter,” she said.
She made friends and inspired her followers. “I could not have prayed for it,” she added. “I’m glad I was obedient.”
“My social network has grown so much just from being open to receiving help from other women,” said Mitchell. “I’ve been shown nothing but love.”
That love resulted in her snatching the crown for Beauty Influencer of The Year in a space dedicated to Black women, her ideal audience. “This is my first-ever influencer award, and the fact that it’s coming from people that look like me just puts the cherry on top because that’s who I do it for.”
“If you find value in it, great,” she added. “But this is for the folks, so I’m grateful.”
