‘IT’S BEEN THE MOST REWARDING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE’
Nadine Baggott, 57, is a health and beauty journalist. She lives in west London, with her partner, David, 58.
I’ve always loved writing about health and beauty, that’s why it’s been my job for more than 30 years, working on just about every media platform you can think of. Weekly newspapers, monthly women’s magazines, TV and radio – I’ve done the lot.
But I’d never thought about Youtube until a friend of mine suggested I start a channel about beauty, back in 2013.
At first, I wasn’t sure. I reasoned that there were already plenty of twentysomethings uploading the kind of content I specialised in, and as I was now over 50, I couldn’t see anyone subscribing to my channel instead.
But over the next two years, it was clear that more and more people were looking to sites like Youtube for beauty tips. So, while I continued to freelance and write for traditional types of media, I also purchased the equipment I’d need to film my own videos to share online.
I posted my first make-up and skincare tutorials in July 2015, and by the end of my first year, I had more than 10,000 subscribers to my channel. Since then, it’s grown exponentially, and across social media I now have more than 300,000 followers.
To me, it all still feels like a whirlwind. I try to upload a minimum of two videos a week, and try to cover as many bases as possible.
One day, I could be doing a make-up tutorial and the next I could be showing you what this week’s best budget-buy is. And I try to bring in as many experts as I can so that they can share their professional secrets, too.
Now I make my living from sponsored posts, adverts on my videos, and I’m still writing, too.
It’s certainly not an easy job and I don’t think there’s a single day in the week when I’m not planning, editing or creating new content for my channel or Instagram account. But I’ve always been a career girl and, actually, this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Even though my partner, David, 58, cheekily jokes that I’m the oldest influencer out there, which of course isn’t true, I wouldn’t change my job for the world.
So long as my viewers get genuine advice and help from my channel, and walk away knowing they can look and feel great at any age, then I consider that a job well done.
‘IT STILL FEELS LIKE A WHIRLWIND’