My name is Jenna. I’m 30 years old, living in Los Angeles and working professionally within the digital marketing / creative space. I’ve worked within many different areas of marketing over 10+ years, including time at the Walt Disney Company, and also working with other household names like Nicole Richie, Hot Topic, Hard Rock Hotels and Universal Studios. I currently hold a managerial role as as Social Media Coordinator for a well-known cosmetics and skincare brand. My husband (a professional musician) and I built a website to share our travel tips, photos and stories, which quickly blossomed into a space for sharing much more about many other colorful and personal parts our lives, including opportunities to feature sponsored content.
A few my my passions outside of being a creator are traveling the world, funky fashion, and all things Disney. I also enjoy playing with my super vibrant hair and creating fun makeup looks. We always share our new hair reveals for fun on our website which has come to be one of our most popular searches on the blog.
I believe what sets me apart from other creators within the space is my unique life and perspective. My day-to-day life is very different from most others, as my husband *typically* tours with his band 8+ months out of the year. Traveling with him occasionally is certainly different than the experience most might have visiting their partner at work, which absolutely creates new and exciting opportunities to create new and exciting content. Additionally, I have a keen eye for attention to detail which I believe helps my content stand out, as well. Something else I have put a lot of care and time into is engaging with my audience. Building and establishing solid relationships with my audience has without a doubt allowed me to find a unique place within the creators’ space.
Favorite partnership(s) you’ve ever had?
The first that comes to mind is always working with Hard Rock Hotels, domestically and internationally. We’ve been fortunate enough to build a great relationship with their teams and resorts in Orlando, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. Travel is such a huge passion for both my husband and I, and incorporating our love for music absolutely made each experience that much more special. Creating content in such beautiful and inspiring places is such a pleasure and a privilege. On top of that, we can’t say enough about HRH and the wonderful people they employ at each location we have visited – they’ve embraced us like family and we even keep in touch with a few individuals we met along the way.
What platforms do you see being the most influential within the influencer marketing space in the next 2 – 3 years?
I’ll be the first to admit that when TikTok came out, I did not get it at all. I was fortunate enough to launch 2 celebrity accounts over the last year on their platform and work alongside the TikTok team themselves, and now I see and fully embrace the potential of this platform! Instagram isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon either – which is always my #1 social media platform – especially now that Reels has joined the game!
What do you see as the future of influencer marketing in the next 2-3 years?
In the next 2-3 years, I believe we will see the breakdown of inauthentic and deceptive influencers. Our society has been holding these people up on a pedestal while they promote their heavily edited content and unhealthy beauty standards, with zero return-engagement or acknowledgement of their audience. I’m starting to see a change in peoples engagement habits and I think this is where we will see a major change in creators’ overall authenticity. Transparency and relationships matter!
How has your culture influenced your work as an influencer?
As a first generation American on my father’s side, I’ve had the incredible privilege to grow up hearing his story of resilience and perseverance – which has fueled my own. He came from Mexico to the US as a young boy with his family, made up of 2 parents and 12 siblings. From an entire upbringing of poverty, starvation, and survival-mentality, he joined the U.S. Air Force at 18 with the goal to serve so that he would have the financial means to go to college and pursue a career in broadcasting. My dad went on to do just that, and ended his professional career with 30 years at NBC, and also achieving 9 Emmy Nominations and 1 win. He is the only one of his 12 siblings that went to or graduated from college. His career and passion for broadcasting is what introduced me to the world of communications and marketing – the path I chose, as well.
As a Mexican immigrant, on his journey to achieving his goals, he experienced a lot of discrimination and rejection which made him feel like he wasn’t able to share very much of culture with others. I grew up not realizing how much more there was to know about where he comes from and Mexican culture. For my whole life, my dad has been a figure of inspiration, as well as my brother’s. As adults, we have been able to help Dad revive some of those traditions and reintroduce them into our family life. Being the children of a single parent, we recognize the struggles and tribulations he went through as an immigrant, and now it’s our turn to remind Dad that celebrating his culture is an important part of who he is, which makes it important to us too. We are so proud to be his children.
Through influencing, I’ve been able to connect with others from various cultural backgrounds – some similar to mine and many others different- and understanding the importance of celebrating each others differences. There are so many misconceptions about identity; the one most relevant to me is that there are visual requirements and expectations. When I was younger, I struggled with not being “enough” and it took me a while to understand that cultural expressions don’t just happen externally, but internally. I feel strongly that spreading a message of “loving, appreciating and being yourself starts on the inside, not the outside” is at its core a message of what makes each one of us and our identities unique. To me, that’s something worth celebrating.
