Throughout the ‘Black Perspectives’ initiative, Lifestyle content creator, Estare Areola, and three other Black creatives will be working with Instagram to champion the next generation of Black creators across fashion, entertainment, activism, music, and media.
Estare’s Creator Quest will see her working with four up-and-coming content creators, across a number of challenges, to help them take their content “to the next level.” Estare is looking for candidates “who are dedicated, and passionate about creating content no matter what it’s about. There needs to be a sense of love and appreciation for the craft, what they’re about, and wanting to share their story. I believe every piece of content has a story behind it. Whether through music, the captions used, even the pace the video is edited at.”
Other than a sincere love for creating content, community is an instrumental part of why Estare wanted to be a part of ‘Black Perspectives,’ and a “genuine interest in connecting with the community” is a value she would like her mentees to have too. Through the Creator Quest, Estare is hoping to become a better teacher, but also to learn from her mentees. “I want to learn how to connect with my audience and community a bit better, and a bit more. It would be good to learn more about how to be a more personable content creator for them.”
Estare praises Instagram for, refreshingly, giving her creative freedom to create her challenges, and supporting her whilst doing so. “It’s different from working with a brand where they send you the brief and you create the content. It's much bigger than that, and much more exciting. Instagram has shown that they’re dedicated to supporting emerging creatives, but also creators like myself: giving great advice, and what also feels like mentorship. It’s important that Instagram has four creatives from very different sectors, with different niches, and different projects.”
Instagram is giving inspiring figures within the Black community the platform to share their knowledge and pass it on to other Black creatives. This step in the right direction is important to Estare who “often felt overseen, underappreciated, overshadowed” at the beginning of her career. Even now, “I’m used to going to events or being part of campaigns where I'm the only Black girl in the campaign or invited to events where it felt like I was just there to fill a quota, but, with this initiative, Instagram didn't look at our followers or engagement, just us and what we had to offer. It makes me feel powerful, like what I have to say matters. I spend a lot of time creating on Instagram so it’s nice to feel recognised.”
“Being one of the biggest social platforms in the world, having people from all walks of life using it, I think it’s amazing that Black creators are being championed through this initiative. Ultimately we create the trends, the hype, we’re great at creating a buzz, and I think it’s about time that we feel appreciated for doing that. This is for us, by us, for our people.”
Estare doesn’t want Creator Quest to be the end of her work with the community, but rather the “blueprint for the future.” She is already thinking of ways to give back, share the knowledge from the challenges more widely, and make the information accessible, and “impactful” for everyone. Especially with the past two years we’ve all had, taking the initiative offline and “creating a space, in person, where people can connect better” is of interest to Estare too. “It would be wonderful for creators to meet each other because the experience is different. You’d get to see people different from how you see them online. Perception can be a barrier between someone and their next opportunity.”
Estare takes pride in her craft and does what she can to make sure it’s the best. For her, “influence comes with the job,” but she is a content creator first. “I want to be taken seriously. This work takes time and sacrifices. Hopefully people can see it’s not just a fleeting thing, and it will teach people to have a bit more respect for our crafts.”
Be yourself.
For creators hoping to stand out, Estare is looking for people that “try that little bit more to make their work different from everybody else's, go above and beyond, make things more
personal.” This is something she has always done throughout her career, and it has paid off.
Follow #BlackPerspectives and find out how to get involved with The Creator Quest with Estare @estaregrams