Welcome to Millionaires, where we profile creators who have recently crossed the one million follower mark on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. There are creators crossing this threshold every week, and each of them has a story to tell about their success. Read previous installments here.
Jasmin Acosta was born in a car.
Whenever someone asks her to share an unusual fact about herself, that’s what she goes with. Her parents didn’t make it to the hospital, and she was born bright and early on the side of State Route 91 in California.
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And she hasn’t slowed down since.
Acosta, who’s 23, isn’t big on only doing one thing. She loved soccer growing up, and when it came time for college, decided to go for a degree in marketing while playing the game competitively. An injury took her off the roster, so, as a hobby, she began focusing more on social media platforms like TikTok predecessor Musical.ly. Then COVID hit, and she took a break from school. With Musical.ly folded into TikTok and TikTok growing rapidly, Acosta noticed a rise in comedy videos and decided, why not try making some herself?
One of those early videos hit. A take on the choreographed “Hood Baby” trend (with her adorable pit bull as guest star), that clip now has over 22 million views, and grew Acosta’s account by 100,000 followers.
“I just kept posting consistently and then I ended up growing more as time went on,” Acosta says.
She doesn’t stick to one genre. A video with her dog helped her go viral, but that, to her, didn’t say, Make more dog videos. It said, Keep showing me what your life is like. For her, TikTok (where she just hit a million followers) and Instagram (46K) aren’t places for her to stick to a single genre. She’s more about using them as a kind of digital diary tracking the steps of her life.
For example, she’s gearing up now to head back to school. During the COVID interim, she realized she didn’t want to do marketing anymore; she wants to do cosmetology. So next semester, she plans to take her followers to trade school along with her.
“After cosmetology, it’s whatever I do then. Then I also love to travel as well. Traveling is also in there. It’s just always going to be changing. It’s not going to be a constant thing for me. It’s just steps of my life,” she says. “When when I start a family, get married…It’s just going to always be changing.”
Check out our chat with her below.
@jasminnacostaabest it’s gonna get lol♬ Hood Baby – Kbfr
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Nice to meet you! To start, imagine someone’s reading this and doesn’t know anything about you. Give me some background.
Jasmin Acosta: I’m Jasmin Acosta. I’m from Riverside, California. I grew up in Riverside and moved around a bit when I was older. Before social media, I was actually playing soccer in college. I went to the University of Hawaii, Hilo, and I was studying to be just a marketing manager. I was looking mainly at social media as well, but just marketing manager. My major was business marketing. I was just in school playing soccer 24/7 and that was my whole life growing up.
Tubefilter: What drew you to marketing?
Jasmin Acosta: I’m not really sure. I honestly don’t know. When I went to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. When I was looking at all my different types of majors that I could have done, I think marketing was the only thing that drew my attention.
Tubefilter: How did you end up in Hawaii?
Jasmin Acosta: I was originally supposed to go to Florida International University out there in Miami, but when I got the offer…I had a couple of offers. When I got the offer from Hawaii, I was like, “I would rather go to Hawaii than live in Florida,” because I already lived in Florida for a little bit. I just thought Hawaii would be more fun and a new experience.
Tubefilter: How did you get into content?
Jasmin Acosta: I always loved making content for fun, especially when I was a kid. I would record little videos and never post them. Then, after I stopped going to college right when COVID hit, I just started posting a lot of videos with my family. There’s this one video that went viral with my dog and it just grew my following from there. That video alone gave me 100,000 followers. Then I just kept posting consistently and then I ended up growing more as time went on.
Tubefilter: What was the video with your dog?
Jasmin Acosta: We did a trend to the sound called “Hood Baby.” It was something that most people did with their friends, but I did it with my dog, so it was different.
Tubefilter: Was TikTok your first social platform?
Jasmin Acosta: No, my first social platform was Instagram.
Tubefilter: Then what drew you to TikTok?
Jasmin Acosta: I was on Musical.ly for a little bit.
Tubefilter: Oh, you’re an OG.
Jasmin Acosta: I wasn’t posting on Musical.ly, I was just watching, and then they changed it to TikTok. Then once it was TikTok, I saw how funny videos were becoming, and I was like, “I should just start making videos for fun.” It just was all for fun, and still is for fun.
@jasminnacostaafinal product on my insta story ♬ original sound – Jasmin Acosta
Tubefilter: Do you have a job outside content?
Jasmin Acosta: I have a part-time job at In-N-Out.
Tubefilter: In-N-Out! Cool. So you’re balancing a job and doing this. What does the average day look like for you in terms of balancing content and work and everything else?
Jasmin Acosta: It depends, because my schedule is always so different with In-N-Out. I do try to do at least one video a day. Then I’m off weekends. The weekends are my main recording days, my filming days. I’ll try to get as many videos as I can on the weekend. Sometimes it’s a little hard because you can only think of so much in one day. I try to do that as much as I can, but it’s always different. Every day is different for me. It’s either wake up and do videos or wake up, go to work, and then do videos when I come home from work.
Tubefilter: Do you do all of your editing and everything yourself?
Jasmin Acosta: Yes. Everything’s myself. Then on top of that too, I’m going to be starting school, and it’s going to be full-time as well. It’s going to be school, work, and then social media as well.
Tubefilter: You’re in the middle of your first degree? Are you doing marketing still?
Jasmin Acosta: No. When COVID happened, we all switched to online. It wasn’t easy for me. I ended up just stopping. Then, now, I really found a love for cosmetology. Now I do cosmetology school, and it’s another full-time job. It’s Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. It’s going to be challenging for sure.
Tubefilter: Are you planning to keep your job and work evenings during that?
Jasmin Acosta: I haven’t fully decided yet. I might take a break from working a job and just work on social media.
Tubefilter: One trend that I’ve seen growing over the past few years is creators who go to trade school or go to school for a specific skill and then talk about their journey through school. Are you planning to use that in your content?
Jasmin Acosta: That’s definitely what I want to do. I know some cosmetology schools don’t let you record in class. That’s just going to be the challenging part. I’m hoping and praying that my school lets me. Regardless, I think I’m going to still do get-ready-with-me for cosmetology school, or when I come back home from school. I’m going to be practicing all the time. Just showing them what I’m working on, what doll I’m working on this time. Just showing people what I’m learning throughout the whole process.
Tubefilter: Do you foresee yourself going into cosmetology as a full-time job and then doing content on the side?
Jasmin Acosta: I want it to be, I don’t know if this is possible, but like half and half. Cosmetology is definitely going to be my full-time job and my passion, and obviously social media is my passion as well. I want to combine the two. Then with cosmetology, I want to do something different than working at a salon. I’m going to have my own studio, but in my studio, I have like this whole picture of having a TV in there for girls who want to just watch a show while they’re getting their hair done. They don’t want to be a social butterfly and talk. They can just watch a show. They can have wine, they can have whatever they want. It’s just going to be a fun little hangout spot as well as getting your hair done. That’s the whole plan.
Then I want to contribute doing social media with all of that, like recording me with my clients and their transformations. It’s going to be a little bit of a combination of the two.
@jasminnacostaaone of my fav hairstyles ♬ MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS) – Tommy Richman
Tubefilter: I know you’re also looking to grow your YouTube channel a little bit more. What are your plans there?
Jasmin Acosta: I want to be doing a little bit of everything within the next year. Either posting beauty stuff, fashion stuff, and then also vlogs and challenges as well. It’s going to be around everything. I feel like I’m not one person that just sticks with one type of content. I feel like I can go do different things as well, just because I have so many different things going on in my life. It doesn’t always just have to be about hair. It doesn’t always have to be just about makeup. Definitely going to be posting a lot more of just makeup and vlogs, I think.
Tubefilter: What has been your favorite part of growing an audience on social media?
Jasmin Acosta: I think the people that I’ve met. It’s so cool just meeting some girls. If I go out to a bar or just to the beach or something, there’s someone there that may know me and they come up to me and say hi, and then I become friends with them. It’s just meeting people. I’m a social butterfly. I love just talking and making new friends.
Tubefilter: Is there anything unexpected that’s happened to you because of social media?
Jasmin Acosta: I think the most unexpected thing that happened to me was probably the opportunities that came with it. The brands I got to work with, but I never thought that I would be getting sent free things as well, like PR packages. It’s such a blessing. I’m very blessed to even be working with some of the brands that I’ve ever worked with. It’s definitely a dream come true.
Tubefilter: What have been your favorite brands?
Jasmin Acosta: I definitely would say Fashion Nova has been one of them, because I used to always shop there. I worked with Amazon Prime once, which was really cool. It’s brands that I’ve always shopped at. Now I’m working with a lot of beauty brands like Benefit, Hourglass, all of those makeup brands. It’s really cool.
Tubefilter: How has your approach to content evolved over the course of your time on social media?
Jasmin Acosta: I feel like my content will always be changing through different steps of my life. It’s not always going to be one thing. It’s not always going to be beauty or fashion, but it’s always going to be changing. One thing about my content, I like to keep it real with everyone. I get too personal on social media sometimes, but I like doing that because people get to know me for me. It’s always going to be changing. Back then it was relatable content and now it’s been more beauty and fashion because now I found a love for that.
Then it’s also with my boyfriend. I love making content with him as well. Then as I go into cosmetology school, it’s going to be even more. After cosmetology, it’s whatever I do then. Then I also love to travel as well. Traveling is also in there. It’s just always going to be changing. It’s not going to be a constant thing for me. It’s just steps of my life. Then when I start a family, get married…It’s just going to always be changing.
Tubefilter: Any other cool plans or goals you want to talk about for content or personally over the next year or so?
Jasmin Acosta: Not necessarily. I’m just excited to start this new journey with cosmetology and see how my following is going to like that and bring new people along with me on my journey as well is going to be awesome. I’m just excited to see where I’m going to be in the next couple of years.
Jasmin Acosta is repped by Viral Nation.
