Blogging was not even a viable industry when Aisha Baker started Baked the Blog at 18 years old.
Now it’s a sustainable and potentially lucrative career choice, if you do it right. At 27, Baker is certainly doing something right. Baked the Blog – and its evolved counterpart, Baked Online – are two of South Africa’s most popular beauty and personal style sites.
They boast a social media following that includes more than 15 000 followers on Twitter and over 100 000 on Instagram.
The secret ingredient?
The sites are content machines that get behind brands, and their online strategies. Revlon, Nike and Kellogg’s are just three of the big brands in her stable.
In 2016, Baker won Glamour’s Most GLAMOURous Award, and was a nominee for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award. She also made Superbalist’s 100 List as one of the country’s leading fashion influencers. You may even recognise her as the local face of L’Oréal, which she represented in 2015.
According to Baker, being thought of as a South African influencer is simply a by-product of her true message, which is to “inspire young women like myself to be their beautiful selves, inside and out.”
|The hardest lesson I’ve learnt is that nothing lasts forever. We have to keep moving forward to be successful and happy.|
