A closer&nbsp;glimpse into the duo's passion-driven careers.

From the masterminds behind local footwear brand Kulet to&nbsp;beauty content creators, Julie Anne Kang (<a href="https://instagram.com/julieannekang?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">@julieannekang</a>) and Aina Syahirah (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/ainasyahirah/?hl=en">@ainasyahirah</a>) wear many&nbsp;hats, but regardless of what they&rsquo;re doing, they are always each&nbsp;other&rsquo;s guidance and cheerleader.

On the past and present&hellip;
Aina:&nbsp;As content creators, we grow with changes. When you&rsquo;ve&nbsp;developed a community, they pay more attention to what you&nbsp;share, and if I share everything under the sun, chances are I&nbsp;will lose their trust, because how can someone use everything&nbsp;at one time? At the moment, I&rsquo;m constantly trying and learning&nbsp;to create content about brands and products that I actually love&nbsp;without passing off as hard selling to my audiences. We need&nbsp;to be very mindful of what we share.
Julie:&nbsp;I have a very vague memory of how I started, but it was&nbsp;very different from how we present ourselves now. It became&nbsp;less about set-up and aesthetic, and more about real-time&nbsp;interaction. I like how people are expressing themselves more&nbsp;and differently on TikTok, they seem to be more comfortable&nbsp;to be real there.

On the less talked about&hellip;
Aina:&nbsp;We rarely talk about the negative parts of a product. In other&nbsp;countries, the creators will call out a product if it breaks skin&nbsp;out or irritates certain skin types. We are still very conservative&nbsp;and careful in that sense.
Julie:&nbsp;I agree with Aina. Culturally we are not confrontational&nbsp;&mdash; we choose to highlight the good things. And I have&nbsp;no idea how it would be accepted here. That being said,&nbsp;skincare is very personal. What doesn&rsquo;t work for me might&nbsp;be a holy grail for someone, hence I always mention my skin&nbsp;condition in skincare content so that it won&rsquo;t mislead my&nbsp;audience.

Being a content creator in Malaysia&hellip;
Aina:&nbsp;Challenging. I can&rsquo;t help but compare our scene to other&nbsp;Southeast Asian countries or the US. The kind of support that&nbsp;the creators there receive from their audience can be different&nbsp;from the energy here.
Julie: Misunderstood. It&rsquo;s fun, no doubt. But like every other&nbsp;job, it comes with responsibility. One of ours is to present the&nbsp;products to our audience without misguiding them or letting&nbsp;them down as a voice they trust.

Turning passion into a career is&hellip;
Aina:&nbsp;A luxury. I started as just a user, but now I get to have the&nbsp;first dibs on exciting new formulas and share with people my&nbsp;thoughts and experience. That puts me in a very lucky place.
Julie: Rewarding if you&rsquo;re given the opportunity to make a career&nbsp;out of something you&rsquo;re really passionate about.&nbsp;

On the change you want to see&hellip;
Aina: As an entrepreneur, a creator and also a consumer, I hope this&nbsp;is only the very early days of content creation, I couldn&rsquo;t think&nbsp;of a more genuine and straightforward way to communicate a&nbsp;brand&rsquo;s value for the time being. I&rsquo;m lucky enough to be able to&nbsp;work with brands that not only give ear to their collaborators&nbsp;but also provide them with input and the space to breathe and&nbsp;grow. And I hope that brands will value more the creativity&nbsp;and individuality of creators moving forward.
Julie: &nbsp;Numbers are tangible but not everything. I would love to&nbsp;see more emerging creators being seen and appreciated. Many&nbsp;times, it&rsquo;s the so-called micro-creators that bring identity and&nbsp;awareness to the brand. They may have smaller follower counts,&nbsp;but they could be the most impactful in a very saturated market.&nbsp;Sometimes, I see a collaboration and can&rsquo;t help wondering what&nbsp;if it&rsquo;s done with some budding talents I know &mdash; I can imagine&nbsp;how great it will turn out if only they&rsquo;re given the opportunity.

This story is originally published in our <a href="https://www.lofficielmalaysia.com/issues/cover-story-ameera-khan-on-creative-process-work-life-balance-and-future">L'Officiel Malaysia August 2023</a> print edition.

Julie Anne Kang and Aina Syahirah on the change they want to see as beauty creators

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