Meet Ariana Marrero of Ya Girl Ari in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ariana Marrero.

Ariana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up, I’d watch my dad work his dream job as a cinematographer and I thought it was the coolest thing. I wanted to be an actress but I also liked the behind the scenes and post production work. I didn’t understand what “job title” that meant so I didn’t always have a straight answer when people asked what I want to be when I grow up. I’d create music videos with friends and post them on YouTube; they’d get maybe 10 views, from me, my parents, and possibly one or two family friends. Then, I got my first iPhone and downloaded Musical.ly, a lip sync/video app, and I would make and post similar dumb videos on with friends with the same results as YouTube. Fast forward, I was almost a junior in college and I heard about TikTok. So of course, I downloaded it just to find out that it was basically Musical.ly. I made some videos and shared with my friends and a few of my videos hit thousands of views out of nowhere. I kept creating and a year later, I had over 300,000 followers but I also made so many new friends and expanded my platform to YouTube as well.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not at all. I felt lonely because nobody around me at the time took me seriously when I would put time aside in my day to create content. Making more “professional” looking content takes a lot of time, money, and practice, which is still something I’m working on today. I also dealt with a lot of emotional exhaustion, I would get messages from viewers as if I was their licensed therapist. I am 100% here to give support and advice for anyone to the best of my abilities, but some of the messages were very extreme and the few that I was able to reply, would just turn around and say “Omg you replied! I didn’t mean what I said earlier, I just wanted to see if you’d reply!”

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Ya Girl Ari – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I create content for TikTok and YouTube, mostly LGBTQ+ content with my girlfriend and makeup videos. I am almost a fully licensed cosmetologist as well, and I work at an amazing Salon and Day Spa. I do (almost) everything to my best abilities, video-wise; it’s not being posted unless I am 110% proud of it. Personality-wise; I stay true to my entire being, I look and act different than most other creators. I’m trying to break the stereotype that all creators/influencers are bubbly and happy all the time, we are all normal people.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My girlfriend and I just moved into our own house, so we have been busy with settling in and everything. We decided to transform my YouTube channel into a couple’s channel, AriXWuuskî. More collab content and collab merch coming soon!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/ariikrystizzle
• Twitter: twitter.com/ariikrystizzle

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