Rising Stars: Meet Blair of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blair.

Hi Blair, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
From the time I was a little girl, I was always creating something. When I was five years old, I won a county writing fair for a story I wrote about Humpty Dumpty. Many of the words were misspelled, but everyone made me feel as though I was destined to become the next great New York Times writer, with the help of a spell checker, of course.

That moment stayed with me. I loved the feeling of bringing an idea to life, whether I was writing a fictional story about an egg falling to its death or painting clouds in the sky. Creativity made the world feel bigger, and it gave me a place where I could be completely myself.

As I grew older, that creative energy found its way into fashion and, especially, makeup. I spent hours in my room playing in my mother’s makeup and experimenting with different looks. When I was 15, I got my first job at McDonald’s, earning $7.50 an hour. I spent my entire first paycheck on clothes and makeup from Target.

I did not begin to understand the business side of beauty until 2020. Like everyone else, I was sitting at home, or in my case, in my dorm room at the University of Georgia, bored and looking for ways to turn my interests into something meaningful. For me, that something was makeup.

To be completely honest, I was horrible when I started. But everyone has to begin somewhere. I charged $25 per face, and the beautiful women of UGA trusted me enough to sit in my chair and let me practice. My roommate, Destiny Warren, did lashes, so our room became known as the beauty dorm. What began as two college students sharing their talents grew into a small community. We built friendships, supported other women, and helped them feel even more confident and beautiful than they already were.

After graduation, I felt completely lost. I had planned to attend medical school, even though nearly every road in my life pointed toward beauty and the arts. Because I was academically gifted, many mentors encouraged me to pursue medicine or law. They saw what I could do on paper, though creativity consumed about 98% of my life.

I spent two years working in clinical research. I learned a lot, but while I was at work, I was often planning makeup looks in my head or thinking about my next YouTube video. Eventually, I knew I could not keep ignoring the part of myself that felt most alive.

A coworker encouraged me to research careers within beauty companies. That search led me to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, so I uprooted my life and moved from Georgia to Los Angeles to pursue my MBA.

Moving across the country was one of the hardest things I had ever done. My family was not wealthy, Los Angeles was expensive, and I was a shy, introverted girl building a new life alone. Somehow, I did it. I found classmates who became family and made home feel less distant.

In Los Angeles, I also began taking content creation seriously. Since I had moved away from everyone I knew, I decided social media could be my friend. I treated it like a job, posting every weekday for four months before one video changed everything.

Ironically, it was a video in which I intentionally did my makeup badly. After years of trying to promote my best work, the video where I looked a mess was the one that grabbed everyone’s attention.

The video received more than one million views, and I gained over 10,000 followers in a single day. Soon, I was working with brands I had once only dreamed of, including Fenty Beauty, YSL Beauty, Maybelline, and many others. I was grateful, amazed, and reminded that sometimes the opportunity you have been waiting for arrives in a form you never could have planned.

Another defining part of Los Angeles was being mentored by designer Olive through her brand, WEARHOUSE. After discovering her artistry on Instagram, I asked to help with an upcoming fashion show. She shared her vision, then threw me into the deep end. Neither of us had done anything quite like it, but she believed in me, and I believed in her. I helped plan pop ups, create marketing materials, and support influencer campaigns. Olive showed me that my calling was not limited to one title. I loved turning creative ideas into experiences people could see and feel.

After earning my MBA from FIDM, I moved back home to Marietta. I expected the next chapter to begin quickly, but instead, I was unemployed for 7 months. That season was incredibly difficult. I became depressed and felt like a failure, forgetting everything I had accomplished in the years before.

By the grace of God, I eventually found an opportunity. I now work in marketing within an industry I never expected to enter, but the role has allowed me to strengthen my experience in business strategy, campaign management, networking, and brand placement. It has shown me that every chapter does not have to look exactly like the dream to help prepare you for it.

Today, I am finding my way back to myself after Los Angeles, unemployment, and depression. I am learning that starting again does not mean starting from nothing. Every lesson, mistake, skill, and victory comes with me.

Recently, I returned to doing makeup with beautiful models throughout Atlanta. It feels like reconnecting with a part of myself I thought I had lost. I plan to keep elevating my artistry and eventually launch my makeup brand, Ladylike. My instagram portfolio page is called “This Is Not Ladylike”, and the name carries a deeper meaning.

For years, I felt as though I did not know what I was doing or who I was supposed to be. The word “ladylike” represents the narrow expectations placed on women, even though none of us truly fit inside them. We are expected to be polished, quiet, certain, and easy to define. I have never experienced life that neatly.

Through Ladylike, I want to reclaim those expectations and the power attached to them. I want people to feel free to be artistic, complicated, bold, uncertain, soft, ambitious, and still becoming. Beauty should not be another standard we struggle to meet. It should help us express who we already are.

My story has moved through science, beauty, business, fashion, content creation, faith, depression, and reinvention. For a long time, I thought that meant I was lost. Now I understand that every part of the journey was teaching me how to tell stories, build community, create experiences, and turn ideas into something real.

I am still becoming Blair. The difference is that I no longer see that as a weakness. I see it as the story.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of the challenges I have faced throughout my life is my verbal communication skills. A few months ago, I was diagnosed with social pragmatic communication disorder. Receiving that diagnosis gave me a better understanding of experiences I had struggled to explain for years.

For me, it can be difficult to express myself verbally, especially in social situations. I may not immediately recognize sarcasm, understand a joke, or know how to respond during a conversation. I sometimes struggle with the natural back and forth of verbal storytelling, making new connections, or knowing when and how to enter a conversation. Because of this, I have often felt out of place, even in spaces where I genuinely wanted to belong.

For a long time, I interpreted those difficulties as something being wrong with me. Now, I understand that my mind simply processes communication differently.

This is also why art is so meaningful to me. Creativity allows me to take everything I feel internally and express it externally without always having to rely on my voice. Through makeup, fashion, writing, and visual storytelling, I can communicate emotions and ideas that may be difficult for me to explain aloud.

Although communication can sometimes be more challenging for me than it is for the average person, it has also helped shape the way I create. I pay attention to color, detail, emotion, and the things people communicate without words. Art has become more than something I enjoy. It is one of the ways I connect with people, make myself understood, and feel less alone.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I guess I can describe my work using Three Big M’s: Marketing, Makeup, and Media.

Makeup: As stated before, my journey as a makeup artist began in college, charging $25 per face from the beauty dorm. Since then, I have worked with a wide range of clients, from sports reporters to brides. I have also served as the makeup artist for fashion campaigns and fashion shows, collaborating with models, designers, photographers, and creative directors to bring a shared vision to life. Moving forward, I want to focus more intentionally on editorial glam, where makeup can be bold, artistic, and deeply connected to visual storytelling.

Media: As a content creator, I have grown an online community by sharing beauty, humor, and creativity.

Marketing: In my professional career, I work for a fortune 50 company where I have organized events, developed client campaigns, created sales materials, and served as a strategic business partner to sales teams. I have also supported campaigns and experiences that generated returns reaching into the thousands of percent, proving that creativity can still make business sense.

Although these areas may appear different, they are all connected by my ability to take an idea and turn it into something people can see, feel, and remember.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My biggest advice is to keep practicing and always show your work. Sharing your creations with the world can feel scary, especially when you are just starting out. But it is better to feel scared while putting yourself out there than to look back with regret because you never started.

I still feel self conscious about my work, even though I know I am ten times better than I was when I began. I constantly have to remind myself to keep going, trust the process, and not give up. So, I want to give that same reminder to anyone who is just getting started.

Give yourself homework and create a routine that holds you accountable. If you are an artist, challenge yourself to complete one new creative look each week. If you are starting in content creation, try posting three videos a week. Start small with a schedule and goal you can realistically maintain. As you improve and your process becomes more efficient, you can gradually do more.

You do not have to be perfect before you begin. You simply have to begin, keep practicing, and allow people to see you grow.

Pricing:

• $100 for all makeup services

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uhhblair/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blair-richardson/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itsBlairski
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsblairski?lang=en