FL: Welcome To Season Two of Carnival Influence! For the people who may not know you, tell us how you got started as a creative & how your channel has grown to over 242k Subscribers
R: I started on youtube in March 2016 teaching women beauty on a budget! How to do crochet braids, wigs, makeup, etc instead of shelling out 100s for hairdressers and makeup artists. Those videos went viral garnering millions of views. I then moved on to reviewing fast fashion brands like Zaful, Wish, SheIn and fashion nova so women wouldn’t have to spend their hard-earned cash on unknown brands without at least seeing them on someone else first and getting an honest review. That also did really well! After that, I moved on to fitness and started included my audience more into my day to day life and now I mainly make travel and lifestyle content. My audience has just grown with me and come along for the ride!
FL: Let’s jump into fashion, specifically Fete wear. Ok so you have a boatride (silent morning or rise & jam, an All inclusive fete (beachhouse, Vale Vibe), A pumpin’ fete (tribe ignite, erupt) and a Jouvert fete. Walk us through the process of styling for each event and some of your go to places & pieces.
R: So first thing’s first: ALWAYS do your research! Find out if the event has a theme, Machel Monday this year (the last year) was all white, Soca brainwash was Asian inspired, so oriental outfits were a must. The last thing you want to do is commit a fashion faux pas because you can’t follow instructions! lol.
My thing is I don’t like to look like everybody else, so, for a boatride, I’d skip the basic neon bikini with the neon flowy coverup or neon fashionnova trousers and sunglasses the average girl would wear. I’d go for a custom made crochet monokini, I get mine from @kerecrochet or an Afrocentric bikini (ashanti swimwear has a good selection) with braided hair and beads, a headwrap tied in the back and huge hoops and sunglasses (think Rihanna in wild thoughts video) that’s it! No coverup! If you want to be more conservative add some cute white cotton shorts. I wouldn’t wear sliders, a nice jeweled sandal that’s easy to slide in and out of would be perfect.All inclusive fete depends on the vibe. If the event is what I like to call a “pretty” event you want to pull out all the stops. A sophisticated jumpsuit, a co’rd or a really nice dress with some block heel (not too high) sandals! Get those pretty toes out girl! You didn’t do a mani-pedi before carnival for nothing! If it’s a beach event see above.A J’ouvert fete is where you can really get away with showing skin but whatever you wear needs to be sturdy and able to handle J’ouvert pace! So shorts, a crop top and sneakers or boots.
FL: With so much discrimination in the workplace and backlash here in the us, please tell us your thoughts on the importance of why you rock your natural hair?
R: I’m from the UK so I can’t speak on the discrimination against natural hair in the US. HOWEVER, what I can say is that my hair grows from my head like this NATURALLY and I would never allow anyone to tell me that me – as I am – in my natural form, is not good enough or not acceptable to them. My response to them would be “that sounds like a YOU problem.” A woman of any other race is allowed (praised even) for wearing her hair free-flowing down her back. Well, I choose to wear my hair free-flowing too… but it just so happens that my hair is full of (black girl) magic and defies gravity so I can’t help if it doesn’t lie flat and I won’t change that characteristic to appease anyone. It’s important for me to be seen this way as my natural hair is part of my identity, it forms who I am and I want other women and young girls when they see me with it to feel my confidence rocking it and know they can do the same if they have hair like mine. I know a lot of young black women are still insecure about their hair because it doesn’t look eurocentric or the big one now is looking mixed or “exotic”. Everyone wants the loose curls, the natural hair movement has kind of been hijacked by the curl squad and it doesn’t feel inclusive of more afro type 4 hair anymore. So I guess people do see me wearing my afro hair as important, but I hope one day they don’t. In fact, I don’t want to see it as important either. I hope we (and I mean we, as in humans) get to a point in our evolution where things like hair and naturally occurring identifying characteristics are so normal and are seen so often that it is just not important. I want people to be like “yeah, she’s wearing her afro…okay and.. what’s the big deal, it’s just hair, it just grows like that!” but until that day, I guess the importance of me wearing my hair in its natural state is to wear it until it’s not important anymore.
FL: Let’s talk CosmopolitanUk, in 2019 you were nominated for influencer of the year which is huge! Tell us what lead up to that nomination and the feelingof being recognized across the UK?
R: Cosmo 2019 influencer of the year nomination…Whew! That was really a WOW moment. I can’t even tell you what led up to the nomination because I didn’t even know I was nominated until I got the email! I didn’t think I was making such an impact in my little space to even be seen outside the people who have subscribed, let alone nominated for anything (240k might seem like a lot to most, but when there are influencers out there with millions, 240k seems like nothing). It was a really proud moment to know that what I am doing is being recognized by international magazines like Cosmo and it motivates me to do more. I felt grateful to be given the opportunity by my followers who helped me gain the nomination by putting my name forward in the first place! This year, I have also been nominated for a shorty award for ‘best influencer in lifestyle’ which is even bigger news and I found out today that I am a finalist! On my channel and across all my social media platforms, I create all the content. The cinematography: I film, edit, sound design, retouch and do all the admin. Basically, I wear all the hats and run my business as a one-woman operation. Unless you are in this business or have built a business from nothing you don’t really knows the sleepless nights, countless meetings, the blood, sweat and tears that go into building a brand. I left a very lucrative career to pursue this creative art form, it’s a very risky thing to do, you constantly worry whether or not you’ve made the right decision and it takes a lot to pour your heart into your passion so it’s great to be recognised for hard work and a really proud moment to see your work earning these accolades.
FL: Trinidad 2020, outside of the Frye Festival moments. What’s some of the best moments of your trip & why?
R: Despite all the *eh hem* “hiccups” I did enjoy Trinidad carnival overall! I went with an awesome group of people @Sonnyturner___ and @whitechocolate758 and my boo who is European and isn’t that involved in the carnival scene. He’s been to Saint Lucia carnival but it was nice to show him our culture on a bigger scale and what it means to be at Trinidad carnival. It was awesome seeing some new to the culture, immerse themselves in it fully and enjoy it so much!
Also, I’ve loved Machel since I was 5 and have been to most of his shows around the world starting from that age! So it was amazing to experience Machel in his home country on the biggest stage that would be his last ever Machel Monday. I was encouraged not to go and I’m glad I didn’t listen, that was really special! I absolutely loved socabrainwash as well, that’s my kind of fete, where everyone goes wild. The road experience at night was the best for me too, I enjoyed the nighttime performances on the Yuma truck by soca artistes like Preedy and Voice, everyone got a little looser and freed up, it was pure vibes!
FL: Being a carnival veteran now, besides research what are some things that people don’t think about, but should know when planning a carnival trip?
R: You can buy things when you’ve landed! Please! You don’t need to walk with your whole kitchen sink and the piping underneath! The Caribbean is not backward, there are malls, you can pop to the mall and buy the small things you need. Sometimes, it works out cheaper to buy them there. Things like Carnival stockings, gems, shorts, hats, clutches, boots, Monday wear etc. If you’re worried about having the same outfits because of limited options, don’t be! Most people will be buying abroad from PLT and Fashion Nova anyway, so you’re more likely to have the same outfit as 20 girls at the party because they’ve all shopped there before they came. So buy local and support small businesses.
Bring a glue gun! Picture this: Sunday night you’re trying on your bra and panty just as a final check and you notice some of the gems falling off, or you snag it on something. CRAP! You eh even make it on the road yet and your gems are already coming off! The Caribbean in you really comes out, you mutter a bad word or two… but no time for anger now, you need to think fast! What are you going to do? Nothing is open on Monday and you have the road, you don’t have time to be scavenger hunting around town, you need to nap for J’ouvert! …wouldn’t it be nice to have the relief of knowing you have a glue gun in your suitcase?! It’s cheap! Buy one and keep it in your suitcase so you’ll never forget it.
WALK WITH VEX MONEY! If you are Caribbean you already know the saying. It simply means always have spare cash in case you have a misstep, misadventure or emergency and you need to fund yourself, then you can. Or, if your team upsets you, you can be independent and roll out!
FL: For upcoming creatives trying to break through on YouTube or social, give us your top five none cliché advice/tips?
R: Do not try to break through by doing what is popular now or the latest trendy thing. Often, that will get you views for the first video but people won’t stick around. It’ll be like the equivalent of the watch me whip & nae nae guy… a one-hit-wonder and then… nothing. Instead, try to find what you are good at and market it in a way that is unique to you, build and grow.
Don’t try to buy the latest fancy equipment! You don’t need it! There are people recording videos on their phones that look like it has been recorded on a potato and they are getting millions of views and subscribers because they are engaging and funny. It’s not yoru equipment, it’s how you use it.
Don’t become overly attached to your work. It’s easy to become defensive to criticism or negativity. Especially when it’s something that you have spent what seems like forever crafting and you’re super proud of it…but remember this is the internet. There are trolls, haters and cyberbullies who want nothing more than to see you fail, don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing you get worked up over a silly comment that probably says more about them than it does about you.
Do try to be yourself. Stay as authentic as possible. People see right through a facade and for the sake of longevity it is hard to keep up a fake persona for years unless you’re in a tv show or performing a character.
Don’t underestimate your worth, as soon as you have a marketable product and you’ve perfected your craft start charging for it and don’t undersell yourself by charging too low. Know your worth and then add tax! If you are good at something you should never do it for free!
FL: What’s next for raven, any upcoming projects and where can we find your videos?
R: I will be traveling a lot more so you can expect to see lots more docu-series short films from me over on my youtube channel: Raven Navera. I’ll also be teaching my videography and cinematography skills as a lot of people want to know how I make my films on Youtube. AND THE BIG ONE I have a haircare line coming this year for all my type 4 girls who just can’t find the right products for them so keep your eyes peeled to my channel and on my Instagram @itsravennavera