A fashion influencer, hairstylist and entrepreneur, Kimora McGee (12) goes above and beyond to chase her passions and make a name for herself. With 99,000 followers on her personal Instagram page, McGee serves as an influencer and business woman to the Memphis community.

Growing up, McGee was surrounded by hairstylists in her family inspiring her to follow in their path. Admiring how her aunt lived out her dream, McGee began learning how to style hair, but it was not until one and a half years ago that she decided to make a business out of it.

“I’ve always done hair,” McGee said. “I grew up in a beauty shop. My aunt … taught me mostly everything I know. She was a hairstylist for 45 years.”

Starting up a business and working to make it successful is not an easy task; however, McGee’s love for her job encourages her to use her passion to fuel her work.. As a way of promoting herself on Instagram, McGee records her clients while they admire their new hair-do, which mainly consists of smiles and appreciation flowing from them.

“I try to capture like the happy moments of my clients because it’s something that I love to do,” McGee said. “It’s not even about like just money. I genuinely love doing hair, so I try to … promote that when I’m promoting my hair business.”

Currently, McGee works from the comfort of her home, where her mom assists her in what she needs while she is at school. Not only does McGee’s mother help her organize her supplies, but she also took part in teaching her how to do different types of hairstyles.

“She’s the one sanitizing my combs and stuff for me when I’m at school,” McGee said.

Acknowledging that Memphis is filled with people of numerous ethnicities, McGee does not specialize in one type of hair but strives to learn to know how to do any type of hair and hairstyle.

“I do all different hair types,” McGee said. “I do all different hairstyles like I do locs, I do sew-ins, I do natural hairstyles, I do ponytails.”

Styling hair is not a quick job – appointments can range anywhere from three to four hours each. McGee can service one or two clients after-school, but she styles the majority of her clients all-day on weekends.

“Well, I spend most of my afterschool time doing hair,” McGee said. “Like outside of school, it’s hair. As soon as I get out of school I usually start doing hair.”

While she services her clients, McGee aims to make her clients feel relaxed as the hours of hairstyling pass by. As a result, many of her clients remain loyal to her.

“She’s really sweet,” Jetsee Rodriguez (11) said. “You can talk to her about anything, you know, while you’re getting your hair done. It’s not awkward. She makes you feel really comfortable.”

It’s common for many teenagers to obtain a couple thousand followers on social media platforms, but McGee has managed to accumulate over 99,000 followers over a span of four years.

“She’s been working on her Instagram for a good minute,” Rodriguez said. “… since middle school she’s posted about you know, herself, posting pretty pictures, and she’s supported a lot of other people ….”

McGee’s followers’ leading reason for following her is to keep up with her stylish outfits, which exemplify the current trends circulating in the fashion world. However, McGee also puts in extra work to make sure her follower base steadily grows.

“I think people just like me as a person,” McGee said. “Like I interacted with people, I used to go live all the time and like just have fun with people. Like I used to have talent shows on live.”

Over the years, McGee has also strategized to make the best use out of her semi-influencer presence online to help her business expand. Along with her outfit posts, McGee also includes pictures of her clients’ hair-dos on her main Instagram page in order to reach a wider audience and hopefully bring in more customers.

“She dresses up really nice, so that’s like good for her presentation and her business, and she promotes her business on her mainpage, so that [goes] hand in hand,” Katerine Urbina (11) said.

McGee’s vision for the future is to be able to construct her dream lounge salon. Although she has this ambitious plan in mind, she is currently patiently saving up money without stressing about rushing herself.

“My young life is ending, and I’m growing to be an adult, and I just feel like all my hard work is starting to pay off,” McGee said. “Now I’m starting to see it, and I’m starting to believe in myself more and realize that I have talent that I should put into work.”