For Onyeagba Chioma Geraldine, professionally known as Empresschiii, content creation began without an elaborate business plan.

What started with making videos on her phone gradually developed into influencing opportunities, relationships with beauty brands and, eventually, the establishment of her own hair business, EmpressLuxeHairs.

It is a progression that reflects an increasingly familiar route into entrepreneurship for young Nigerians who are using social media not only to build audiences but also to develop businesses around those communities.

Born on July 5, 2002, in Ezira, Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, Chioma spent much of her early life in Abuja.

She attended Army Children’s School at Mambilla Barracks, Maitama, and later Army Day Secondary School, completing her secondary education in 2019.

Her early years, she recalls, largely revolved around school, home and church. At a young age, she moved from her parents’ home to live with her father’s younger sister in Abuja.

After secondary school, Chioma returned to Onitsha, Anambra State, where she worked as a sales assistant for a relative between 2019 and 2021.

Her eventual move into the creator economy began the following year.

Chioma discovered TikTok in 2022 and began experimenting with videos.

Her equipment at the time was modest. She started creating with an Android phone before gradually investing in better devices as her interest in digital content developed.

Beauty and fashion eventually became central to the type of content she produced.

That focus opened another opportunity in 2022 when, according to Chioma, a hair company invited her to Abuja to work as a brand ambassador.

The experience brought her closer to the commercial side of the beauty industry and showed her how an online personality could develop relationships with consumer brands.

She subsequently continued working with businesses across the beauty, hair and lifestyle sectors.

Chioma says her professional journey has included relationships with brands including M and M Hairline, Looksbyada, Reeyahs Hair Place, Elakendra Body Enhancement and Bodied by Ella.

She also lists itel among brands with which she has been affiliated.

The precise nature and duration of the individual commercial relationships vary, but Chioma considers them part of the experience that helped develop her understanding of influencing and brand communication.

She says she formally began treating content creation and influencing as a professional career in 2024.

“What started as random smiles to my camera bloomed into full content creation and influencing,” she said.

That journey, she added, “also bloomed into full entrepreneurship because I also started my own hair brand.”

The transition from influencing to entrepreneurship eventually led to EmpressLuxeHairs.

Rather than working exclusively as a personality promoting products belonging to other companies, Chioma established a business within the same beauty ecosystem around which she had been building her online identity.

She now operates the hair brand from Lagos after relocating from Abuja.

According to Chioma, EmpressLuxeHairs has attracted customers including influencers, content creators and other public figures, while also receiving patronage from customers outside Africa.

For her, building the company represents an extension of what she had already been learning through content creation: understanding audiences, presenting products visually and developing relationships with people online.

That relationship between influence and ownership is becoming increasingly significant within the creator economy.

Building an audience can provide creators with commercial opportunities through endorsements and partnerships, but establishing a business potentially gives them another route to convert visibility into an asset they control.

For Chioma, the beauty industry provided that opportunity.

Her experience as a creator placed her in an environment where hair, fashion and personal presentation were already central to the content she was producing.

EmpressLuxeHairs therefore emerged within an existing area of interest rather than as a business disconnected from her digital identity.

Chioma’s journey has also involved a gradual pursuit of personal independence.

When she returned to Abuja for her first brand opportunity, she initially stayed with a friend before securing her own accommodation.

She later moved to Lagos, where she now combines running EmpressLuxeHairs with her work as a content creator and influencer.

She identifies fellow creators Itzammie and Jennifrank among the personalities who have influenced her approach to the industry.

While social media provided the entry point, Chioma says entrepreneurship has changed how she views her career.

The challenge now is to develop EmpressLuxeHairs beyond a business dependent solely on the visibility of its founder.

That means building customer relationships, maintaining product quality and developing a recognisable identity in Nigeria’s competitive beauty market.

For Chioma, however, the transformation from casually facing a camera to building a commercial venture remains central to the story.

Looking ahead, she says she wants to expand EmpressLuxeHairs while continuing to develop her career as a creator.

She also hopes to travel internationally as she broadens both her personal experiences and professional ambitions.

What began as experimentation with social media has therefore developed into something more tangible.

For Empresschiii, finding her voice online ultimately became an opportunity to build something of her own.