With close to 250,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, Nath Finanças, or Nathália Rodrigues, has become one of Brazil’s best-known Black social media influencers by teaching personal finance to people who, like her, come from low-income backgrounds. On Instagram, Ana Paula Xongani has amassed more than 200,000 followers by talking about everything from tackling racism to fashion, and with over 600,000 followers, Bianca Santos is a huge success on TikTok, where she provides makeup tips for people with darker skin.

In one of the most unequal countries in the world, where Black and Indigenous Brazilians are still fighting for access to basic human rights like quality education, decent housing, decent work and equality, and where the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has led a disastrous Covid pandemic response which has exacerbated racial inequalities, social media platforms are providing a crucial space for young, Black content creators to share the kind of stories and perspectives that are usually shut out from the mainstream – and make money while doing so.

Full article at Equal Times’ website. Date of publication: 20/07/2021.