Anna Renn has not launched a product yet, but she is already building the infrastructure that could support one.

The Miami-based creator runs multiple commerce channels at once, including an Amazon storefront organized around categories like “Hairrr,” a ShopMy presence designed for a different shopping audience, and an LTK profile she continues to test. Each serves a different purpose, reflecting her belief that creator commerce is not about placing the same products everywhere. It is about understanding where different audiences discover, trust, and buy.

For Anna, the storefronts are a way to understand the relationship between content and consumer behavior before she eventually becomes the brand herself.

The Viral Video That Made Anna Renn Rethink Growth

Anna Renn’s creator journey began long before she understood it as a business.

Originally from Ethiopia, Anna was adopted at around six years old and grew up homeschooled in Michigan with her younger sister. She found connection through early YouTube, watching creators like Jackie Aina and others who showed her a version of online community she could participate in.

“I grew up on YouTube, OG YouTube,” Anna says. “Watching them was my way of seeing what other people around my age – or just a little bit older than me – were up to. What are they like? That was my way of socializing.”

She began filming hair videos, vlogs, and everyday content as a child. But when she started posting more consistently on TikTok and Instagram, she did so without a business strategy. “I accidentally got into this,” Anna says. “I didn’t have any guidance; I didn’t have a plan. Just post, post.”

That approach changed in 2023 when one simple video transformed her audience overnight. Following a trend where creators stared at something they loved before revealing it, Anna filmed herself looking at a Sephora sign. The video pushed her Instagram from 5,000 followers to 100,000 in one day.

The growth was immediate, but the lesson came later. Like many creators who experience sudden virality, Anna discovered that reach and relationship are not the same thing.

After seeing viral content perform well, she initially leaned into the type of posts that generated the most views. But she eventually felt disconnected from the audience she had gained. “I had nothing else but a bunch of likes,” Anna says. “There was no community. I wasn’t doing anything better. Not myself, not anyone else. It was just another viral post that you would see on social media.”

That realization became the foundation for how she now approaches her creator business: building trust before asking audiences to buy.

Anna Renn Treats Each Platform Like a Different Storefront

The next stage of Anna’s business has been built around a simple idea: every platform has a different audience, and every audience behaves differently. Instead of treating TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon, and ShopMy as interchangeable channels, she thinks about what each one allows her to do.

On TikTok, where she has more than 600,000 followers and 43 million likes, Anna focuses on beauty tutorials, advice, and personal recommendations. Instagram offers a more polished view of her lifestyle. YouTube allows her to create longer, more personal content around topics ranging from beauty to health and personal experiences.

“When I think of YouTube, I think of girls that have very long attention spans,” Anna says. “In order to watch YouTube, you have to really love who you’re watching.”

That same audience segmentation shapes her commerce strategy.

Anna currently uses multiple storefronts because each platform creates a different shopping experience. Amazon, she notes, works particularly well for her current audience because many of her followers are younger consumers looking for accessible purchases.

“I feel like ShopMy is really great for post-graduation, 25 and up girls that want to specifically look for nicer quality clothes, maybe a layout of what to get for their apartments,” Anna says. “But a storefront is very college girl. And I’m 22; most of my audience is around my age, so I just know they like Amazon more.”

The strategy is not simply about having more links. It is about learning what types of products, formats, and platforms create action. “The end goal of all of this is to build a long-term audience to the point where I can have a brand, and I don’t have to rely on brands paying me,” she says.

Her Biggest Commerce Lessons Came From Unexpected Platforms

Anna’s approach to commerce has also challenged assumptions about where creator influence converts best.

While TikTok and Instagram drive much of her visibility, she says her strongest sales often come from platforms where she has much smaller audiences. “Funny enough, my highest sales are through YouTube,” Anna says.

Her explanation is that audiences on short-form platforms have become increasingly accustomed to advertising, while longer-form platforms can create deeper trust. “I think because everybody on Instagram and TikTok is so fed up and tired with ads,” she says.

Facebook has also surprised her. Although her Facebook audience is much smaller than Instagram, she says the platform produces comparable link clicks. “I have like 10K on Facebook,” Anna says. “When I say my Facebook has the same amount of link clicks, that’s crazy.”

For Anna, the lesson is that creators should not only chase the platforms where they already perform well. They should understand the role each platform plays. “If you know that Facebook has a bunch of Facebook moms that want to buy a hair dryer, you post it on there versus maybe post more relatable content on the other platforms where there’s going to be a lot of Gen Z who want to feel seen,” she says.

Brand Deals Are One Part of a Larger Creator Business

Although Anna has built a growing commerce system, brand partnerships remain her largest source of income.

Before working with management, she handled outreach herself, contacting brands, negotiating rates, and building relationships from scratch. “I would pitch myself to brands and then the brands that would come in, I would negotiate how much I think I should be paid,” Anna says.

Management has since made the process more organized, helping her pursue more opportunities and manage partnerships. But Anna still evaluates every deal through the same question: does it make sense for her audience?

She recently rejected a brand partnership because it did not align with her values. “When I’m accepting a brand deal, I think, number one, is this on brand? Does it make sense with what I’m doing?” Anna says. “My audience is literally me, just a bunch of me.”

That connection also influences how she views professionalism. Anna believes younger creators can sometimes be underestimated, but she argues that age should not determine how seriously someone treats the work.

“If you want to become an influencer and get brand deals, treat getting a brand deal almost like a homework assignment,” she says. “Submit it immediately when it’s due, make sure it’s very high quality, proofread it, have multiple people go over it.”

Anna Wants Beauty Brands to Trust Creators More

Building a creator business has created a challenge Anna is still tackling: balancing the content that attracts brands with the content that creates genuine connection.

“I definitely feel the need to push out certain content in order to see a certain amount of brand deals come in every single month,” Anna says. “And that is something that I am still learning to balance.”

The challenge is that audiences do not follow creators simply to be marketed to. They follow because they recognize themselves in the person behind the content. “These people are not following me to buy,” Anna says. “They’re following me to see themselves in me or learn something or just feel seen in some way.”

That belief has shaped Anna’s view of the future relationship between creators and brands. She argues that highly scripted campaigns can remove the personal connection that makes creator marketing effective.

She points back to her own earlier videos, when she filmed casually from her dorm room and shared products without the polish of professional campaigns. “I think I got more views back in the college days where I just put up my phone, and I’m like, this is my favorite products that I’m wearing right now,” Anna says. “I think it’s a lot more intimate and a lot more relatable than the super high quality.”

As she eventually builds her own brand, Anna says she wants to give other creators the freedom she believes audiences respond to. “I would give any creator that I would work with for my own brand full creative vision,” she says. “I would actually push for them to make it as natural as possible. No script.”

The Creator Becomes the Brand

Anna’s current business is built around testing. Every storefront, platform, and piece of content provides another signal about what her audience values. 

That experimentation is preparing her for the next stage of her career: moving from promoting products to creating them.

“I think becoming your own brand is the number-one way to have the highest earnings,” Anna says. “Brand deals pay a lot, but the reason why brand deals pay so much is that there’s such a huge market for beauty, for fashion. So if you can get into that and you become the brand, there’s nothing else.”

Anna is currently managed by Underscore Talent.

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