Influencer
Creating Fashion and Lifestyle Content as a Mum of Two with Influencer Shamilla Birch
Shamilla Birch, a UK fashion and lifestyle content creator, shares why she shifted niches, her experience with brand partnerships, and the struggle of working in a saturated market. She is also signed with Sintillate Talent, a multi-award-winning talent and influencer agency with talent in 18 countries, which she shares has afforded her many new opportunities. Today, she shares her experience with brand partnerships and how she makes content as a mum of two.
About Shamilla Birch
Shamilla Birch is a twenty-three-year-old UK fashion and lifestyle content creator and mum of two boys. She had her first baby when she was 19 and began creating fashion content during the first lockdown. Her primary focus for creating content is TikTok and Instagram, which she feels is where the majority of content creators are posting today.
Shamilla shares that she struggled as a first-time mother because she had just moved to a new area and didn’t have a support system around her. Unfortunately, she experienced a lot of stigma because of how young she was when she gave birth to her first child.
“Relating to being a young mum, I think it’s really important to mention how content creating has allowed me to regain my sense of self and allowed me to find my personality again. It’s been a safe space for me where I can express who I am without just ‘being a mum,’ and Sintillate Talent has provided me with a safe space to be myself too and communicate my struggles and wins with people in the same position as me! A sense of belonging is crucial to being successful in the influencer market, and I have definitely found that amongst Sintillate Talent.”
Shamilla’s Content
Shamilla started with skincare and beauty content but moved into fashion content as her confidence grew.
She shares, “I feel like I could do more with fashion, whereas when I was doing skincare, for example, there’s only so much I could do because I have to promote things that I believe in and that I think are true and I can’t just test things out and say that I love them when I don’t. I felt like, with fashion, I could be a lot more fluid with my content. I could be more honest and open about it.”
She found that fashion content allowed her room to be more transparent with her content, which is why her content is primarily focused on fashion now, with the occasional beauty or skincare post.
Generally, Shamilla’s TikToks and Instagram reels are her best-performing content.
Brand Partnerships
Shamilla shares that being authentic to herself is the most important thing when it comes to accepting brand partnerships.
“Some brands are very strict on their briefs and stuff like that, and there have been many times where I’ve had to decline partnerships because [of] the way they want me to structure the content.”
Sometimes the brands want her to structure her content in a way that is inauthentic to her style, which would leave her struggling to post the content. As a result, she’ll decline these partnerships to stay true to herself. She adds that her followers would also notice if her content was different than her normal style and felt forced.
@shamillabirch @dove are my go to body care brand! The quality is just unmatched! And with their limited edition packaging with @petauk , they are on a mission to globally ban animal testing! Please help raise awareness for the banning im of anima testing by doing your part! Signing petitions, supporting cruelty free companies and educating others! @gifta_uk #dove#bananimaltesting#animaltestingneedstostop#raiseawarenessnow#gifted#fyp#foryoupage#trending#fypシ゚ #xyzbca ♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) – Danilo Stankovic
“I spend quite a lot of hours making my content, and it’s obviously not the easiest thing to do when I’ve got two children as well. I have to work my hours around them, so I can’t just go out and travel and take pictures here and there. I have to work with my time, and I put a lot of effort into that.”
Shamilla explains that because she’s a smaller content creator, brands will often offer her gifted partnerships, where she is gifted products in exchange for content. However, in these types of partnerships, she isn’t paid for her time.
“It would be nice if my content was recognized and paid for, so I think that’s another limitation [within the industry].”
Signing with Sintillate Talent
Shamilla shares that she came to Sintillate Talent after hitting a wall and taking a step back from content creation after having her second child.
“With having a newborn, it was hard to juggle [everything]. So, I thought, let me take a step back a little bit, but then I came across the agency. I signed up thinking if I get a few collaborations, I get a few collaborations. That was my initial thinking, but they’ve done so much more for me.”
She adds that besides landing desired collaborations, she feels like she is part of a community. Sintillate Talent is also there to guide and support her.
“Personally, I felt quite isolated on my own when I started doing content creation. I didn’t have anyone around me to kind of make content with, and now that I have a group of people that I can confide in and share content and ideas with, it makes me feel more like part of a community now, so it makes content-creating a lot easier to do.”
Shamilla also likes that Sintillate Talent has a well-being manager that she can turn to if she’s struggling with motivation or her mental health.
Before signing with Sintillate Talent, Shamilla would work with smaller businesses. Now, she works with large companies like Shein and GLOWMODE.
“Since being with the agency, I’ve gained quite a few big companies… It’s [more] repeat collaborations coming in.”
A Saturated Market
One of the hardest parts about being a content creator today is how saturated the market is.
“I think it’s trying to get your content seen more by people because there’s a lot of people posting and people posting at the same time as you, the same sort of thing, so trying to get the most out of your content, I think is a struggle because there’s just so many people doing it and obviously you spend so much time making all this content.”
Shamilla adds that it’s difficult when a post’s engagement is lower than expected.
In the next few years, she would love to see a larger focus on mental health in the creator marketplace.
“I’d like to see less stigma attached to [mental health] and less suffering in silence. I’d rather there be more resources accessible for content creators.”
Future Plans
Shamilla shares that she is working on a few collaborations with Shein in the upcoming months.
“I’ve only been in the agency for a few months – that’s how much they’ve helped me. I’ve already got that [Shein] collaboration secured, whereas I feel like if I was on my own, that would’ve taken me a hell of a lot longer. Maybe it wouldn’t have even happened, so just some really big collaboration coming up, which I’m very grateful for.”
