Kat James built a TikTok following of one million by teaching beauty techniques to women aged 45-75, a demographic largely overlooked on the platform. 

The licensed and experienced esthetician—who once did Michelle Pfeiffer’s makeup and worked alongside famous cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Fredric Brandt—transformed her career when COVID forced her Malibu beauty store to close for over a year.

“I think it’s one of the things that I get asked equal to beauty questions: ‘How did you start over? How did you become independent?'” Kat shares. “I always say to people, ‘Don’t look at it like a setback,’ like, ‘Oh my God, I’m 40 years old, and I have to work again.’ I really looked at it like my second chance.”

When Disaster Becomes Opportunity

Kat had spent decades building a beauty industry résumé. After graduating from a two-year esthetician program in Canada, where she “learned everything from kinesiology to dermatology,” she worked with doctors and took an additional master course in injectables.

After practicing for three years, she pivoted to become a national trainer and account executive for beauty brands, teaching about product ingredients and regimens. Later, she studied makeup artistry and built a clientele through word-of-mouth after a fortunate break.

“One day I got a phone call that Michelle Pfeiffer’s makeup artist got stuck at customs,” Kat recalls. “She was in town and had an event and needed her makeup done last minute. I was like, ‘Yes, I would. Oh my God, yes, I would.'”

She then worked alongside Dr. Fredric Brandt, the dermatologist behind Botox’s FDA approval for cosmetic use. “He pioneered the term liquid facelift,” she explains. “I got to work with him side by side and learned so much about aging and those techniques.”

By 2020, Kat had established her “own beauty store in Malibu” with “treatments with infrared sauna” that “won best facials in Malibu year after year.” Then the pandemic hit.

“Being in California and offering facials and services, we were fully closed for over a year,” Kat explains. “My kids are at home; we’re trying to homeschool them, and I’m completely responsible for all of our finances.”

Her entry into social media came unexpectedly through her daughter. “One night I was sitting with my kids, and my daughter said, ‘Mom, do a dance with us [on TikTok],'” Kat recalls. After struggling with the choreography, she borrowed her daughter’s phone. “I had never been on TikTok in my life. And I started scrolling.”

What began as curiosity quickly transformed into inspiration when she discovered beauty content. “By the time I finally fell asleep, woke up the next day, I was like, ‘I’m gonna make videos.'”

For professionals in midlife, Kat notes, the prospect of starting over can seem daunting, even shameful. She offers a reframe: “When you get the second chance and you go back to work for the first time, aim high. Don’t think, ‘I’m going to be a cashier at Starbucks.’ This is your time. Pick your goal, pick that destination, and what will it take to get you there.”

Building on Decades of Expertise

Kat’s advantage over other beauty creators was her deep industry knowledge. Rather than creating “shock and awe” transformations that dominated beauty TikTok, she chose the education route.

“Someone would come on camera looking tired, haggard, and withdrawn, and then they would suddenly be glamorous and gorgeous. There wasn’t a lot of people talking one-on-one to the camera and saying, ‘This is how you properly apply concealer so it doesn’t crease.'”

Her straightforward educational approach resonated immediately. “People would respond and say, ‘No one’s ever taught me how to put on makeup. I never was properly taught,'” she recalls. This insight highlights why viewers connected with her content so quickly.

When it comes to her role in the industry, Kat is direct: “When someone says, ‘Oh this is Kat James, she’s an influencer,’ I’m like, no I’m not. I’m an educator.”

Challenging Platform Demographics and Content Approaches

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Kat’s success is where she found her audience. While conventional wisdom suggested TikTok was for Gen Z and Instagram would better serve her demographic, reality proved otherwise.

“TikTok is really known as a young platform, and all 50-year-old women are on Facebook,” Kat notes. “So it was even more interesting that TikTok is still my highest platform today. I have the most followers and the most engagement on TikTok. My strongest demographic is 45 to 75 on TikTok.”

Kat emphasizes that her content approach differs between platforms, cautioning against simple repurposing. “They are completely different beasts,” she explains. “On TikTok, I have never written more than a simple sentence, like ‘Best go-to summer look.’ My audience over on Instagram would never tolerate that nonsense from me. I write a story in the captions, and they read it.”

Kat’s content creation process does not follow strict scheduling, despite her multiple attempts to map it out. “I am someone that has no idea what I’m going to film until I sit in front of the camera,” she admits. “I have tried so many times to become that person. The number of whiteboards I own and the social media planners I have bought—I have asked ChatGPT to create a schedule for me.”

Community Through Comments

Kat’s approach to establishing a connection with her audience is based on loyalty. She dismisses generic advice.

“When this question gets asked, the obvious answer, and the one I hear over and over, is ‘community, build community.’ And I always kind of roll my eyes at that because yes, community is obvious, but how do you build community?”

Her solution is specific and hands-on: rather than outsourcing comment management as her following grew—a common practice among creators with large audiences—she made it a cornerstone of her strategy.

“One of the biggest recommendations I can give to creating a strong and engaged following is to read your comment section. Read your comment section. They are telling you exactly what they want.”

She adds: “I would set timers on my phone and from 8 to 10 p.m., I read my comments and I would take notes. I would see over and over: I got asked 75 times today about a neck cream. I got asked 80 times about an affordable alternative to the product I showed in that video.”

This direct engagement informed her content strategy: “I would start making content [based on those questions]. That’s where I found people really started to relate to me because I was actually engaging in what they wanted to know, not just making content that suits what I feel like talking about.”

The Validation of Impact

Success in the creator economy is typically measured through metrics: followers, engagement rates, and conversion statistics. For Kat, however, the most meaningful validation came from an unexpected source.

“My daughter wrote her college essay on me,” Kat shares, her voice filled with emotion. “She wrote it talking about how I went through a very difficult divorce, found myself in a very difficult time emotionally, financially, and how I, on my own, built myself up to where I am today.”

That essay earned her daughter acceptance to every college she applied to. More importantly, it revealed the impact of Kat’s progress beyond the digital metrics.

“Especially when you think that they’re watching you—I moved us, I downsized from a house to an apartment I couldn’t afford,” Kat reflects. “She didn’t take any of that as part of her journey. She took what I did and all the positive and how I grew and overcame.”

The Next Stage

Now, Kat is leveraging her platform and expertise to fulfill a long-held dream: creating her own product line. “If you had asked me 15 or 20 years ago what I want to do, I would have always said I want my own product line,” she shares.

Her approach to product development mirrors her content strategy—focusing on unmet needs identified through direct audience engagement. She has been developing this line for four years, informed by her industry knowledge of emerging skincare trends.

“I am really creating for the empty space—that little space right here that no other brands are filling,” she explains. “I am filling the exact needs for mature skin that’s not on the market yet.”

Kat points to specific skincare innovations she’s been tracking: “Right now, we’re seeing a lot of growth factors in mature skin. Stem cells are really big, exosomes. I have been talking about growth factors for the last eight to nine years.”

While the industry often seems fixated on youth and novelty, Kat’s second act is a reminder that expertise, resilience, and genuine value never go out of style.

“Just do it,” Kat advises potential creators. “There will never be a right time. You will never have enough free time. You will never have the right outfit or the right PR. So start today.”