When twin sisters and social media duo Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight (@BrooklynAndBailey; 7.1 million YouTube subscribers) started their lifestyle YouTube channel in 2013, they hadn’t initially planned to launch a brand less than a decade later. Their quick rise to fame, however, led them to identify what they considered a gap in beauty at that time.
According to the McKnight sisters, there were no clean, accessible and easy-to-understand skin-care brands that resonated with consumers across various demographics. And for two creators who were successfully reaching audiences from a range of backgrounds, creating a brand felt like a natural next step. After two years of research and development, Brooklyn and Bailey launched their clean skin-care brand, In The Know — or ItK, for short — in August 2022. The brand first launched exclusively in Walmart with pimple patches, acid toners and gentle cleansers, all priced under $15.
The social media stars-turned-skin-care founders are the many creators who have launched successful brands. In beauty, that includes Stephanie Zheng with Mount Lai, Iskra Lawrence with Saltair, Susan Yara with Naturium, and Lauren Ireland and Marianna Hewitt with Summer Fridays, to name a few. Beauty executives are taking notice: In October 2023, beauty brand incubator FounderSix, which focuses on developing influencer-led brands, announced it raised $12 million in venture capital funding from KD Capital. Currently, FounderSix has three brands in its portfolio: Alex Renee’s Ary World, Lauren Perez Waltzer’s Anablue and Allie Glines’s Ravie Beauty.
“As a creator, it’s important to know that you are on the ground and have a touchpoint to the people who are going to be buying [your products],” said Bailey McKnight, speaking about the Walmart partnership at the Glossy Beauty Pop event in L.A. on March 13. “[Your connection to your audience] is a power that companies want, and it’s a power companies don’t always have. … So you have to trust your instincts [when you walk into boardrooms] and know you have the audience that [these companies] want to reach.”
During the Glossy Beauty Pop conversation, the sisters described both the challenges and wins they’ve experienced throughout their founder journey.
One of the biggest advantages has been the built-in focus group they have via their online community. In total, across their social platforms, the sisters have over 22 million followers.
“A lot of people joke that we did it backward — we started with an audience and then built a brand. But it worked for us. … We’ve been able to use our audience to crowdsource information and get valuable feedback,” Brooklyn McKnight said.
Bailey McKnight added, “We literally have a focus group at our fingertips. We were able to ask our audience what they wanted in a brand, and [we built it].”
The sisters said they often poll their community to gauge how consumers will resonate with new products. The responses often serve as a data point when proposing category expansions, marketing campaigns and future projects to beauty incubator Maesa, the brand’s part owner. In fact, their Instagram community’s overwhelmingly positive response to their idea of launching a lip balm was the driving force behind developing the product, which launched in 2023. Itk’s nourishing lip balm is now among its top five best-selling items, the sisters said.
“We’ll continue to use our audience to poll [about] innovation for future products. We want their thoughts and opinions for future projects, too,” said Bailey McKnight. “It’s easiest to get live feedback on [Instagram] Stories because you can live vote, and the feedback is quick.”
The sisters also leverage Snapchat. “It’s a buying audience — they’re hungry,” Brooklyn McKnight said. “They’ve been underserved, and they want to have their thoughts heard.”
