Why Star YouTube Influencer Ingrid Nilsen Quit Her Job

Despite its apparent ubiquity, the career of "online influencer" is so young that the first generation of people to use that title are not only still working, but still young.

Ingrid Nilsen was one of the very first beauty and lifestyle YouTubers, and the work she did in her late teens and early 20s created the blueprint for what the industry has become today. A few of her highlights: She was the first online creator to work with CoverGirl, and she interviewed President Obama. Her coming-out video in 2015 went mega viral, and she invented Vlogmas, which is a daily vlogging challenge still used by thousands of creators every December.

She had more than 3 million YouTube subscribers, and in 2020, she quit.