Following careers at a number of Australian beauty and women's lifestyle publications, today, two beautyheaven alumni – Jordyn Christensen and Lauren Meisner – are delighted to unveil their new endeavour: Centennial Beauty.
The beauty news and trends website targets Centennials – those born after 1995 – and will cover the industry from an entirely new angle. Christensen and Meisner spoke to BD about what we can expect from the debut below.
Congratulations on the launch of Centennial Beauty! How did this business idea came about?
Thank you, we’re so excited!
We saw a gap in the market for a publication that prioritises beauty influencer and YouTuber news and trends. We realised mainstream media would occasionally report on what was happening in that world but only if something really blew up (like the Jeffree Star, Tati, James Charles drama). And the thing with our generations (Lauren is a young Millennial, Jordyn is a Gen-Z) is that because of social media, we often care just as much if not more about the people behind the makeup than the makeup itself. Right now, there are only YouTube commentary channels that report on what’s happening with the beauty industry’s biggest players and brands and they’re some of the biggest channels on the platform so there’s clearly a market there.
From that, we realised no one was creating beauty content for the generation who grew up on social media; who interacts with beauty in a different way to older generations. We found the beauty-scape particularly, to be quite exclusive, found it skewed to a much older demographic and found that everyone was creating the exact same kind of content. We wanted to create something that was fully-rounded in its media presence (stay tuned for more ways we’ll round that out in 2020) and could be an integrated part of someone's life, no matter what platform they choose to consume media on.
We also felt there was no platform that was fun and exciting - that showed you how to create a neon yellow eyeliner look if that’s what you wanted to do. Basically, we created the beauty platform we would want to visit ourselves.
What can people expect to see on the site and on your social channels?
We are launching the site as a hub for content, however will have a fully integrated strategy across social platforms. On site we will still have evergreen stories and expert features, but we will be your one-stop-shop for beauty influencer, celebrity and cult brand news. You no longer have to piece together what is trending yourself. You won’t need to follow 500+ makeup accounts to stay up to date on trends or watch hours of YouTube commentary channels to figure out the latest beauty news.
Across social, we will be very dynamic. We will prioritise reporting on influencer and celebrity beauty news and trends, as well as industry news such as brand movements for cult Gen-Z brands. We’re a generation that is really aware and transparent when it comes to what we love and why we love it, so news will include brands making moves in regards to the environment, sustainability, as well as diversity and ethically relevant decisions.
Who is your target audience and how have you adapted your content strategy to meet their preferences?
Our target audience is those born 1995 and after. This generation grew up learning to do their makeup on YouTube and Instagram and as a result, are heavily invested in those platforms and the personalities that became famous on them. We are inclusive and diverse without taking ourselves or beauty too seriously - we believe these are traits intrinsic to the way young Millennials and Gen-Z functions and as a result, consumes media.
As far as our content strategy, our site will be the main hub but we also want to provide people with information in consumable, bite-sized pieces, on whatever platform they choose to engage with us on. We don’t want people to have to leave the platform they’re using to get information. Whether this is making informative or entertaining YouTube or TikTok videos or news blast style Instagram captions - we think it will make us unique in our way of conveying beauty news and trend information. We really believe in changing the way media is consumed and monetised to align with the way us younger generations are consuming it.
What's the story behind the name Centennial Beauty?
We had a huge list of potential names that were based on buzzy beauty words or trends, but ended up choosing Centennial. Gen-Y are more commonly known as ‘Millennials’ and Gen-Z are less-commonly known as ‘Centennials’, so we thought it was timely considering the generation we are planning on catering to.
In your opinion, what does this generation in particular want from beauty (the industry, brands and products)?
Amanda De Cadenet actually put it really well, she said, “what I’ve learned about Gen-Z is that they are authentic, transparent, they are truthful. They know their voice matters, they speak up, they care about things, they’re opinionated and they don’t tolerate BS…”
We’re a socially and politically aware generation that uses beauty to express ourselves rather than as a way to conform to societal expectations or cover our imperfections. That’s what makes us so powerful. We want to engage with our audience on that level, and give them the tools and information they need to do that. As we mentioned before, we’re a generation that is intrinsically diverse and inclusive and won’t tolerate anything less than that, especially when it comes to what we’re seeing in the media, the influencers we engage with, the Netflix series we’re watching. In saying that, very few brands are catering to that and doing it well. Brands such as Fenty and Glossier are directly engaging with the Gen-Z consumer and are seeing insane levels of success, larger brands are just jumping on board now, we believe we’re in a really exciting transitional period and this is all information worth reporting on.
Will you both be working full time and how can be people get in touch with you?
We will both be working full time from the 16th December. Get in touch with us via email; hello@centennialbeauty.com or via Instagram DM @centennialbeauty @jordyn_christensen @lauren.meisner
