If you’re not a YouTuber, Inanna Sarkis may not be a name you’ve heard before.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, and a graduate of the Criminal Justice program at Ryerson University, Inanna has found success somewhere completely different – by figuring out how to use social media to take her farther afield than her degree ever could have.

Intrigued one day by the now defunct social media video-streaming platform Vine, she started her career in social rolling out six second videos that looped.

By June 2017, Inanna was featured in Paper as a star to watch on your social media feed, due to her astonishing success on YouTube, which has only grown since that interview. Today, she has over 10M Instagram followers, and 3.72M YouTube subscribers watching every move she makes.

“I realized I could use social media in a way to speak my mind and to empower other girls who were going through similar situations.”

Inanna doesn’t stop at social media, she carries her message herself. In March 2018, she partnered with International Medical Corps and travelled to Jordan, where she visited with Syrian refugees. She used her Instagram platform to educate her followers using photos of her experiences teaching kids creative skills and how to shoot their own videos. 

The Makani Centers that she visited provide youth with opportunities for education, life skills training, and the psychosocial support services displaced families need. 

They help to raise family awareness about children’s rights, gender-based violence, and other programs available to support Syrians, displaced families, and children affected by the civil war working to rebuild their lives.

The social media success didn’t happen overnight. Inanna says she wrote, directed, produced, edited and posted YouTube videos every single week. To help increase her audience, she collaborated on videos with friends that had bigger audiences, which helped to raise her own.

While working odd jobs to pay the bills, she became an influencer — someone with access to a large social media audiences who is seen by a brand as being able to persuade others to use their products. What Inanna started as a fun thing on the side with friends became a source of income she could count on.

The exposure also got a her part, fulfilling her dream to become an actress.

Since then, Inanna’s acting contracts are paying the bills, and even after she and the rest of the cast of the movie After won a People’s Choice Award for Best Drama Movie in 2019, she admits to still goofing around on YouTube with her friends.

Today, on her birthday, our #FridayFeminist is celebrating by promoting VISUS, the genderless streetwear brand she has launched with her brother Tony, saying they have designed the line “for those who refuse to conform and stay true to their vision.”

And who doesn’t love a good-looking, comfy pair of sweatpants during a home-based lockdown?

Even better, a percentage of the proceeds for the line are donated to the International Medical Corps (IMC) in support of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are loving how all of the orders come with a complimentary face mask.

For more information how you can get yours, visit @inanna.