Karina Garcia’s a Living YouTube Legend

Donning a baby pink hoodie sweater, a sleek half ponytail, and freshly manicured black-tipped nails, bubbly DIY and family lifestyle vlogger Karina Garcia Aguilar caught up with Jellysmack via video call from her Southern California home. 

The 28-year-old social media content creator and her family have gone through some big changes over the past year. Among them: Karina and husband, Raul Aguilar, welcomed their first child––a baby girl named Mia Violeta––in April of 2021.

Karina Garcia is a mainstay in the YouTube creator economy. Having found a mass audience relatively early on in her content creation journey, Garcia has earned longevity and a lucrative livelihood thanks to her strategic thinking as a personal brand and entrepreneur.

She initially rose to prominence on YouTube on her self-titled channel where she began uploading a mixture of beauty, vlog, DIY, and craft content in early 2015. 

“Before I ever even started with YouTube, I would DIY a lot of things on my makeup vanity,” Garcia recalls of her pre-stardom life. “I remember for my birthday––which is on February 8––I had done some lipsticks. I basically mixed lipgloss with some eyeshadow. They came out so pretty and vibrant. So I did that on my birthday, and three days later, I went ahead and posted that video.”

Karina’s positive disposition, playful sense of humor, and curious nature (which has lent itself to some humorous antics) caught on with audiences quickly. Seven years later, she has more than 15 million followers from all across the globe. 

Garcia comes from humble origins. Prior to finding success with her YouTube channel, Karina worked as a waitress. She is one of six siblings, including her twin sister Mayra. Mayra, who often guest stars in Karina’s content, is one of several Garcia siblings that create content of their own. 

After the meteoric success of her channel, Karina was able to help both of her parents retire. A few years ago, she was able to move the Garcia family from the two-bedroom home they shared while she was growing up into a beautiful, large six-bedroom home in Riverside, California.

For having found fame and fortune at a very young age (she was a multi-millionaire by age 23 and profiled in Forbes at 24), Garcia’s down-to-earth, genuine nature has translated well on camera––and held up over the years.

Though it may appear as second nature to her now, Garcia wasn’t always at ease in front of cameras as she is today. That took practice and build up––nearly three years’ worth. As with many creators starting out, Karina had to initially overcome the anxiety that comes with putting yourself out there. 

“The very first video that I made was in 2012,” she recalls. “It was literally just me talking and trying to do vlogs. I got really embarrassed about them, because other people in my family started watching them, so I privated all of them. They probably only ever got 100 views or so.”

It goes without saying now, but she would overcome those fears. On February 11, 2015, Garcia found the boldness to post a video publically for all the world to see. 

The risk would pay off. It all happened pretty fast. Within two years of her first (public) upload on YouTube, then 23-year-old Karina Garcia’s life had completely changed.

“I look back at my first videos and I am shocked at how raw I was,” Garcia says. “I feel that’s what people liked, that I left stuff like that in. It made me more relatable.”

Karina’s content is wide-ranging. Over the course of her creator journey, she’s explored the genres of beauty, home and family life, pranks and challenges, comedy skits, and of course––the slime. 

When Garcia began regularly uploading make-your-own slime videos in early 2016, her YouTube channel scaled by millions of subscribers. That popularity and scale brought along product and brand partnership opportunities, including a chance to develop her own DIY craft kit product line.

In 2017, Garcia partnered with Brandable to launch kids activity product line Craft City. The debut lineup featured DIY slime kits designed by Karina. 

Within six months of its launch, the Craft City line brought in over $3 million in sales and sold out in many locations. Shortly after, Craft City was quick to expand its product offerings. Today, Karina Garcia’s slime product line can be found at nationwide retailers including Target, Amazon, and Wal-Mart. 

Interestingly, despite the commercial success of her slime content (and subsequently, product), the most viewed video on Garcia’s channel wasn’t a slime centric one. Instead, it’s what shaped up to be a dark horse viral video, one featuring Garcia’s foray into the tingly sensation world of sound exploration genre ASMR. Her video “I Tried ASMR.. Eating Raw Honeycomb, Slime, Aloe Vera (Sticky Crunchy Sounds)” has well over 40 million views on YouTube. 

If there’s something to take away from this, it’s that no one should put Karina Garcia in a box. Her ASMR videos represent less than 3% of her overall content….but still managed to snag the top spot in her top-performing channel’s history. It goes to show that whatever Garcia tries, the internet is ready to try it with her. 

Since the birth of her daughter Mia, Garcia has primarily uploaded new content to her smaller, more personal YouTube channel, Karina Bear Vlogs. The one-million subscriber strong channel is notably differentiated from her primary channel’s DIY content. 

Karina Bear Vlogs gives Garcia fans a more personal look at her family life in personal vlog format. Uploads over the last year have featured Garcia family events including quinceañeras, weddings, pregnancies, and new additions to the family. 

Karina’s early motherhood days uploads have featured her navigating all the new variables and experiences that come along with being a new mother. And by extension, it has also helped her relate to new audiences and explore new content topics.

“I’ve connected on so many levels with people. I connect with kids with the slime. Now, I’m connecting with a lot of moms. Even my fertility struggles to get to being a mom,” Karina reflects. “That’s my favorite part. Connecting with people in all aspects of life.”

Over the last few years, Karina’s content has occasionally branched into discussing more difficult and personal topics on her vlog, such as health problems and loss in the family.

“I’ve shared so much of my life with YouTube,” Garcia says. “We have shared literally everything, the good and the bad.” 

As she charges into her eighth year as a content creator, staying adaptable is a quality Garcia admires about her own favorite creators. 

“Someone I’ve looked up to a lot my entire career is Alisha Marie,” Garcia says. “She’s done all kinds of stuff…DIY, back-to-school. I like what she’s done. She’s been on YouTube for so long. I really look up to her,” she adds.

Less than two years ago, Karina joined Jellysmack’s Creator Program in order to bring her content onto platforms other than YouTube, where she had first found success. At the time, her presence on Facebook and Snapchat were minimal. 

But that would change fast. Today, Garcia’s Facebook page has more than three million page follows. In 2021 alone, Garcia’s content brought in several hundred million views on Facebook.

Additionally, Karina was one of the first creators to launch a Snapchat show in partnership with Jellysmack.

Less than one year since her Snapchat show’s launch, Garcia’s content brought in well over a billion views on the social app, making her one of the highest-performing creators on the platform. 

Those audience gains grew Garcia’s net social subscriber base by more than 35% over the last two years –– a robust trend that has held strong well into 2022. 

As such, Karina isn’t just holding her own on social media. Even after seven years, her growth rate continues to increase.

That is good news for Garcia, who has a passion for creating content. It’s something she is looking to do as a long-term career. 

“I hope I’m doing this in ten years,” Garcia says. That’s all I can hope for. I’m really just taking it a day at a time with content and connecting with people.”

By the looks of Karina’s latest posts, the Garcia household is a busy one, full of life and family. Now a wife and mother herself, 28-year-old Karina Garcia is starting a new chapter. If history is any indicator, it’s one she’ll share with the candor and humor that she has become known for. 

Over the years, Karina has diligently carved room for creative freedom and exploration. Coupled with the significant life transitions Garcia has personally undergone, all signs point to her continuing to evolve and grow as both a creator and an entrepreneur. 

Between her slime videos, DIY lipsticks, baby mama pregnant dance, and ASMR videos, Karina Garcia has been lightening things up and making her audience of millions laugh for the better part of a decade.

She’s entering YouTube legend territory, with plenty of room to run. Whatever she’s up to, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Internet just can’t get enough of Karina Garcia. 

“I’ve always just been myself.”