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This 25-year-old woman has transformed from a young girl with a passion for creating content into a successful influencer, entrepreneur, and advocate for women’s empowerment.
Here is Nirosha Paniesalvam’s journey from being bullied and lonely to growing into an influential voice and advocate for women’s empowerment.
A humble beginning
Nirosha’s journey began in a small, quiet household, where she grew up without any siblings of her own and built her social life around friends and school.
I was a single child and school and friends were everything for me. After school, I found myself cooped up at home often due to strict limitations set by my mother about going out.
“As such, I often found solace in YouTube, where talking in front of a camera quickly became my comfort zone as I found it difficult to talk in front of a big audience. From there, that’s where I started spending time creating content on YouTube,” she reminisced.
This hobby soon turned into a passion, leading her to platforms like Instagram, where she discovered the potential of utilising social media to build a career.
Battling insecurities & searching for authenticity
While the life of an influencer is often being portrayed in a glitzy, luxurious light, it’s not without its own set of challenges.
“The hardest part of being a social media influencer is pulling the crowd,” Nirosha explains.
“There have been countless times where some who doubted the authenticity of my reviews.
“Honestly, my reviews are genuine. If I don’t like the product or feel it doesn’t work for me, I would tell the person in charge and decline the campaign. Authenticity is important because my audience believes in me,” she explains.
Another major challenge that came in Nirosha’s path was one of a personal level, where it touched upon the subject of body image.
“Growing up, I faced cruel comments about my size, which deeply impacted my self-esteem. People said I looked like a mother who gave birth to many children because of my body size. It just added on to my insecurities,” she recalls.
Determined to prove the haters wrong, Nirosha underwent a weight loss program and managed to reduce her weight. Sadly, the judgmental comments never ceased.
However, Nirosha has no intention of letting it get to her. “I realised that no matter how you look, people are still going to talk,” she said. “Some even accused me of taking medication to shed the pounds — something which I strongly deny.
Through this experience, I learned that I should be happy for myself and not take people’s criticism seriously.”
After pouring in a lot of hard work and overcoming these struggles, Nirosha now boasts of having over 51,000 followers on Instagram.
Guess she was the one who had the last laugh after all.
Building Liprosha
When asked what was the driving idea behind her lip care brand Liprosha, Nirosha candidly revealed that it was actually sparked by her lip care issues.
“I’ve tried using all kinds of lip balms and lip care products, but the results didn’t last long. This frustration eventually sparked the idea (of creating a lip car brand) and after extensive research and development, I launched Liprosha.
“My thought in creating Liprosha was this: Since I’m not the only one facing this problem, why not come up with my own brand?”
She added that the entire process took two full years and Liprosha is now a thriving venture praised by users for its effectiveness.
Balancing multiple roles
As an influencer, entrepreneur, and a married woman, it would be an understatement to say that Nirosha currently has her hands full, if not more.
“It’s not easy to manage everything. I try to embrace it and not put too much on myself. When it does get overwhelming, I always reached out to people around me,” she shared.
Aside from managing her image as an influencer and entrepreneur, Nirosha is also a passionate advocate of women empowerment, leading her to co-found the Brown Babe community during the MCO (Movement Control Order) with fellow content creators.
“We gather passionate women who want exposure in starting side businesses and seeking additional income. Last year, I organised the Boss Babe workshop, which focused on networking and self-grooming among women and there are plans for more workshops in the future,” she said.
Hitting rock bottom & rising again
Despite experiencing a relatively high level of success, Nirosha wasn’t immune to personal challenges that threatened to tear her life apart.
“There were times when I went through mental breakdowns and depression. I didn’t know what was going on with my life, no projects or job offers were coming in, and I was suffering financially.
I hit rock bottom at one point and thought to myself: How am I going to take care of my mother who wasn’t working and manage the house expenses?”
Amidst these struggles, Nirosha’s family became a pillar of support and was always there for her whenever she needed comfort and advice.
“Whenever I’m on the verge of not knowing what I am doing, I would find my loved ones to talk to for comfort— be it my husband, mother, in-laws, and best friends. They give me strength to move on, especially friends who are content creators too,” she shared gratefully.
When asked what she’d say to those aspiring to follow in her footsteps, Nirosha said that they should first pursue it as a hobby.
“Pursue your further education and find your career path first. Don’t fully commit to it but make it a part-time venture instead.
“I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for one to have a solid foundation before diving into the world of content creation as it is what will keep you grounded,” she said.
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