Today we’d like to introduce you to Fabeina Riggins.
Fabeina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Fabeina (Fah-bee-ah-nuh) Riggins. I was born in Japan; and when I was 6 years old, I moved to San Diego, California. I am 20 years young and I am a digital content creator attending Benedict College, a HBCU in the heart of South Carolina.
As a child, I loved to perform. One of my earliest memories of content creation was the creation of “The Fabeina Show” on PhotoBooth on my family’s Mac desktop computer. I created hundreds of videos saying hello to my fanbase like I had thousands of people watching on the other side of the screen.
“The Fabeina Show” became pretty short-lived as I grew older and focused on other hobbies such as acting. I had my first big acting debut in my elementary school after-school program’s “Peter Pan” where I had the honor of playing Captain Hook. I loved every minute of it. I knew pretty quickly after that play that I wanted to become an actress. I begged my parents to enroll me in acting agencies, but this career path was too expensive for my parents to fund at the time. With 4 kids and two dogs, a child acting career was just not in the cards for me. Heartbroken, I never gave up on my dreams. I continued to participate in theater performances and even student government roles in order to feed my passion.
The exponential rise of social media in middle school quickly began to turn my acting interests towards YouTube. Everyone wanted to be a YouTuber during this period: YouTubers offered a lifestyle of glamor and freedom that many of us middle-schoolers could only dream of at the time. Watching YouTubers such as Kingsley, Tre Melvin, O2L, NigaHiga, and JustKiddingNews, planted a seed in me. Seeing such authentic people on the internet with positive feedback truly inspired me. I wanted to show my true self, just as they did. And YouTube was the perfect platform to express myself and find those that appreciate the authenticity. But I was plagued with the anxiety of others thinking I was ‘cliche’ and that I was ‘weird.’ However, God led me to ask my parents for a camera to start a YouTube channel, and I was met with nothing but enthusiasm and a brand-new camera. I was around 13 when I made my first YouTube video titled, “Intro to my Channelo.” Quickly soon after, I auditioned and got chosen as a new member of the collab channel, YoursTrulyXO. I began to post every Sunday. With a growing presence on YouTube, I began to create other forms of social media such as Instagram. I loved it. But there comes a time in a growing woman’s life that many of her fiery passions begin to dwindle away. And at the beginning of high school, I stopped posting on my YouTube channel and focus on my social presence on Instagram, the most popular social media platform during this time. It was here I would post small skits on my Instagram page to keep my passion alive. But as many high schoolers know all too well, anxiety took over and others’ opinions began to become far more important to me. I didn’t want to ruin my “digital image” and cared all too much about what others thought about me and I soon killed my passion for online media.
The majority of my high school career was spent focusing on theater. The theater was a completely new space where I knew no one, mostly because my friends thought it was lame and didn’t want to participate. I felt safe in a space where I would express some form of passion. But when I realized I was in a space where students were taking their acting careers far more seriously than me, all confidence went out the window. Every single play I was either cast as a minute or ensemble role. I was embarrassed that I had dreams of becoming an actor when I could not even come close to landing a key role. My classmates, all younger than me, had gotten main character roles for multiple years in a row where I would not even be cast in some plays. I loved to perform, so I didn’t let my insecurities take me out of the theater altogether. I continued to stick with it, just happy to be involved.
My high school career was truly on autopilot, and it wasn’t until the start of my college journey where I began to see the light. But, that does not mean I wasn’t struggling my first year of college. I am living life trying to get through life every day. Lost. Not knowing what I want to do when I “grow up.” I was studying to become an athletic trainer, but the one athletic training class I took my second semester left me unfulfilled and frustrated. I quickly changed my major. I wasn’t doing anything I loved during this time, just a whole lot of bad habits, retail therapy, and eating problems. My passion for performing was like it never existed. It was in March of 2020 during the lockdown that my mother was in my ear telling me the multiple online career opportunities I can do; some of which included a translator or a travel agent. She’s only trying to help because who knows me better than my mom? But one day she told me about the current boom of success for digital content creators during the lockdown due to their restrictions. This interested me, and I soon created a TikTok. At first, I was reluctant because of the recent TikTok craze. I was never one for the mainstream. But I created my account and I quickly took a liking to it. A match lit inside of me and the fire quickly spread back into YouTube. I revived my YouTube channel, and with my growing Instagram presence, I was seeing success. And then something clicked. I thought about myself. I thought of the 6-year-old me. I thought about the 13-year-old me. I thought about the 17-year-old me that I was still trying to find the pieces of herself. And then I thought about the 40-year-old me. Am I going to live the rest of my life to create a life for what is now a shell of what I used to be? Am I going to live my own life for the approval of others?
It was after this moment in life I took another break from everything and connected with God. I needed to connect with God so He can point me in the direction He wants me to go. I strengthened my faith, began to heal my trauma, cut my ‘friends’ out of my life who were no longer serving me, and began to reconnect with myself. I was determined to go back to that girl who created “The Fabeina Show” for her thousands of fans.
I rebooted my TikTok account in 2021, and the first video I posted on my reboot went viral with 3,000 views. I knew that being a content creator is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I revived my passion for performing and digital content creation and people took notice. My analytics across all social media apps began to skyrocket as I reconnected with my childhood passion. On Instagram, my highest viewed video was viewed over 284,000 times. I am on the journey to becoming a full-time content creator making content about my life across various platforms. I create funny videos, post destination photos, collab with online brands, and just bring my full unapologetic self to the internet to inspire everyone and anyone who is watching to pursue their passions and dreams relentlessly. I continue to gain so much support from my love, my family, my friends, and even complete strangers, and for that, I will forever continue to grow and inspire in honor of them.
I want to thank my love for believing in me.
I want to thank my family for supporting me.
I want to thank my friends for encouraging me.
Lastly, I want to thank my Creative Director, Stylist, Photographer, Lana Hatchett for her hard work and one-of-a-kind artistry.
A piece of advice to give to all those who may be scared of what others think: Isaiah 54:17Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was 17 when a comment was made by a friend, a person I still call a dear friend to this day, completely shook me to my core and changed the trajectory of my life. She was always in productions with me, we actually did our first play together and became close ever since. It was obvious she was more talented than me as she quickly rose in the theater ranks and began getting more significant roles. On a trip, I had confided that I wanted to major in theater and become an actor and she replied something along the lines of “why do you still want to be an actress when you don’t get cast?” It completely shredded me to pieces. A part of me died that day. The self-hatred began to pour inside me as I questioned every single decision I have ever made. “Why am I in the theater?” “You never get cast, why are you still going?” “She’s right, you didn’t get cast in big roles, you’ll never be an actor.” I was embarrassed I put myself in that position that others knew that I was failing and had questioned why I was a part of their production.
When actually in the industry of content creation, staying consistent is the biggest obstacle you have to overcome. Especially because with content creation, you have to be comfortable with failing. Being a digital content creator does not mean all your videos will go viral. In fact, out of 100 videos many people post, maybe 2 will go viral. It’s the 98/2 rule. Getting discouraged by not seeing success can be easy, but when you love what you are doing, every failure is a chance to improve or work on another aspect of digital content creation. It can super easy to get caught up with the numbers, but when you love what you are doing, even 1 view is a win! And maintaining this mindset allows me to see every ‘failure’ as a learning opportunity. Just like athletes, consistency allows you to get better in your field. When I first started creating digital content on Tiktok, I was terrible. But, with consistency my video quality and quantity the more I honed in on my craft.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a digital content creator. I create content for social media to entertain, inspire, educate, and inform people! I specifically create the majority of my content on TikTok and Instagram. I use these social media platforms to entertain my audiences with my authentic self as well as show others my day-day lifestyle. I am most proud of my creative abilities. Not only do I create content for social media, I create art, I model, I act, and I advocate! What sets me apart from others is my abilities to think outside the box. When people go through my social media platforms and content, people take notice of my unconventional social media presence, thoughts, photos, and fashion sense. I dislike the mainstream and trends. Don’t get me wrong I like to follow some trends! I am a trend maker, because somebody has to do it! I also love to connect with my audience through polls and nostalgia! I think many creators have a hard time doing that, but your audience is who supports you! Getting to know your audience and your audience getting to know you is key!
Also, another aspect that is unique about me is I always utilize my own networks in order for those around me to become successful. For example, the photos you are viewing is from my Creative Director Lana Hatchett who has been a longtime friend! I always want to see those around me succeed and will do whatever it takes to give my friends and loved ones the opportunities to shine and show their work!
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
A quality that is most important to my success is my faith. Many people mistake my faith in being stubborn or hard-headed when in actuality, it’s faith. Life is extremely hard and unpredictable. When I finally came to terms with this and had faith in my God and the purpose, he has planned for me, everything came together. It was hard not to see that this is what my God wants me to pursue. I truly had to ground myself as a human being before I focused on other worldly responsibilities such as my careers and goals. Understanding myself and my faith is the direct reason and the most important piece to my success.
Contact Info:
- Email: fabeinariggs@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/fabeina
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fxbeina
- Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPd6bmbAP/
Image Credits
Lana Hatchett
