“Take that jacket off,” Kimberly Jackson instructs her daughter, Brittne, on a 40-something-degree November afternoon. They’re standing on a Hudson River pier overlooking the New York City skyline, filming fitness tutorials to post on Brittne’s Instagram page, @BrittneBabe, which has more than 1.1 million followers.
Brittne, a 23-year-old certified personal trainer and star of the account, is shivering but unzips her cropped hoodie anyway, revealing a hot pink sports bra. “She'll look like she's on a beach, but we're in New Jersey,” says Kimberly, 42.
Both women have gone to great lengths to make Brittne — one of the few black women in a primarily white fitness industry — and her brand stand out. For example, although Brittne was raised in Essex County, New Jersey, she and her mom decided to move to a city on the Hudson River about a year ago specifically for its Instagram-worthy views of the New York City skyline, which make a perfect backdrop for outdoor fitness videos. They also made sure their apartment building had both a gym for Brittne to film workouts and a pool for her to pose alongside — even though she doesn't swim. "Our house is like a prop to us," Kimberly says.
“It's not so much about trying to be perfect or phony,” adds Brittne. “I think it's more so about things being visually appealing because that’s the point of social media.”
With heavy direction from her mother, Brittne's business has raked in $2 million since the pair co-founded it in 2013. “If it wasn't for me, she'd probably be a butt model!” Kimberly says. "She is a very hard worker — but only when you push her."
The company sells Brittne Babe-branded fitness guides, swimsuits, subscriptions to original wellness content, appearances, and sponsored social-media posts. Brittne and Kimberly split the business's profits down the middle, per their contractual agreement. "It hasn't been sticky for us probably because we've been doing so well," Kimberly says.
Kimberly once worked in sales for brands like Weight Watchers and was working at a trade school when she quit her job in 2013 to help monetize Brittne Babe full-time. "I didn't have that much money saved but knew I could be successful doing sales for my own business," Kimberly explains of her reasoning to jump ship.
Although Brittne's main role is content production — she writes blog posts, edits videos, shoots and edits any photos she doesn't appear in (for food posts, for instance), and works on the site's graphic design — she's still in school and plans to graduate this spring with a degree in exercise science. As a result, Kimberly often clocks more hours.
"I have to do all the big-girl stuff," Kimberly says of her role, which involves communicating with their accountant, attorney, product-fulfillment team of three people, four web developers, and one marketing consultant. She works late into the night analyzing Brittne's competitors, like the Tone It Up Girls — all on top of taking photos and videos that Brittne appears in, although she recently contracted a professional videographer.
Some might call Kimberly a “momager,” but she doesn’t see it that way. “I cannot stand that word because I'm not just her momager,” she says. “I'm her partner. I'm her business partner. We're in this business 50/50.”
For instance, although it's not her forte, Kimberly helps with content production by filming Brittne exercising. Although Kimberly has no background (or particular interest) in fitness, both she and Brittne research exercises online before they go on location. “I make Brittne do the crazy exercises, because she's always like, 'Oh, I can't do that.' And I'm just like, 'Yes you can,'” Kimberly says of particularly challenging moves. “I think she likes someone to tell her what to do, but only me.”
Back on the pier, Kimberly angles a camera toward her daughter. “What workout do you want to do?” she asks.
“I can do a squat, like...” Brittne trails off, demonstrating a squat variation. With Kimberly’s approval, she does 10 or so reps, then pauses to watch the footage.
Satisfied with the first take, Brittne launches into another move — this time, a leg lift — as Kimberly circles with a long-lensed, professional-looking camera. “Pull your stomach tighter. Now flex,” Kimberly says. On command, Brittne lifts her shirt and flexes her well-defined six-pack. “Back,” Kimberly says, and Brittne turns away from her mother to flex her biceps.
When Brittne was little, Kimberly remembers asking her daughter what she wanted to to be when she grew up. "God,” Brittne answered.
"I wanted to be someone important," Brittne says.
To give Brittne the best shot at success, Kimberly moved them to West Orange, New Jersey, in 2008 to send Brittne to the best possible charter high school. The year before she received her diploma in 2012, Brittne launched her Instagram account and amassed 40,000 followers by the end of her freshman year of college at Montclair State University in 2013.
Kimberly thinks her daughter's race and body type — she often posted photos in her track uniform — resonated with her followers. "People were just really excited to have someone that looked like them," Kimberly says. "They loved her body, they loved her waist, and she always had her hair and makeup done."
In 2012, her posts began to appear on Instagram's old Popular page, a predecessor to today's Explore page, which surfaced accounts like Brittne's and helped her gain exposure. While generally well-received, some of Brittne's early photos provoked allegations that she Photoshopped her waist, which is curved due to scoliosis, to look smaller. (In response to haters, she posts videos of herself from all angles to prove her body is real.)
Fans' unrelenting interest in Brittne's appearance — "They were complimenting me, it was more good than bad," she says — led her to post more photos of herself wearing workout gear.
Brittne got her fitness certification in 2014 and used giveaways to expand her reach, resulting in thousands of e-mail inquiries from clients each day and a steady stream of new followers. The response set off Kimberly's sales radar: "This can be something serious," she told Brittne, then 19. "It felt like she was powerful enough to do her own thing.”
Encouraged by her mom, Brittne launched a website to sell online health coaching and personal training directly to consumers. Kimberly stood behind her daughter from the get-go. “When everyone was like, 'Oh, Brittne, you're going through a phase! That whole fitness thing, you're not gonna take that seriously.' My mom was was like, you know what? I see [a future] in this,” Brittne says.
Gaining traction from Instagram's Popular page, Brittne's following grew to 400,000 people, she says. She also exchanged shout-outs with other influencers, which led to several hundred thousand more followers. But networking proved challenging.
“Being black and getting into the fitness industry hasn't been easy,” she says. “In the beginning, people didn't want to network or collaborate with me, so I had to work harder to build my brand. Now that I've done that, people hit me up all the time."
Toward the end of 2014, Brittne sold a fitness program that raked in $10,000 in the first week after launch. Next, Kimberly encouraged her to create fitness guides to sell for $10 to $15 each. Later, in response to followers who asked about Brittne's wardobe, the duo bought wholesale bikinis and resold them.
"I do all the business, and she does the things I definitely cannot do, like stay in shape," Kimberly says. On top of school and work, Brittne typically works out four days a week, running or cycling to her gym to clock cardio, then circuit training either at the gym or at home. "I just try to get all my school stuff done on one day per week so I can focus more on work," Brittne says.
After filming Brittne's workout, she and Kimberly shuffle into a café's corner table, Kimberly at one end and Brittne at the other, one empty chair between them.
"I just like my space," Kimberly says, and Brittne agrees.
In addition to Kimberly's big plans for Brittne Babe, which include expanding coverage beyond fitness topics, she'd eventually like Brittne to get her master’s degree in exercise science and find her own place.
For now, the mother-daughter duo plans to move together to Los Angeles, which offers even more beautiful backdrops for videos and photos, after Brittne gets her undergraduate degree. It's a plan they derived together since they both prefer warm weather. However, it particularly excites Brittne, who hopes proximity to Hollywood will help her pursue acting — which Kimberly encouraged after a Halloween workout video where Brittne plays a convincing zombie performed well on her Instagram page.
"One thing about Brittne that if you're like, 'Brittne, you can do that,' she'll run with it," Kimberly says. "Everyone just automatically assumes that I'm Brittne's puppet master, but I'm just her motivator. I'm just in her ear to encourage her to go."
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Kimberly is 43. She is actually 42.
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Elizabeth Narins is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer and a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan.com, where she wrote about fitness, health, and more. Follow her at @ejnarins.
