On the Rise: Louise N Barnard, Mastering Modeling and Music
Louise Barnard is not a household name, yet; but she may soon be. Barnard moved from Michigan to Miami and
Ivy Griffith
Louise Barnard is not a household name, yet; but she may soon be. Barnard moved from Michigan to Miami and has been working her way up the ladder of fame; building a solid fan base on Instagram and YouTube. Barnard started her career modeling, but now is branching into music as well; an industry where her roots run deep. CELEB sat down with Barnard to talk about her burgeoning career.
Michigan to Miami
Barnard may be from Michigan, but she fits right in with the vibe in Miami. You might even guess she was from the area if she didn’t tell you otherwise. When speaking of her roots, Barnard explained, “I grew up in a really creative family. My dad’s a musician, and an artist, and my mom’s an artist. She also worked set design and as a wardrobe person on movies. My sister makes music. So growing up, I always loved creating.”
Barnard continued, “I’m 24, and I live in Miami now but I’m from Michigan. I graduated from the University of Michigan in 2019, with a psychology degree, and came to Miami like three days after graduating. I feel like having a degree in psychology helps me with modeling and music, because I understand what people want; what the consumer wants. I can read the room a little better, with the knowledge I have.”
Barnard, being in the swim capital, definitely does some swim modeling. But her favorite kind of modeling is a bit more traditional; “I do a lot of swim and lifestyle modeling, but beauty is my favorite kind of modeling. It’s very serene, the way beauty photographers do it. Obviously, in Miami, there’s a lot of swim; but beauty and makeup are where my passion lie.”
But why did Barnard pick Miami, of all places? “I came from a small town of 400 people. I was choosing between Miami and Los Angeles, but LA just felt so saturated. I wanted to establish myself in a smaller city first, and then transition later when I was ready. I ended up finding an agent who helped me get signed just in time for Swim Week, I was really thrown into it. Then I signed with Next Management; that’s how I got my biggest campaigns, including Ulta, Spirit, and BoxyCharm.”
Barnard has been able to take her love of beauty, and turn it into a successful YouTube pursuit. “Across platforms, my followers are growing; I have 28k on Instagram, 78k on YouTube, and 67k on TikTok, but YouTube is my pride and joy. I love making videos on there. I started out with making hairstyle videos, and those picked up a lot of traction. It’s so important for content creators to make content that is relatable; you have to have an image, but YouTube viewers like the raw and real side as well. I’m definitely not shy about sharing my weird quirks that make me who I am.”
Modeling to Music
It’s not just YouTube that Barnard has figured out; she has figured out how to take her psychology degree and the roots she has in creating and art, and turn it into a successful modeling career as well. First, in modeling. “I love beauty modeling. My first big campaign ran in 2019, for Ulta. I was in their Spring, Summer, Fall store on a national level. I was so bummed because it was supposed to release in 2020, and I never got to see it in the store because of COVID. But a friend saw it on a billboard and sent me a picture, so that was cool. We did video, photo, product placement, everything. I also worked for Spencer’s and Spirit Halloween; I was Harley Quinn. I have that sort of bubbly and sassy personality, it was the perfect fit for Harley.”
Barnard laughed and added, “It was cool because the mall in Ann Arbor, where I grew up, one of my billboards was there. The friends I went to school with would sent me pictures of it, and that was awesome.”
Although Barnard has a successful modeling career under her belt, right now she’s focused on something else; “I’m focused on music. I have several singles I’m working on. Three are finished, and two are on the conveyer belt. I already have four singles out right now; one of them did really well. My artist name for that is Lua Lush. I really want to push that on my YouTube, making music videos and things like that. I want to merge my content.”
Barnard continued, “My genre is kind of pop/hip-hop/R&B. I grew up listening to rap, R&B and hip-hop, so I’m a product of the media I consume. I definitely love the idea of empowering women through music. I grew up listening to so many male artists. Growing up listening to that, the men are the subjects and the women are the objects; I want to reverse that. I want to create a voice for women where men are not objects, but kind of to the extreme reverse of the norm so people can understand that this is where we’re going and we can balance out the sexes.”
Louise’s Future
With such high aspirations in mind, what does Barnard have ahead? Music, modeling, and more. “Music is where I want my career to go. Music and modeling are both my passions.”
And Barnard does have advice for aspiring influencers; “You have to get to the point. You have to make sure you’re giving value to the viewer. Give people something they can use in their everyday life.”
With YouTube, and modeling, and singles coming out rapid fire; how does Barnard find time to look so beautiful? “I work out three to five times a week, but I really just watch what I eat. I don’t eat a lot of sweets, and I try to eat something green with every meal; that’s my new rule. I also only eat from 12PM to 7PM, so I try not to eat super late at night. As a model, you have to find a balance that’s healthy.”
And although she loves the beach and the warm weather, Miami may not be her home much longer; “I would love to get into acting, but I need to be in LA for that. My friend just moved there, and I think I might make that transition soon. It’s not in the cards right now; but it’s in my peripheral vision. LA is the endgame.”
Barnard’s ‘Real’ Factor
The influencer market is super saturated, so what makes an influencer stand out? It’s usually their own personality, whatever it is that makes them unique. Barnard explained thoughtfully, “Originally it started out as the most beautiful people got popular, but now viewers want the most authentic. Growing up, I’d see people on Instagram and be amazed by how perfect they looked. But now, people don’t want the super edited content. So authenticity is the direction it’s going on. TikTok is a great place for that factor to grow. It’s bigger than Instagram now; and it’s growing.”
Barnard has figured out how to harness the factor of authenticity and give people something of value; exactly what she recommends other people doing. In a world rife with influencers, Barnard stands out as someone with the skills to make her dreams a reality.