20 Interesting Facts About The Famous Beauty Guru, Jaclyn Hill

If you watch YouTube and love makeup, there's a pretty good chance that you're subscribed to Beauty Guru Jaclyn Hill. Hill, who currently has 5.1 million subscribers, is a popular YouTuber or Beauty Guru, whose channel is dedicated to all things beauty from tutorials, hauls, reviews, and challenges. Despite the main focus of her channel being makeup, she does post the occasional vlog or Q&A, so that her subscribers can get to know her better, and get an inside look at the life of Jaclyn Hill.

Known for her loud personality, blinding white smile, and candid demeanor since the beginning of her YouTube career in 2011, over the years, Hill has amassed millions of loyal followers.

Across her various social media platforms, she is able to interact with her beloved followers and share her life with the world. From serious topics like her family troubles growing up, her struggles with mental health, and rough times in her marriage, to dreams, like her burning desire to visit Bora Bora with her entire family, she tells it all and as it is. Here are 20 facts about the famous Beauty Guru Jaclyn Hill.

20 She Got Married At 19 Years Old

Hill has been married since 2009 to Jon Hill, a musician who graduated with a degree in sound engineering and works as a studio session drummer.

The couple first met when Jaclyn was only 15 years old. Jon visited Jaclyn's house with a mutual friend of theirs, and she recalls lying on her couch watching a movie and immediately taking interest in him when he walked in the room. Despite Hill having a boyfriend at the time, she always knew that she would eventually marry Jon. When they were older and both single, they began a relationship.

Six months into dating, the mutually revealed to each other that they wanted to get married.

However, in a video Hill made with her husband, it was revealed that they had actually split up during their marriage twice due to her husband's substance issues. The first time they split up, Hill left town with her mother while Jon was at work in hopes that her departure would act as a wakeup call and recruited his family to help after trying to convince him for months to get help. He eventually did get it together, with the exception of a minor incident six weeks after they reunited. This time, Jon made the decision to go get help and has remained on track since then.

19 She Was Previously In A Dysfunctional Relationship

Hill is typically very open and forward with her subscribers, and is no different when it comes to talking about her past relationships. In a 30-minute video posted on her channel in March 2016, Hill discusses the relationship she was in before she married her husband, which she described as dysfunctional.

She divulged to her viewers that the relationship with her ex-boyfriend was terrible and that she does not know or understand why she put up with it or him for so long. Before the relationship began, Hill noted that he intrigued her because of the attention he gave her and the fact that he was so sweet to her. “It's sad, but I was like a dog doing tricks for treats. That's basically what our relationship was.”

Hill felt that the only thing that was important was that she needed to make things right and make him happy again. She disregarded her own happiness in order to satisfy someone else. Hill went through three and a half years of this before finally realizing that the relationship was unhealthy.

18 She's Filmed A Video Collaboration With Kim Kardashian

In July of 2017, Hill filmed a “Get Ready With Me & Kim Kardashian” video for her channel in collaboration with Kardashian's cosmetic line KKW Beauty, for the launch of the brand's inaugural product. The video consists of Kardashian and Hill doing their makeup and chatting. During the video, Kardashian revealed that Hill's video reviewing the KKW lip kit collaboration with Kylie Cosmetics was the first she had ever watched on YouTube. Hill spoke very highly of her experience meeting Kardashian, saying that she was very sweet and kind to Hill and her mother.

However, Hill received a ton of criticism from viewers saying that she was acting over the top and cutting Kardashian off in the video.

There have been a handful of gossip channels that have dissected the video and made edits mocking Hill each time she "supposedly" spoke over Kardashian. Hill has since explained in a "Chit Chat Get Ready With Me" video what the reasons for her unusually aggressive mannerisms were. Hill explained that before the video shoot began, the producer approached Hill instructing her to carry the conversation since Kardashian had never done anything like this before. “I put that pressure on me, and I wished I didn't.” She admits that she was bothered by the way she was acting once she had seen the video, which was edited by the studio they filmed at, and “didn't care for the footage.” She used this as a learning experience for the future.

17 Hill Was Raised On Her Family's Farm In Illinois

Hill was raised on her family's farm in Mineral, Illinois, a property that had been in her family for over four generations. She resided there with her father James, mother Robin, older brother Nicholas and sister Rachel up until the age of seven years old.

When she was seven, her father was involved in a car accident when he collided with a semi-truck that hit him head-on and crushed his car. This accident resulted in metal rods and plates being implanted in his legs. The family could no longer live up north during the winter because the metal implants would freeze.

Hill recalls her father not being able to spend long periods of time outside during the winter because his legs would freeze. So, the family began working towards relocating to a warmer state. In January 1998, her family made the move down to Florida. According to her wiki page, her father's beliefs also played a role in this as he felt inspired and called upon to spread the word as an evangelist.

16 Before Her YouTube Career, She And Her Husband Struggled To Make Ends Meet

When Hill and her husband first got married, they had “absolutely nothing” as they were both extremely young. They started their marriage with only the money they had received from their wedding.

At the time, Hill and her husband had regular jobs. She was working at MAC cosmetics and he was working as a waiter at a restaurant. Hill says that they struggled to pay their bills and that their situation got progressively worse for two and half years.

Hill even admitted that they were only able to afford Wi-Fi and cable once they had been married for three years because it was a luxury they couldn't previously afford.

When they weren't working, they would stay home because they “had no money to do anything, no money to go anywhere.” Hill told her subscribers that when she received her first paycheck from YouTube, she and her husband spent the entirety of the money on groceries. “We literally got straight in our car, we drove to Publix [super market] and spent every penny of that check on groceries.” Even during the most difficult of times, Hill always had faith that their situation would not be permanent and that one day they would live in a beautiful home with the life they always imagined living.

15 She Lives In Tampa, Florida

Unlike many of her fellow YouTube peers who relocate to Los Angeles once their careers take off, Hill is not a California girl, and probably never will be!

She often visits California for work, and sometimes even brings her family along with her, but would not consider moving there. This is due to a couple of reasons. One of them is because she's terrified of earthquakes. Hill remembers one time where she visited California the night before she left, early on in the morning there was a minor earthquake. “The chandeliers were shaking and the ground felt like it did this little roll,” Hill said that at the time, she truly thought she was going to faint.

Hill enjoys living in Tampa because of the privacy that it gives her. “Here, I get to live my humble life with my family and it's quiet out here in Florida.” Hill acknowledges that California is probably the ideal place for her business, as she could easily film video collaborations with other YouTubers and influencers as well as network and connect with other individuals in the industry. But her job and things to do with her career will never be as important as Hill's personal life, especially because her whole family resides in Florida.

14 Before Doing YouTube, She Worked At MAC Cosmetics

Before her YouTube career, Hill worked at MAC and loved her overall experience working for the cosmetics company.

When she was working at the MAC store, her clients that would regularly get their makeup done by Hill would ask her to make videos on how to recreate the makeup look, so that they wouldn't have to keep paying the fee in order for them to have their makeup done. At the time, Hill had no idea what subscribers were or that it was even possible to make money off of YouTube. She had no idea that it was a career path, let alone the fact that it would come to be her own.

Even though she has found major success on YouTube, and it is now her primary source of income, she doesn't consider herself to be famous, nor does she keep making videos for the money.

“I started this [YouTube] because I'm a makeup artist who loves to do makeup. If I was not sitting on camera applying makeup, I would be doing some sort of workshop or… something teaching people how to do makeup, working with the public. Doing what I'm doing on camera, but not on camera… I'm in this because I love this.” Even if she weren't doing YouTube, she says she would still be working in makeup.

13 Family Is Her Number One Priority

If there is one thing to know about Hill, it's that her family means everything to her. While she has publicly said that she does not plan on having children, her family is still extremely important. She says that her mother is her "number one best friend in the entire world” and that the most rewarding experience in her career so far has been being able to hire her family to work for her and her company. “The day that I got to hire my mom and have her work for me and to be able to give her a job… It's been the best reward.”

Her happiness comes from her family, she will love them no matter what and they keep her grounded: “That's where I go to recharge my battery.” She is extremely close with both her brother and sister and as a result, she loves spending time with her nieces and nephews. Since her siblings are much older than her, she has been around for every step of her nieces and nephews lives and has always been surrounded by children. For the majority of Hill's life, she has had a dream of owning a huge house where she would be able to host her entire family for dinners and holiday gatherings like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. “I'm very family oriented”

12 Her Interest In Makeup Began At A Young Age

Hill's interest and love for makeup began when she was very young, so much so that she doesn't even remember the exact age she began wearing makeup.

Hill claims that she was two years old when her interest in makeup began. She remembers stealing her mother's lipsticks and hiding them under her bed. At three, Hills mother began gifting her chapsticks for Christmas, which Hill would pretend were her own lipsticks that she would collect in a box and store under her bed. Hill said in a Q&A on her YouTube channel that she grew up with her sister who is seven years older than her and her mother whom she claims has “always been a glamazon”. Because of this, she was constantly surrounded by makeup, which allowed her to experiment and play with it as a child. She also notes that her mother was very comfortable with Hill expressing herself through makeup at a young age.

“I have pictures of a family Christmas card where I'm wearing dark purple lipstick, and I'm seven or eight years old.”

Hill personally does not understand her mother's reasoning: “If I had a daughter, I'd be like 'You are not leaving the house looking like that!'”

11 She Struggles With Anxiety And Panic Attacks

Hill does not often talk about her anxiety on her channel, but she does admit that she “has anxiety, big time.” She has gone to therapy, to church, tried yoga and tired natural remedies all in attempts to treat her anxiety. Despite all these alternative methods Hill has tried, she has achieved the best results when she “gets out of her own head”.

Hill has made significant progress, and is now fine with admitting to herself and others that she has anxiety because it's “a lot better now”. However, Hill used to suffer from severe panic attacks, which began when she was 15 years old. She vividly remembers her first panic attack, which she describes as “awful and crippling”, preventing her from doing anything in her life because she would constantly panic about everything. Hill understands how bad anxiety can get and remembers a time when she spent so much time in her bed that her body left an imprint on her mattress. She has since learned to cope with her anxiety and knows how to calm herself down when she feels herself getting anxious by asking herself “What's the worst that's going to happen right now?” and reminding herself “I can't control the situation, but I can control how I handle it.”

10 She Was Homeschooled

Hill has mentioned many times in her videos that she did not attend regular middle school or high school, but was instead homeschooled and often refers to herself in her videos as a “homeschooled jungle freak.”

After her father's devastating car accident, the family moved from their farm in Mineral, Illinois where Hill's father gave up farming and instead pursued the life of a missionary, traveling the world and visiting third world countries and places like Africa and India to preach the word of God as well as donate clothes, toys, food and water.

Hill became homeschooled because she would often go on mission trips with her father and the rest of her family.

She graduated high school right when she turned 16 and attended college in Sarasota, Florida where she studied photography. While she was in school, Hill would do her model's makeup for photo shoots. She was so good at doing makeup that other students on campus who were also studying photography would ask Hill if she could do their model's make up as well. She was constantly doing makeup, so much so that she concentrated more on that, and less on photography. She eventually realized that she enjoyed and would rather do makeup than take photos.

9 Doing YouTube Helped Her Self-Confidence

One of Hill's favorite parts of being a YouTuber and running her own channel is the self-confidence it has brought her.

She explains in a video that when she began making videos, she was very insecure in her own skin. “I hated the sound of my own voice, I hated the way my I looked on camera-my face just looked so crooked and weird… I was just so hard on myself.” As Hill's Youtube career successfully progressed, she got used to looking at her face on camera all the time. As a result, she became more comfortable and confident in her own skin and that helped her find self-love. While being in the spotlight can be scary and difficult, opening yourself up to a space full of potential criticism, Hill has managed to overcome any and all negativity. She has become so comfortable in her own skin that she has even uploaded videos a couple of times without a single drop of makeup on her face. In her “Snapchat Question & Answer” video, she reminds her followers that they don't have to wear makeup to be comfortable in their own skin.

8 When She No Longer Enjoys Making Videos, She Will Stop

Currently, Hill has no intentions to stop making videos, but she has said that she will stop doing them at some point: “ I don't think I'm going to be a 50-year-old lady still doing Youtube. I don't think anyone is going to want to watch me!”

Hill will always stay true to who she is and the fact that she continues to make videos because she loves engaging with and meeting her subscribers, and will never continue just to please people or make money.

Over the course of her career, people have become concerned about Hill's personality changing and that she may eventually become a sellout.

Every time this concern is brought up, Hill insists that she will never reach the point where she makes videos solely for money. “I've always said, the second I stop to love YouTube, I'm done.” Hill has no idea when or if YouTube will begin to die out, or if people would still be interested in watching her. She knows that she will not be popular forever and that, in the future, YouTube may not even be as big of an industry as it is now. But ideally, she would like to make videos for as long as possible.

7 She Developed An Intense Fear Of Flying During Adulthood

Because of her father's missionary work, Hill spent a lot of time flying on airplanes during her childhood, even having flown to Africa nine times. But as she got older, she developed a severe fear of flying. She even stated that if she were to fly somewhere just to do a meet and greet, she must really love you, because she was most likely terrified to get on the plane.

Though Hill has gotten over her general fear of flying and says that she can fly anywhere in the United States thanks to “God, essentials oils, and my iPad” she is still scared of traveling overseas. Because of this, Hill has turned down many incredible opportunities to travel to places like London, Greece, and Dubai.

Despite this fear of flying, Hill still keeps a bucket list of places she eventually would love to visit, one of her ultimate dream destinations being Bora Bora. Hill says that she would dread actually traveling there because of how far away it is, but that she would deal with her fear of flying and the anxiety it brings just to visit. Also on her list is Santorini in Greece, Italy, and the French countryside.

6 If She Ever Got The Opportunity To Go To Space, She Would Pass It Up

Every child dreams of one day going to space, a dream that Hill also had while she was growing up. But as she got older, she realized what she thought was her biggest dream, actually turned out to be her biggest nightmare! In a question and answer video, one subscriber asked Hill if she would ever want to visit space should she be given the opportunity to do so, to which she instantly replied "No!" with a shriek. Perhaps this stems from her fear of flying, but Hill would most definitely pass up the opportunity to go to space, contrary to the wishes of her younger self.

When Hill was younger, she wanted to visit space so badly, but she has since changed her mind.

As an adult, she says that “space is like, my biggest fear in the world!”

Hill says that the thought of ascending out of Earth's atmosphere and into the galaxy where she would be surrounded by stars, in the dark and would be able to look down on it is terrifying to her. While she respects and admires the fact that astronauts are able to go into space and “do what they do”, space is not a destination that intrigues Hill.

5 Her First Collaboration With Becca Cosmetics Put The Brand On The Map

In 2015, Hill collaborated with Australian cosmetics company Becca on her now widely popular highlighter “Champagne Pop”.

According to Refinery 29 the highlighter, a limited edition shade in Becca's range of Shimmering Skin Perfectors, broke Sephora's record for the most-purchased product on its first day of release.

As reported by Racked.com, according to Becca Inc. CEO Robert DeBaker in 2015, “Becca' Cosmetics brand recognition among consumer was less than 0.5 percent.” In October of 2016, Estée Lauder bought the company for an alleged $200 million, which is significantly more than the $40 million original owners of the brand, Rebecca Morrice Williams, made when she initially sold the company in 2012. This increase in value is likely due to the brand's collaboration with Hill and the creation of “Champagne Pop” which, in July of 2015, sold out 25 000 units in 20 minutes.

Because of Hill's promotion of the collaboration, broadcasted to her millions of followers and the media exposure the brand received through this collaboration, the brand's social media account gained two million followers during that time. Before collaborating with Hill, Becca had not really interacted in any way with social media personalities or influencers. After Hill had used one of their products in a video, the sales for that particular product began to soar. Since then, Becca has grown to become a widely known and popular beauty brand.

4 Her Second Collaboration With Becca Caused Major Backlash

After the successful release of Hill's limited edition highlighter “Champagne Pop” with Becca Cosmetics, Hill and the brand began to work on a follow-up collaboration: the “Champagne Glow Collection”.

The highly anticipated collection consisted of the original "Champagne Pop", three blushes, a new highlighter called "Prosecco Pop", and an eyeshadow palette. The collection was first made available on Sephora.com on May 26, 2016, and was meant to be available for in-store purchase on June 16 that same year.

However, after the initial online release, Hill began to receive negative comments from her subscribers that the consistency of the palette was dry and applied patchy.

Hill announced that the palette would no longer be released on June 16. She explained to her followers that she had only created one shade for the palette and the others were created and formulated by Becca. As the launch of the palette drew closer, time was running out so Becca sent the products to a different lab in attempts to get the palettes produced faster, believing they would be able to achieve Becca's usual formula. This, unfortunately, was not the case and the reason for the customer's dissatisfaction with the shadows. Hill did not want to sell her followers a faulty product and therefore decided to pull the in-store launch of the palette completely.

3 She's Not Against Enhancements

Hill has outwardly spoken about her experiences with different forms of plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancement procedures.

In a YouTube video, Hill mentioned how her experience was with lip injections. She touched a bit on the process of the procedure itself, along with which part of the injections hurt. “It's not a level ten pain. It's not a pain where you're feeling miserable, it's just a sting and it goes away.” In her video collaboration with Kim Kardashian, she complimented Hill on her “smooth under eyes” to which Hill replied, “That's very sweet, that's because I have filler!” She has also gotten filler injected into her nose as well as Botox injections in her forehead in 2016. She says that she only had “the tiniest amount possible” put in, but candidly pointed out to her viewers that if her forehead looked odd, it was because of the injections. “Botox is one of those things that so many people get done but no one actually talks about it.”

Hill received tons of negative comments and criticism, as well as being accused of also getting filler put into her cheeks. Hill clarified in a tweet that the fuller look of her cheeks was from gaining weight and not from any form of cosmetic enhancement.

2 She And Her Husband Are Filing For Divorce

Hill talks highly and proudly of her marriage as well as her husband, sharing everything from their struggles early on in their marriage, her personal struggles, and her husband's struggles with substances.

According to Clevver.com, many people have noticed that Jaclyn and Jon have been uncharacteristically quiet about their relationship on social media, also noting that they have both unfollowed one another's social media accounts. To make matter worse, Jaclyn has been relatively absent from her YouTube channel recently and posted a rather cryptic tweet on April 12 that read, “I'm sorry that I've been so absent recently. It's [difficult for] me not being able to talk to you openly about my life. But I need this moment to myself & I will be back soon. I promise all your questions will soon be answered!” Many fans and subscribers have interpreted these factors as more fuel to add to the fire of divorce-rumors.

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018, the separation rumors were confirmed when Hill announced that she and her husband had decided to get a divorce.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Hill explained that despite the decision being a difficult one to make, this is what would be best for the both of them.

1 She No Longer Speaks To Her Father

Hill and her father's estranged relationship is a touchy subject that she doesn't discuss often. She and her siblings have not been in contact with their father whatsoever since their parents went through a “really horrible divorce."

Hill has not spoken to him since 2012 when the divorce was finalized.

This experience has helped her open her heart to those who have been through difficult divorces, people who have been stolen or taken from, or people who have in any way lost their fathers. “I never, in a million years, thought that I would lose my dad. I never, in a million years, thought my parents would get a divorce.” Hill has fond memories of her family before her parent's divorce, saying that they used to call themselves the “dream team” because of how close they all were growing up. Hill can sometimes get emotional when reflecting on what she went through, as she and her father were once very close. Though she stated that he was once her “very best friend”, hero and that they shared many similarities, she characterized him as manipulative and controlling. She credits her parent's divorce as being a humbling experience, and one that revealed the truth about the kind of person her father was.

References: Youtube.com, Bustle.com, Refinery29.com, Racked.com, Brittwd.com, Web.archive.org, Marriedbiography.com,