Selena Careri
News Editor
I don’t remember how I stumbled upon Salma Pineda’s YouTube channel, but I’ve been watching her videos for as long as she’s been making them – four years.
She was born and raised in Houston and currently attends University of Houston. For her first three semesters, she attended the Downtown branch, but took a chance on applying to the main campus and was accepted for the Spring 2023 semester. She is a first-gen student majoring in business and is interested in social media marketing.
Pineda is a fellow Scorpio, born on Halloween. She and her family go all out for birthdays and there is always a theme and lots of decorations. She is very family oriented and lives with her younger sisters Kenya and Karla, and their parents.
Her YouTube videos consist of GRWM’s, shopping, mukbang’s and holiday and birthday events. Her filming and editing are very realistic. Even after building a 500k subscriber platform, she still only uses her phone to record which is inspiring that anyone could make videos if they wanted to.
She tries to upload videos once a week, but she makes school her priority. She is also active on TikTok, where she posts similar videos of her doing hair and makeup, shopping or eating.
Pineda has been in a relationship for over three years with a boy who absolutely adores and spoils her. He sets the bar high by always buying her flowers or coffee “just because.” He’ll wear matching outfits with her or make TikTok’s with her. He even buys her expensive gifts from Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Pandora.
Having strict Hispanic parents, Pineda is not allowed to travel a lot even though she enjoys it. This past summer she went to Miami with her friends. This year she hopes to go to Colorado with her boyfriend to experience the beautiful outdoors and nature the state has to offer.
She is open about being Mexican and having parents that don’t speak English. She sometimes speaks Spanish in her own videos, and more if her family is in them. Her most recent video on her TikTok, 444.scorpio, is spoken fully in Spanish. It’s special to see Hispanic representation among young influencers like Pineda who is only 20. Nowadays, there are a lot less young adults who speak their family’s language which is unfortunate. Pineda can reach a wider audience just by speaking in two languages and this will help her with her career as well.
Overall, Pineda’s videos are very comforting to watch. She talks about her struggles in school, she shops at stores like TJ Maxx and Ross, she indulges in her parent’s cooking and she does her makeup and hair with drugstore products.
Email Selena at:
scareri@live.esu.edu
