Devonna is an internet star — not just in her free time, but as her career. She began her YouTube channel in 2013 when she was still in college.
"I literally made a name for myself from YouTube," she tells the Dallas Observer. "I've never had a blog; I've never had a website. I was literally just Ashley, and then I started my YouTube channel.”
In 2015, when she began teaming up with other YouTubers and beauty and fashion brands, she saw a drastic change in numbers. Her subscribers increased from 22,000 to 150,000. After she graduated from Texas Woman's University in 2016 with a degree in business administration, Devonna began working a marketing job in the corporate world. But after about one year, she decided to make the leap to full-time vlogger. Today, she has more than 224,000 subscribers.
Her monthly earnings from YouTube exceed her monthly paycheck from her previous corporate job — about a 37 percent increase, she says.
She shares everything about her life with her followers and subscribers — what she’s wearing, the makeup she’s using and even the time she received undereye fillers.
Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Farah Khan will perform Devonna's breast augmentation and says she's never done anything like this before, however she understands the appeal.
"Our goal is for it not to be a gore fest," she says. "We want to educate, so I'll be talking through the surgery and trying to educate people. I think people want to know how the procedure is done more than anything."
Devonna thinks her subscribers continue to tune in because of her transparency."I was talking to my dad, who is my former manager ... and he said, 'You should promote on Facebook.' I said, 'Are you comfortable with our family and friends seeing my breasts? I think that's so weird.'" – Ashley Devonna
tweet this
"I'm very open, as much as you can be,” she says. “Of course, I like to be transparent and honest with my audience. It makes me feel like I'm very relatable to them, and they get to really watch me go through different stages of life.”
Devonna says her livestream of her breast augmentation will be the most revealing thing she's ever done. She says she typically doesn’t even wear swimsuits on video, so showing her breasts is a big leap.
“I was talking to my dad, who is my former manager as well, and he said, ‘You should promote on Facebook,’ " she says. "I said, ‘Are you comfortable with our family and friends seeing my breasts? I think that's so weird.'”
Most of Devonna's subscribers are 18 to 24 years old, but she says she has some younger viewers; many of her younger brother’s friends watch her videos. But she wants people to know that if you alter your appearance, it should be for you.
”I feel like if you have always wanted something and you have the means to get it done and you're doing it for yourself, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with it,” she says. “But if you're doing it for someone else, for society, for a reason outside of this is literally something that you want personally, then I would discourage anyone resorting to surgery or turning to some other quick fix.”
Devonna will go live at about 7:30 a.m. Friday morning on her Instagram.
