Good morning. Ever wondered how much your fellow creators make in a year? So have we.

That’s why we’re running an anonymous survey on creator revenue. It takes less than 30 seconds, and we’d love to hear from you about how (and where) you make money as a creator.

Hit reply with any questions.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

1) A skincare brand gives three teen creators equity
2) A Nigeria-based health creator explains why he doesn’t earn revenue on TikTok
3) One creator shares the behind-the-scenes of his mid-length vertical videos

We can just imagine what parents in 2066 will tell their teenage kids: “When I was your age, I already had equity in a $100 million skincare brand.”

Kimberly Ho, CEO of skincare brand Evereden, shared that she gave equity in the company to three Gen Alpha creators—Madison Rae (14), Embreigh Courtlyn (15), and Kaili Asa (17)—as part of the company’s Generation E campaign.

Here’s why: “If we had just wanted the popular Gen Alpha creators to post about us in a paid influencer capacity, we [could have done] that without equity,” Ho told Glossy. “I think giving equity means aligning long-term interests, and it really shows our commitment to listening to Gen Alpha and inviting them to have a seat at the table.”

About the new co-owners: While Madison typically posts “get ready with me” and hair transition videos to her 272K followers, Embreigh (7.5M) and Kaili’s (995K) content is reminiscent of Charli D’Amelio—a mix of dance and lifestyle content geared toward other teenage girls.

“You guys are going to see the behind-the-scenes of all of the product development, new launches, and I’m going to be able to take you guys along the whole entire journey,” Embreigh said in an announcement video.

Zoom out: As skincare explodes in popularity among Gen Alpha, creators like 16-year-old Salish Matter have launched their own skincare lines to massive success. Will Evereden’s decision to give its ambassadors equity set a precedent for future brand deals with young creators?

Lagos, Nigeria-based medical creator Dr. Olawale “Doctor Wales” Ogunlana was recently featured on TikTok’s 2026 Discover List for his public health videos. But he won’t earn platform revenue from his content. We spoke with Ogunlana to understand why ➡️

Quick context: “At the very beginning when I started my own journey as a creator, most of the content coming out of sub-Saharan Africa was entertainment based,” Ogunlana told us. “So we decided to challenge that narrative a little bit.”

Enter: Doctor Wales. Nigeria has a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1 to 9,083 (compared to the US’s 1 to 396). Ogunlana started making general health content as a way to address the medical knowledge gap in the country—eventually founding his own platform to host doctor-created content.

But: Despite being recognized as a top creator on TikTok, Ogunlana is unable to earn revenue from his content—no countries in Africa are eligible for TikTok’s monetization program.

“There is really nothing to fall back on. When you crash, you literally crash. So it can be really difficult saying you want to be a creator without doing something else on the side,” Ogunlana said.

So how does he make money? 80–90% of Ogunlana’s revenue comes from brand partnerships with Nigerian brands like Golden Terra cooking oil or government-sponsored health insurance. The rest of his earnings come from monetization on other platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and X.

Looking ahead: As African creators across niches—from cooking to interior design—expand their audiences and reach, Ogunlana sees TikTok monetization for creators in sub-Saharan Africa on the horizon. He said he’s optimistic that being featured by the platform is a step to getting financial recognition for his work. The platform is making strides toward connecting with creators in the region, like its recent internet safety summit in Kenya.

“I know that five years from now, those that are coming behind me as creators will definitely be living off of the benefits that we've advocated for,” Ogunlana said.

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UCLA senior Brad Bradie is going viral on TikTok for eight-minute videos where he pulls a “reverse Nara Smith”—making food out of ingredients from gas stations and sampling the pies from Ace Hardware. 

Bradie is bucking the format norm and finding an audience for his mid-length content solely on TikTok.

Why only there? “I've been trying to post on YouTube Shorts, but they have a cap of three minutes,” Bradie told us. Plus, the average length of videos is shortening to favor high engagement on YouTube. “I can't post most of my new videos over that and I like filming in vertical. So I'm limited to TikTok.”

Big picture: With TikTok’s creator program, videos can only be monetized if they are longer than 60 seconds—motivating creators to make longer videos. Dating creator Jezabel and comedy creator Princess Milky have optimized their storytelling content for a model that favors mid-length videos, seeing increased engagement as a result.