Shakenia “Kenia” Hill, better known by her professional alias, Bella Merlot, is a content creator, traveler, fashion blogger, and social media personality. For years now, she has used her Bella Merlot persona to inspire, and awe, sharing with the world the outfits and ideas that she most loves.
Kenia, or simply Ken to her friends, has nurtured a passion for fashion ever since she was a little girl. Way before she was a content creator, the fashion personality would curate her wardrobe, and gather fashion inspiration where she could. Hailing from Miami, Florida, she first started sharing her ideas with the social media world over on YouTube, with tremendous success. In time, she branched out to Instagram and more recently TikTok, and found solid followings here, as well.
In spite of the dressy, classy elegance of her online looks, Kenia admits there’s few things she loves more than just chilling in a pair of loose slacks, and some comfortable, feel-good clothes. The content creator says if there’s one thing her social media journey has done for her, it’s helping her become more true to herself.
“Like, I knew I wanted to be a creator/ influencer but I felt like I was forcing content that wasn’t genuine and it felt extremely forced. It was when I told myself “listen, people will love you for what you do, even if it seems insignificant to you”. That’s when it clicked. My page just naturally started growing very quickly when I posted exactly what I felt like posting. No ‘strategy’, no ‘niche’ it was just… me.”
It’s a struggle that a lot of young creators have to face, filtering the sides of them that are “good enough” to be seen by the public. It turned out, for Kenia, the best step to take was to focus less on what you showed, and more on being honest.
Her public honesty helped cement a relationship not only with her public, but also with professional contacts, and various fashion brands the influencer has worked with. A lifelong admirer of the fashion brand PrettyLittleThing, Kenia saw a dream come true when PLT reached out for a collaboration last year.
“This was a brand I had been faithfully purchasing from for YEARS and they wanted ME to collaborate with them! I was shocked! Ever since then, we’ve formed an amazing relationship and I will never forget that.”
In more recent years, Kenia’s gotten to focus more on the travel aspect of her public profile and hopes to continue doing so in the near future. She also hopes to further and grow her career, buy a house in her native Miami, and most importantly, stay true to herself. Something few of her followers know is Kenia was a ballerina, as a young girl, and to this day is a passionate dancer, bopping to the beat of Drake, Nicki Minaj, PartyNextDoor, and Bad Bunny, just to name a few artists. Whatever the future holds for Bella Merlot, it’s going to have Kenia’s strong, authentic self at its core.
