Last Monday, a video was posted on Supreme’s Instagram page. The clip wasn’t the usual skate video or lookbook image showcasing the streetwear brand’s latest collaboration. It was a woman’s hand with long, bright nails bearing Supreme’s script logo in white. As her hand twisted and turned, she preached some morning motivation before closing out with the line, “Wake up, and be Supreme.” At the time of posting this, it has accumulated around 1.5 million views.
Many of Supreme’s followers might have been confused by the content, but it isn’t just some random woman’s hand in the video. The video was actually made in collaboration with the Instagram personality Amber Wagner. For those who don’t know, Wagner is known on the social media platform for frequently posting motivational speeches on her account while wearing long colorful nails and wigs—we even had to reschedule the time of an interview because she was getting her nails done.
Her account has accumulated over 2 million followers, which include some of the biggest names in entertainment like Rihanna and Zendaya.
We got a chance to speak with Wagner about what it was like working with the streetwear giant, how the process went down, how she plans to use her success on social media to build in the future, and more.
Check out the entire interview below.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
How did the video with Supreme come about?
Well, Supreme honestly contacted me via Instagram and wanted to work together. I guess they were intrigued by my nail videos. So, we came up with that concept of me giving motivation with the Supreme on the nails.
What was that process like? Did you give them that idea, or did they know about your following and pitch it to you?
They basically pitched it to me because I guess people from their side had already seen my nail videos. They were like, "This is cool. This is dope, so let's just do something for our brand including the nails." And so that's how we ended up getting it together.
Did you write the whole speech that you said in that video yourself, or was it a script?
That was me. At the beginning of it, all of it was mainly freestyle except the last line at the end "Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream. Wake up and be Supreme.” That was my boyfriend. He was there with me and I was like, "Help me." He helped me out with that great, amazing, line.
Was it a long process from when they hit you up to when you recorded it?
They hit me up and we didn't actually record the video until a month or two after. But when we filmed it, they had a whole studio set up. I got there and it was great. They had the lights and everything I needed. I was even able to rest my arm as I did the video and it was really comfortable. There was a great nail tech there. They even served me a little breakfast and made sure I was fed. It was fun.
Were you familiar with Supreme before they reached out to you?
Yes. I've always heard of Supreme. They're a skateboard brand, right? I've heard about them before.
Did you have any type of reaction when they reached out?
When somebody reaches out, you never know how serious they are until they start talking about dates, locations and times. So at first, I'm like, "This sounds like a good opportunity. We'll see what happens." When they reached back out again, they actually told me, "This is the day we're planning on meeting up, this is the team, and we're going to do a call sheet." I'm like, "Oh shit, this is for real." I was pretty excited. We filmed it around August.
You have such a big following, I assume you get hit up for this type of stuff a lot. What was it about this particular project made you want to work with Supreme?
What really made me want to work with Supreme was because I know that they're such a known brand. You always see the red and white Supreme box logo. It's like a signature, and I'm like, "This is hella popular. This is dope. This is a major ass brand. How could I ever turn this down?"
Did you think about any of the negative response that you might get, either from your fan base, or from the Supreme fan base?
I didn't really think of my fan base. My fan base, they rock with whatever I'm doing. But for the Supreme fan base, I was like, "They not going to know me. All they going to see is nails. They'll probably be like, 'This is some weird ass shit. What is this?'" But I always prepare myself for negative comments. With Supreme being such a cool brand, you can't say that much negativity.
What has the reception been like from your perspective? Have you been reached out a lot since?
This has damn near been viral for me. Almost everybody was asking to repost it. People have been reaching out to me, wanting me to support their brands with my nails. It's just crazy. Everybody was tagging me. It was mind-blowing. I woke up and it was like, "Somebody mentioned you. Somebody else mentioned you." I didn't even expect it to be this big.
Have there been any other notable names that have reached out to you?
No, nobody too major. It's all smaller businesses and some of the people that always reach out to me who want to use my platform to get more notoriety.
Would you be open to doing anything else with them in the future?
Absolutely, I would. At first, they were saying that they were going to put my hand on a T-shirt for Supreme. They were talking about that but that didn't go through. But I guess they're just using it as a promotional video. I also might be featured in a magazine with my hand. I think it was Thrasher Magazine. I may be featured in there, my little hand.
The main thing you obviously have to talk about, and it's what everybody notices, is the nails. Who did them? How long was that process?
Oh, my gosh. It was long. I'm not going to lie to you. We were there for a minute because not only did she have to do each hand with these extremely long nails. She had to practice putting the "Supreme" on there and making sure it was to their liking, making sure it was centered correctly, and making sure the colors matched so that you couldn't see the lines on the side. It was a process.
When did you first kind of come up with the hand movements and the motivational speaking and those type of videos that you're known for on Instagram?
Motivation videos started for me maybe about a year and a half ago because this is my third Instagram account. My other two Instagram accounts got deleted. I originally started my Instagram account off being ratchet, ghetto, and saying negative things. But my account would always get deleted so I kind of chilled on that. This had just came to me because I was in a dark space. I started going back to church, getting back to myself, and I was just so happy. That's when I started doing motivation videos. But never did I think that people would gravitate towards it like they have now. I never expected any of this.
It was more of a personal outlet for you?
Exactly, I did it just for me and to tell everybody to "Just take time for yourself, meditate and pray, and you'll be alright." I did that for myself and I'm just letting my close followers know. I started off with probably 1,000 followers.
Have you always been a good public speaker? Or is that something that evolved as you began to post more videos?
I never was really too shy unless I'm in front of people. So when I get behind a camera, it's easy for me. But when it comes to speaking in public, that's when I freeze up and be like, "I don't know."
Do you get stopped often by people out in the street that might be fans?
All the time. I can't go a day without somebody noticing me. Everyday somebody notices me. No matter what, if I go to the store, the nail shop, church, somebody is going to notice me and ask, "Can we do a video please?" I'll be like, "All right, come on." Shit, without them, I ain't shit.
You have over 2 million followers. We talked about the Supreme thing, but how do you decide what brands you want to work with?
I just base it off what I see on social media. When they reach out to me, I just think abut if it's mainly positive about the brand, or is it negative? Is this a brand that can help me potentially get to other brands or is it a brand that's noticeable? I just think about all that and take it into consideration. I also just finished doing a campaign for MAC makeup and that was pretty huge too.
I know Rihanna follows you. Is there anybody when you first saw they followed your page that you'd freaked out or you were very surprised to see?
Yes. Cardi B was one of them. That was amazing. Me and Rihanna even chat in the DMs sometimes. It's really like, "What? This is who I'm talking to?"
What would you say has been the most rewarding part for you since you've started it?
The most rewarding part, it has to be the recognition that I receive on Instagram and from people in the streets. That recognition is amazing. People come to me crying sometimes just to say "Thank you." They tell me, "Don't ever quit. Don't stop what you're doing," and that right there means a lot to me. I originally started doing this for fun and now it's a job. People act like they really need me and I don't want to let anybody down.
What do you see in the future for yourself? Is it more Instagram stuff? Is it music? Is it doing more brand stuff? What do you want to do?
I love this question right here because I would love to start doing motivational tours. That's what I want to start doing. I want to get out there and get off Instagram. I want to be on the ground and actually have mini conventions, mini brunches, and positivity. I want to start a podcast and have my positivity flowing through there. I would love to work for bigger brands, maybe Nike or Adidas, something like that. I'm just ready to expand in all areas.
