Intersectional Influencing: How Hershy Karthikeyan Moves Between Languages, Worlds, and Selves

By Ariel Cheng

Sunlight spills through the floor-to-ceiling windows of a lofted apartment in the heart of Seoul, where 21-year-old Harshini “Hershy” Karthikeyan is studying abroad this semester. She blinks awake and checks her phone. It’s 8:15 a.m. In a rush, she tumbles down the stairs, hair tousled, tripod in one hand and closet in chaos.

Her outfit of the day: a floral bandeau top, white cargo pants and gold-green bangles from her favorite Indian jewelry brand. It’s a race to find the right look and capture a shot for her “day in my life in Korea” vlog. Slightly disoriented but grounded in confidence, she hits record. It becomes the first frame of another video that will reach thousands.

This mix of unpredictability and artistry is how most of Karthikeyan’s mornings begin. It’s the rhythm of a creator who has built her digital world from scratch. At 21, the USC student and social director for Ruhveda, an Indian fragrance brand recently launched at Sephora, has amassed more than 400,000 followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. She blends fashion, culture and storytelling into content that feels cinematic and deeply personal.

In an algorithm that rewards simplicity, Karthikeyan thrives in complexity. “Every day looks different. I love fashion, play the piano, dance and I’m pretty good at social media,” she says. “I feel like Barbie. I’m always side-questing.”

“I feel like Barbie. I’m always side-questing.” - Karthikeyan

Social media is her creative canvas. What began as a release after college club rejections became an art project that reflects how she sees herself and how she hopes other young women, especially South Asian audiences, see themselves. “I want to provide what I wish I had as a kid. A space for belonging,” she says.

Karthikeyan has been creating for as long as she can remember, but her work didn’t flourish online until college. Rejected from every club her freshman year, she redirected her energy into something fun. “I turned it into a hobby,” she says. After working several social media internships, she realized she wanted to build her own digital world.

Last summer marked a turning point. “That was when I decided to really invest in my camera, scripting and audio to make my videos feel like art,” she says. Since then, content creation has become her most authentic form of self-expression.

Rather than fixating on analytics, she treats content like craft. Her notes app is filled with half-formed ideas and quick thoughts. “Creation is the murder of your idea,” she jokes. “I try to execute any idea that pops up, whether or not it’s perfect.”

She balances curated storytelling with spontaneous “mic-on” vlogs. Before hiring an editor, she cut every video herself, turning short clips into what she calls tiny films. “Editing is such a sacred part of creation. It’s how I tell my story.”

That artistry is rooted in identity. Fashion was her first entry point into confidence. “I didn’t always like how I looked. Style made me feel secure,” she says. “Fashion and storytelling go hand in hand. Fashion is a story.” Her early videos, including “Get Ready With Me in Tamil” and “Glow-Up Guide for a Brown Girl,” blended humor and vulnerability. Eventually, she wanted to go deeper. “As girls, we’re so much more than our looks,” she says. “I found peace in making storytelling videos as much as fashion ones.”

Most creators are urged to pick one lane, but Karthikeyan moves through many. She is a student, creator, trilingual storyteller, dancer and musician. She admits the freedom can be overwhelming. “I’ve definitely felt pressure to niche down,” she says. “Being a Brown or Black creator in this industry is hard. You might not be taken as seriously unless you’re doing one thing.” Even so, she posts daily on TikTok and Instagram and monthly on YouTube while balancing midterms and jet lag. “I’m not passionate about only one thing,” she says. “So I’ll keep being my truest self online.”

Her role at Ruhveda connects individuality with representation. “I love seeing brands celebrate Diwali,” she says. “But I wonder, are we only visible once a year?” The brand aims to integrate South Asian culture into beauty in a lasting way.

Fatema Raja, Ruhveda’s co-founder, sees creators like Karthikeyan as leaders. “Gen Z creators are cultural catalysts,” she says. “They’re making South Asian beauty visible in ways that feel unapologetic, elevated and emotionally real. Our traditions were always cool. They just needed a generation bold enough to tell them differently.”

Studying abroad in Seoul adds another dimension to that mission. “Living here, I’m often the only Brown woman in the room,” she says. “It made me realize what my parents went through immigrating to America and why they held onto their culture so tightly.” Her videos capture these moments of cultural exchange, showing her learning from Korean friends while sharing Indian rituals.

Rhea Menon, a South Asian beauty marketer, says this visibility matters. “South Asian women need to be taught not to hide their features, but to enhance them,” she says. “Hyperpigmentation is beautiful. It just needs to be shown the right way.”

Karthikeyan embraces that message. Early in her content journey, she faced colorist comments. “People would say I was too dark,” she says. “Now I’m like, yeah, I’m dark and it looks good.” Her advice for confidence is to film in public until it stops feeling scary. “To be cringe is to be free,” she jokes.

Confidence, however, has limits. Between late-night edits, midterms and too much caffeine, burnout still finds her. “Anyone who says they don’t look at numbers is lying,” she says. “It’s part of the job. But you can’t tie your worth to views. Only to how proud you are of what you made.”

She credits her partner and her love for storytelling with keeping her grounded. “Passion for the game and support from people who love me are what keep me going,” she says.

Karthikeyan approaches everything in her life with humor and softness. “Happiness is a form of resistance,” she says. “My choice to be publicly happy, to love who I am, is my form of rebelling.”

Outside, the sun catches on her gold bangles as she runs to make the train. It’s another day, another side quest, another story. She’s stressed but always well-dressed. Karthikeyan no longer waits for the light to hit her just right. She has learned to see herself fully: multidimensional, grounded and entirely her own.