When you tune into Beverly Coleman's social media channels, you get honesty. Whether she's sharing natural hair tips, a makeup tutorial, or her current favorite workout, the Dallas-based beauty, lifestyle, and wellness influencer known online as CurlyBeviie or "Auntie Bev" has built her platform around authenticity.
Part of that realness involves constantly balancing her work with chronic migraine, a neurological condition that can interrupt even the simplest parts of a day. Migraine attacks can be triggered by bright lights, strong scents, intense workouts, or even shifts in the weather. Even though her content isn't about migraine, it's definitely shaped by it.
"Some days, I have to stop in the middle of filming and walk away for a few minutes," Coleman says. "The ring light can start pushing me over the edge, and I'm like, 'OK, I need to go sit in the dark for a little bit.'"
She uses smart strategies like this so she can maintain a career she loves while caring well for her health needs.
"I've learned to listen to my body a lot more," she says. "Sometimes, that just means slowing down so I can still show up and do what I enjoy."
When Creativity Blossoms Into a Career
Coleman didn't originally plan to become a content creator. In fact, her social media journey started casually while she was transitioning into graduate school for a master's degree in counseling.
The summer before classes began, she spent a lot of time experimenting with makeup and natural hair care. Friends and classmates noticed her looks and constantly asked what products or techniques she used.
"I'd go places with eyeshadow and my hair done, and people would say, 'Wow, girl, what did you use? What did you do?'" she says.
That turned into requests for how-to videos, and an idea was born. Her first video was a simple eyebrow tutorial, followed by a wash-and-go hair routine. As she kept sharing tips and experimenting with new content, her audience grew from curious classmates to viewers around the world. Today, she shares a mix of makeup advice, skin care routines, wellness tips, and glimpses of everyday life.
"I feel like content creation is where I'm able to shine in creativity in my own way," Coleman says. "It started as my personal creative outlet and ended up becoming a career."
Influencing With Chronic Migraine
Coleman's first migraine happened in 2017 during her first semester of graduate school. At the time, she was working as a graduate assistant, spending long hours on a computer. One day at work, she got an intense headache paired with nausea and blurred vision.
Her mother, who has lived with chronic migraine most of her life as a companion to her epilepsy, was Coleman's go-to support. She suggested rest, an ice pack, and a quiet, dark room. The migraine attack eventually passed, but it wasn't the last one. Since that day, her condition has become chronic, affecting her regularly and sometimes severely.
"Once I had a dizzy spell and blacked out while I was driving," she says. "It was 100% the scariest thing I have ever dealt with."
For those who haven't gone through migraine, Coleman says it can be difficult to explain the pain. Migraine attacks can be overwhelming and excruciating.
"The best way for me to describe it is like someone put an air pump in my head and they're constantly filling it with air," she says. "And at the same time, someone is kicking you in the side of the head."
One of the most difficult aspects of migraine for Coleman is how unpredictable it can be. Some weeks, she may have one migraine attack. Other times, she might get them daily. Episodes can last a few hours or stretch across several days.
"Sometimes I'll have them for two to three days," she says. "Those are the worst."
On the hardest days, migraines can even make her question whether she should continue creating content, especially since her work involves screens and bright lighting.
"It's frustrating," she says. "Sometimes it makes me want to hang up content creation."
But growing up watching her mother manage chronic migraine gives her perspective and resolve.
"When I have a migraine attack, I think about how my mom pushed through," she says. "She has helped me understand migraine a lot better and helped me pinpoint things that I can do or things to stay away from. You don't have to stop your life. You just have to find the best way to navigate it."
Vulnerability as a Superpower
In the early days of her migraine attacks, Coleman struggled to talk about them publicly because she didn't want people to feel sorry for her. But once she owned her condition and started making connections with others living with it, her perspective changed.
Now, migraine is a frequent topic on her Instagram Stories, where followers can quickly respond and share their own experiences. Followers frequently message her with questions, advice, tools, or personal stories about living with migraine.
"I feel like people see me still out here doing my thing with migraine,” Coleman says, “and that opens their eyes to what's possible."
