It's no longer "the year of the girl," and yet, prominent brands are bolstering women in their marketing campaigns more than ever. Take Nike, whose Super Bowl brand anthem "So Win" featured top women athletes like Sabrina Ionescu, Jordan Chiles, A’ja Wilson, and Sha’Carri Richardson. Voiced by musician Doechii, Nike’s campaign highlighted all the things women are told they can't do. However, the brand’s message doesn't stop at highlighting barriers that female athletes face—it goes on to declare it's time to put all the naysayers aside and win.
This message hasn't come from nowhere. Though creator marketing is an industry where women feature dominantly, there are still some challenges they must nimbly work through.
According to our survey conducted by Sapio Research, one out of three creators (36%) reported they were inadequately compensated for content creation because of their gender identity, pronouns, or expression. This figure jumped to 45% when focusing solely on creators from EMEA. Overall, the percentage of creators who felt uncomfortable while working with brands because of their gender was 28%—up from 7% in 2022, emphasizing the importance of addressing gender in creator marketing.
Nike's Super Bowl brand campaign acknowledges the challenges women often face while offering a message that feels emblematic of gender in the industry: "Whatever you do, you can't win. So win."
Here are the women who are winning in creator marketing:
In 2024, Lindsey Rowley (@linsmakeuplooks on TikTok) posted about 71 beauty brands, including Tower 28 Beauty, ColourPop, Fenty Beauty, and Danessa Myricks Beauty.
A makeup content creator, Lindsey's TikToks frequently match her makeup to eclectic jewelry pieces or whimsical themes. She creates a relatable feel, talking to her 3M followers (on TikTok alone) like a friend would. Lindsey doesn’t gatekeep, sharing the best beauty products out there and how to use them in a way that both looks and feels good.
In 2024, Lindsey shared over 2.4k branded beauty posts—averaging out to more than nine posts a day.
This content fueled:
Lindsey’s own EMV contributions outperformed the EMV totals earned by many major beauty brands like Olaplex, L'Oréal Professionnel, and The Ordinary. If Lindsey were a brand, CreatorIQ would slot her into the No. 63 spot by Earned Media Value. That means that Lindsey's creator marketing for beauty brands outperformed that of 1.7k brands that we track on our global Beauty leaderboard.
For many, musician Doechii, the Florida-based, self-proclaimed "Swamp Princess," burst onto the scene at the end of 2024 with the release of her album Alligator Bites Never Heal. To promote it, she launched an unusual roll out—Doechii committed to writing a song a day until she dropped her mixtape. She brought followers in on her journey, posting frequently, and in that process, creating genuine fans and beautiful visuals.
It's no surprise that Doechii's Paris Fashion Week looks in 2025 caught the attention of prominent magazines like Vogue. Doechii delivered on the visuals and fans took notice. Between January 1 and March 13, Doechii's content drove:
Doechii's impact expands beyond music and fashion. Upon winning her Grammy for Best Rap Album, she offered this piece of advice: "I know that there is some Black girl out there—so many Black women out there that are watching me right now—and I wanna tell you: you can do it. Anything is possible. … Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you. … You are exactly who you need to be to be right where you are, and I am a testimony."
More and more, athletes are becoming creators in their own right. When athletes work with brands, they have the potential to create impactful partnerships due to their intense fandoms. In March, gymnast Simone Biles (@simonebiles on Instagram) marked the fourth year of her ongoing collaboration with athletic wear brand Athleta.
The brand launched The Power of She Collective to support women and girls via product improvements and empowerment. Biles was one of 11 athletes chosen for the initiative, which spans across various sports. Athleta has demonstrated its commitment to equality with a donation to its Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF). Biles' nine posts about Athleta inspired:
Creator and author Shima Katouzian (@herosheemaz on Instagram) leads the charge of creators who are shaping the beauty industry. Shima, whose content is often in Farsi with English subtitles, frequently tags several brands while creating dewy looks.
An it-girl who's aware that she's living the dream, Shima wins followers over by inviting them into spaces she's always dreamed of. In fact, accessibility is part of her brand: Hero Sheema began as a project to support women from diverse backgrounds in becoming fashion designers.
In 2025 so far, Shima is the No. 1 creator in Beauty by Earned Media Value, posting 238 branded pieces of content between Jan 1 and March 13. Her posts have fueled:
These four women exemplify the diverse ways creators are shaping beauty and fashion industries by posting consistently, building powerful communities, being authentic to their values, and tagging multiple brands. Notably, these creators are versatile, dipping into other industries as needed to boost their impact. Lindsey Rowley, Doechii, Simone Biles, and Shima Katouzian aren't the only creators driving meaningful engagement, but they exemplify women in creator marketing who are leading with influence.
For insights on how creator marketing has transformed over the past few years,