Essence Gant

Essence Gant is the Sr. Beauty Editor at BuzzFeed's women's lifestyle platform, As/Is. She was the first hire responsible for diversifying BuzzFeed's beauty audience, and she has played a major role in shaping the outlet's inclusive beauty and style voice. Her work ranges across editorial, video, and social media. She's also starred in and helped script videos for BuzzFeed's black identity platform, CocoaButter. She'll try just about anything if it means her audience learns something — or just laughs. You should also know that she decided to move to New York from G.A. after hearing Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind (No joke. She literally made a life-changing decision based on a song), and she shares a birthday with Blue Ivy Carter.