Make-Up Assignment: The 86th Miss Howard Is Already a Seasoned Entrepreneur

Before she was Miss Howard, and even before she was a Howard student at all, Damaris Grace Moore caught the entrepreneurial bug. During prom season in high school, she realized she had a knack for makeup, and was soon helping her classmates achieve the look they desired. She and other student entrepreneurs are embracing the “gig economy” and helping to redefine what is meant by the “Howard hustle.”

“A lot of students here have businesses,” she said. “You’ll  hear it called the Howard hustle, which is how you are making money that’s not a job while you're in school.”

Once she got to Howard, the advertising major decided to up her game. She joined Howard’s Elite Models and soon became their makeup artist. She also became the campus representative for Nyx, a cosmetics company, and taught makeup classes. Her reputation grew through word-of-mouth, networking, and social media, and soon she was being called upon by other students and customers off campus. She had a suitcase full of tools which she would cart around to makeup appointments between classes. Since her high school senior year, Moore estimates that she has made up more than 350 faces. A thriving business, however, can be a lot to handle for a student who is also studying and active in the campus community. One of the most valuable lessons she has learned is to value her time and to have a work-school-life balance.

“My dad told me that you can do whatever you want, but you can’t do everything you want, and so you have to prioritize,” she said. “Organization and prioritization are the biggest difficulties when you are an entrepreneur and a student.”

Moore has integrated her business interests and her coursework. In addition to marketing classes, she’s taken a class on business startups, through which she learned how to write a business plan, create a pitch deck, and to plan for business expenses. The skills she is learning outside of the classroom are equally important. 

“You're not just here to receive education, but to gain knowledge holistically as a person,” she said. “You have to handle your classes, but you also have to learn how to meet people and talk to people, and sometimes that's more valuable. It's all a balance when it comes to the success of a Howard student.”