For Achieng Agutu, 2024 Is “The Year Of The Superstar”

Social media isn’t the first place most people turn to when they need a confidence boost, but if you’re following Achieng Agutu, a quick scroll through her TikTok page can be as healing as FaceTiming a friend for a pick-me-up. Whether the “tweet and deleters” are bringing down your mood, or you need help defeating your inner critic, she knows exactly what to say — probably because she’s been there before.

“I post things I want to hear in that time and in that day, and in hopes that it would inspire someone or make someone feel good,” she says. “I just put it out there and hopefully it catches something.”

That’s the formula she’s followed since she first went viral on Instagram in 2021 with simple yet vital advice. “Who are you saving that outfit for, baby?” she asks the viewer. “Wear that outfit.”

Agutu recalls feeling self-conscious about her body the day she filmed that video, but you would never know that from watching it. She seemingly radiates confidence as she hypes herself up in her baby blue bodycon dress, before sharing some parting words of wisdom. “Do the opinions pay your bills? I don’t think they do, so you better wear that outfit boo,” she proclaims to the tune of “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child. It’s a message that resonated so deeply that even Viola Davis reposted it.

While Agutu didn’t spend her childhood manifesting her influencer career, the 27-year-old is not surprised she ended up here today. “I've always known I was going to amount to some sort of greatness,” Agutu says. “Whether I was going to be the hottest corporate baddie or the cutest whatever out here.”

Before she was the self-proclaimed “confidence queen,” with nearly 2 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, Agutu was a shy girl from Kenya. (“I truly just didn't have a voice and I didn't know how to speak up about certain things.”) It wasn’t until she moved to Goshen, Indiana, at 16 to live with an American host family that she finally came out of her shell.

The move came with its fair share of culture shock, but it was the valuable lessons in self-worth her host mother, Eden, taught her that made the transition much less daunting. Agutu recalls being at a restaurant, waiting for someone to order for her, when Eden stepped in. “She was like, 'It's OK, you can order what you want. What do you want?'"

“She was one of the people who really believed in me so deeply,” Agutu says. “She really thought there was more to me than just what I presented.” Eden died in 2023, but Agutu believes her memory lives on in her content.

My biggest thing has been wanting to do something that makes people feel good, that makes people feel seen and respected and appreciated.

After high school, she got her degree in public relations and Spanish from Goshen College, and a double master's in international marketing and business analytics at Hult International Business School. While working in corporate, she ran a personal blog, No Ordinary Noire, on the side, where she shared product and restaurant recs with readers every week. She eventually moved the No Ordinary Noire name over to social media in 2017 to have a creative outlet outside the 9-5 grind. The journey to virality was long, but you know what they say about slow and steady.

Since that first viral video, Agutu’s life has taken a “complete 360 turn.” She was still in grad school — now, she lives in her dream apartment in New York City and is doing what she feels she was meant to do. “I feel like I'm really, truly living in my purpose.”

Whether she’s humorously reminding her followers (“besties”) that they are the prize or engaging in a serious discussion about the female body, the magnitude of her reach is not lost on her. “My biggest thing has been wanting to do something that makes people feel good, that makes people feel seen and respected and appreciated,” Agutu says. “The fact that it has manifested into this has been just so magical.”

In 2024 alone, she graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam, co-hosted the Amazon Prime original series Influenced, and was named one of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s 2024 rookies. But even with these accomplishments to her name, it’s not the accolades she’s most proud of: it’s seeing her family react to each exciting moment.

“These are only things we've spoken about in passing,” she says. “From the show to the cover to Sports Illustrated… I told my parents, ‘This is the year of the superstar.’”

After the year she’s had, it’s no wonder she’s still basking in the glory of her recent accomplishments. “This whole experience has been so technicolor for me and such a life-changing thing,” she says. “I am just in awe every day. Every day is something new and exciting. So I'm just kind of trying to take it all in.”

She’s keeping her cards close to the chest about what’s next for her, though she does have her eye set on two major goals: securing a second season of Influenced, and earning a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30.

“The girls just have to be prepped, ready, keeping their eyes peeled for more tantalizing goodness,” she says. “Because there's more to come for sure.”