In Conversation with: Tinotenda Gwande

Meet Tinotenda Gwande – a 24-year-old Zimbabwean beauty and lifestyle content creator who aspires to be the best at what she does. Visit and subscribe to her YouTube channel here.

Her friends and family describe her style as edgy, artistic, and classy; this extends to the content that she creates. Tino had no ambitions to create a YouTube channel until she was inspired from watching other Youtubers. As an introvert she found it hard to start as she didn’t think people would enjoy her content. In 2020 the young content creator took a leap of faith, “I decided to do something different to boost my confidence, so I started my channel and to my surprise it went well.” When the 24-year-old started her channel, she wanted to do makeup and hair videos. As her channel grew, Tinotenda discovered she enjoyed filming lifestyle videos more than makeup tutorials, “I decided to incorporate beauty content into the lifestyle vlogs to make it a beauty and lifestyle channel.”

The young Zimbabwean has many content creators that inspire her, here are some of them, “Vongai Mapho – she’s the first Zimbabwean YouTuber I discovered, and I fell in love with her because she is unapologetic about who she is and where she comes from. Spiwe Moyo (Life with Piwe) – I love her energy and how she’s so comfortable with who she is. Mihlali Ndamase – she seems so focused and works hard for what she wants. I have a lot more favourite content creators, I can’t mention all of them, but I’ll mention others who inspire me. There is Vanessa Chilimanzi, Queen Nyasha, Tari Karemba, Vee Motsi, Charmaine TV, Mufaro Mazodze, ZeeXonline, Thandi Gama, Lydia Dinga, Patricia Bright and The Masangomai’s.”

Tino aspires to be authentic when it comes to her channel, “I want to be able to connect with people through my channel knowing that my content is real and relatable. I also want people to learn and know about certain things I do which might help them (beauty content) and show a little bit of Zimbabwe (the places and the culture). Lastly, I want people to be entertained by the content that I create!”

As a content creator Tino feels she still has a lot to learn but she believes her video quality has greatly improved. She enjoys the filming and the editing process much more compared to the first days, when she used to dread it. The young creative has many goals for her content, the main one is, “to grow my channel and hope that one day it’ll open doors of opportunities for me.”

Tinotenda’s parents and siblings are the rocks in her life, “I receive so much support and encouragement from them and they keep me motivated to better every day.” Tino attributes God for all the blessings in her life, “I believe that everything I have and everything I am is because of Him. Without His love and grace, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

The 24-year-old loves her music and lately she has been enjoying local music, “it just makes me happy to see how the Zimbabwean music industry is evolving. Some of my favourite songs include: 

One Call Away – Ishan ft Gemma Griffiths

I’m better – Freeman HKD ft Gemma Griffiths

Ngatimukudzei Mwari – Janet Manyowa

This is one of my best Gospel songs because it talks about God’s love and mercy for us and there are things that I have gone through in my life that proves how great His Mercy is.

Your Love – Azana

Ke Star – Focalistic ft Vigro Deep

These represent my love for house music and there’s just something about these songs that make me happy!”

As a proud Zimbabwean, Tinotenda is most proud of, “how we value our culture and traditions. As much as there’s cultural dilution, I believe there are some practices that are in our best interests. The content creator wants to be remembered as, “an inspiration to someone who wants to start doing what they love and as a testimony of God’s love, kindness and mercy.” 

To get in touch with Tinotenda you can email her via tinogwande@outlook.com. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @tinogwande. Visit her YouTube channel, Tino Gwande and check out her content, don’t forget to like and comment on her videos and subscribe too.

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