By Je’Don Holloway Talley
For The Birmingham Times
Christina Renteria is not your average millennial. She obtained her law degree by age 24 and entered corporate America with big goals. However, Renteria was not fulfilled by her lifelong dream of corporate litigation and left to pursue her passion: boosting female confidence through beauty and style coaching.
Renteria, now 26, is the style coach and founder of ‘PinkLux– beauty & personal style coaching.’ She specializes in creating wardrobes for the CEO woman. Renteria said she wrestled with creating a personal style within the corporate environment.
“I recall struggling in my early years, to find personal style in my office attire,” she said. “I love fashion, so it was always important for me to display my personal style, but also look great and professional while doing so. I fine-tuned the art of wardrobe building and saw a business opportunity in my natural expertise.”
PinkLux is a web-based corporation located in Birmingham. Renteria is also able to transfer the fundamentals of makeup application to her clients.
“I teach them that less is more when it comes to the office. You can wear a lipstick that pops, but everything else should be subtle. You can be stylish and trendy, and have an executive image at the same time.”
How did Renteria land in the beauty and style industry?
“The company I worked for lost their accreditation and were about to be shut down, so they went through several rounds of layoffs. And when they got to me, I was like ‘ok, you can go out and find another corporation to work for, or you can take on your passion full time.’ I decided that God was transitioning me into my true calling and took a leap of faith.”
Renteria was born in Indiana, but traveled and lived all over the Midwest — her mom was sent to minister and preach all over the region — before settling in Alabama. She attended 17 schools from elementary to high school before moving to Piedmont, Alabama when she was 15.
“I grew up a preacher’s kid and I’m bi-racial. Both of those labels carried a lot of challenges for me,” Renteria said. “We moved approximately every six months, so I actually had a ‘Hi, I’m the new girl’ elevator pitch that I used to help make new friends, but the older I got, the less it worked.”
Renteria said the last high school she attended was the most difficult to adjust.
“I went to Piedmont High, and that was where I went through a huge life change,” she said. “I remember finally having the opportunity to cheer again because I’d actually gotten to enroll at Piedmont at the start of the school year, so I hadn’t missed tryouts.
“My mom and I talked to the coach and arranged for the captain to come over and see where I was at athletically. We practiced, we tumbled and flipped and I thought I’d passed the preliminary tryouts because the girl told me I did, and gave me the details. I got there only to find that absolutely no one was there, the tryouts were fake, and I sat alone in the high school gym for an hour until my mom came back to get me. I just cried and cried … I couldn’t understand why they were treating me this way.”
Renteria and her parents made the decision to enroll in Kaplan College’s homeschool program. Already ahead in her studies from the gifted curriculum, Renteria excelled and finished high school a year early. After graduation, she decided to go on to Kaplan University for undergrad, and Kaplan School of Law.
Renteria has spoken at high schools, colleges, universities, Girl’s Inc. and the YMCA and hosts monthly wardrobe building webinars, teaching women how to build their images, make-up fundamentals, and all things style and beauty.
Women can be hard on themselves, and don’t always see their true beauty, she said.
“I want females to know that they are beautiful, powerful, and don’t need validation from others to feel that way,” she said. “I want them to be able to look in a mirror with confidence, and within themselves for love and appreciation.”
