Growing up as a Korean American girl in Arizona, I rarely saw anyone in the media who looked like me. Whenever I could, I'd walk to my neighborhood grocery store, grab the latest teen magazine, and flip through every glossy page, hunting for the rare sight of an Asian model. Maybe there was one ad. Maybe two.
It felt like we were invisible.
When it came to makeup, I felt just as unseen. Blogs online, beauty aisles, and commercials all seemed to speak to features that weren't mine. I searched endlessly for products - an eyeliner that didnโt flake under my monolids, a mascara that could lift my stubborn, straight Asian eyelashes - and often came up empty.
In 2009, tired of the lack of resources, I started my own YouTube channel. I reviewed eyeliners, mascaras, and lashes that could work for eyes like mine, and slowly, I found a community of women who felt exactly the same way. We werenโt alone. Our beauty was real, it was powerful, and it deserved to be celebrated.
Today, with Hannah Cho Beauty, I get to be the voice I always wished I'd had as a little girl.