My Story

My Story

          Everyone always wants to live their dream and right now at an early age, I am beginning to live it. Throughout my life, I have always loved beauty and fashion. I can recollect playing with my Barbie dolls and intuitively focusing on their faces while my friends were preoccupied by their Barbie’s clothes. While my dolls aged (from my playing), I started to fix the faded features of their faces. I would add some of my mom’s eye shadow and pencil in their faded lips.  I soon realized that beauty is not just splattering foundation or mascara all over your face, but it is an art that  allows for self-expression through the medium of the artist and the makeup. The makeup ingredients were what I had the most interest in. I realized when applying makeup to my dolls (and eventually my own face) that ingredients and the right combination have a huge impact on the final outcome. As I progressed in school to Honors Chemistry in my sophomore year of high school, I realized most cosmetics are saturated with alcohol and other man-made ingredients that most people have never heard of. Asian makeup and skincare however focuses on natural ingredients such as green tea, soy bean, and various fruits which add a unique aroma and allure to the products.

          Presently, I am the Co-CEO of this company. This may seem like an anachronism since most CEOs have a college degree and at least a decade of work experience.  My experience although minimal carries with it a youthful quality that sometimes gets forgotten by older inured people. My first test of negotiation was presenting this idea to my investors (parents) whom gave me the capital to start my business venture. At first, they were extremely reluctant to lend me the money to start. Some of their objections focused on my inexperience and capricious nature that most parents see their children as. I needed to prove my capability and prove to them that I wasn’t going to jeopardize their money. I approached my parents the way I would approach a Fortune 500 company. I sat them down and gave a presentation in a local restaurant. I sent them an invitation through the mail and they came down to see a potential investment opportunity. Little did they know that I was the investment opportunity. They were impressed with my idea and decided to give me two useful things I wanted and needed: five thousand dollars and an experienced businesswomen as a partner, my mother.(otherwise, known as “Mommi” to me) This worked out perfectly because she had the wisdom and business experience to offer suggestions. This combination of old business and new business became our credo as to how a successful business flourishes. In the cosmetic industry, ages range from young teenage girls to older women. Running a company that has such a diverse cliental must combine the old with the new.

          Today, while writing this story, I have already faced many obstacles such as having the pressure of dealing with investors (my parents) and the stress of high school. These  pressures made realize how easy I thought it would be to merge the two in my life. While doing it, I came to an epiphany that these two things not only forced me to be better at time management but also  to create a new persona my parents and “the real world” would respect. It benefits me because I will be ready for the business world  a lot earlier than most people my age, but I also have to shed my  teenage shell  that has some immaturity and rash decision making. Sometimes I go back and ponder about a quote that Eleanor Roosevelt once stated, “The future belongs  to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” I know that as long as I believe in the beauty of  my dreams, my dreams will never fade away.

By Elina Hsueh