Michelle Phan
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Michelle Phan (born April 11, 1987) is an American
YouTube personality A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 200 ...
and entrepreneur. She is the founder and owner of EM Cosmetics, a cosmetics brand she relaunched in 2017.


Early life and education

Michelle Phan was born on April 11, 1987, in
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. She was raised in
Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...
, alongside her elder brother and younger half-sister. Phan has publicly discussed her family's financial struggles, including her father's gambling addiction and mother’s separation from her stepfather. She attended
Tampa Bay Technical High School Tampa Bay Technical High School (TBT) is a public comprehensive Magnet school, magnet high school for grades 9–12 in Florida, United States. It was established in 1969 as Tampa Bay Vocational-technical school, Vocational Technical School. The ...
before enrolling at
Ringling College of Art and Design Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD; stylized as Ringling College of Art + Design) is a private art and design school in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded by Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931 as a remote branch of Southern College b ...
. Due to financial constraints, she left the college before completing her degree. In 2014, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from Ringling College.


Career


Blog and YouTube career

In 2005, Phan had a personal
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
where she posted makeup tutorials, which led her followers requesting for more. She began posting tutorial
vlog A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...
s on
Xanga Xanga () was a website that hosted weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles. It was operated by Xanga.com, Inc. and based in New York City. History Xanga began in 1999 as a site for sharing book and music reviews. It became public ...
under the username "Ricebunny" and then began posting on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
in May 2007.
BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...
featured two of Phan's "How To Get
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...
's Eyes" makeup tutorials in 2009 and 2010, which helped them go viral and brought her over a million subscribers. In 2010,
Lancôme Lancôme () is a French perfume and cosmetics house that distributes products internationally. A subsidiary of L'Oréal, Lancôme offers skin care, fragrances, and makeup. History Founded in 1935 by Guillaume d'Ornano and his business partn ...
made Phan their official video makeup artist after she featured some of their products in her videos, making her the company's first Vietnamese-American spokesperson. In 2015, Phan was named to the ''Inc.'' 30 under 30 and ''Forbes'' 30 under 30 lists. The same year, she raised $100 million to value the company Ipsy at over $500 million. Phan abruptly went on hiatus from YouTube in 2015. On June 1, 2017, Phan returned with her first video since the hiatus explaining why she took her break. Phan cited legal troubles, the failure of EM Cosmetics' initial launch, and her issues with self-image as what led her to take a break. She continued her hiatus until officially returning to YouTube in September 2019.


Business ventures

In 2011, Phan co-founded MyGlam, a monthly beauty product subscription service. It launched in September 2012 and has since been renamed Ipsy. Ipsy is a sponsor of the Generation Beauty conference. Phan became a YouTube advertising partner and launched FAWN, a YouTube MCN (multi-channel network), in 2012. On August 15, 2013, L'Oreal launched a new cosmetic line called EM Cosmetics by Michelle Phan, dedicating the brand to her mother. In April 2015, Phan bought L'Oréal's share of EM Cosmetics through Ipsy, which she confirmed on her Instagram in December 2016; she later acquired the company from Ipsy and relaunched it in April 2017. During this time, Phan also resigned from Ipsy in order to focus on EM Cosmetics. In May 2014, Phan announced her partnership with Endemol Beyond USA to build a talent network to feature people from YouTube and create content for
millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s a ...
. The ICON network, dedicated to "beauty, lifestyle and entertainment," launched in March 2015 online and on television via
Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...
. In September 2014, Phan partnered with Cutting Edge Group to launch Shift Music Group. Phan published a book with
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
in October 2014, titled ''Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success -- Online and Off''.


Other career ventures

In 2017, Phan launched a
webtoon Webtoons () are a type of episodic digital comics that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allo ...
titled ''Helios: Femina''. In 2021, Phan lent her voice to ''Blackberry Cookie'', a character in the video game '' Cookie Run: Kingdom'', which was uncredited in-game.


Personal life

Phan is a believer of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
and has promoted products and beliefs based on
pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
.


Copyright infringement lawsuit

In July 2014,
Ultra Records Ultra Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Group. Company history Established in 1995 in New York City by Patrick Moxey, a former executive of PolyGram and Virgin Records ...
sued Phan in the United States District Court for Los Angeles for
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...
relating to the music used in her YouTube videos. Ultra sought up to $150,000 in damages per infringement for up to 50 instances of alleged infringement, for a total of up to $7.5 million. Phan's representatives stated that she had received permission from Ultra to use the music, and Phan filed a
countersuit In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against t ...
against Ultra Records on September 18, 2014, in the
United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a United States district court, federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in South ...
. In August 2015, both suit and countersuit were dropped when both parties agreed to
settle out of court In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other meanings in ...
. The terms of the agreement were not made public.


Awards and nominations


Publications

*


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phan, Michelle 1987 births Living people American cosmetics businesspeople American fashion journalists American make-up artists American people of Vietnamese descent American women video bloggers American video bloggers YouTubers from Boston Beauty and makeup YouTubers Fashion YouTubers Ringling College of Art and Design alumni American YouTube vloggers Shorty Award winners 21st-century American women writers YouTubers from Tampa, Florida