We spend most of our waking hours trying to care for ourselves, but there’s only so much time in the day. That’s what the makeup brand Youthforia is for — a line of high-quality beauty products that fit seamlessly into your routine. 

Founder Fiona Co Chan accomplished this goal for Youthforia, making it the first East Asian makeup brand to be sold at Ulta Beauty. 

While quarantined in Hong Kong, Fiona realized she should launch a cosmetics line. She also recalled a lesson her Vietnamese refugee mother had taught her early on about the importance of paying attention to what goes into one’s body. Although she didn’t have the best track record with makeup, she was able to consider her interest. 

Before 2020, she worked in technology and visited several highly polluted Asian cities. She realized that her Western cosmetics reacted poorly to heavy pollution, resulting in skin damage. 

This led Chan to work on a gentle formulation and test it out for two months before releasing it to the public on TikTok in 2021. She used the video hosting giant to see if people would be interested in trying out her new makeup creations, such as a liquid blush that adjusts to the skin’s pH. The BYO Blush was a huge success, and Chan’s Youthforia’s TikTok accumulated 40 or 50 million views in its first year.

While the launch of Youthforia on TikTok is undoubtedly cutting-edge, the brand’s core values are founded in the past. This comes directly from Chan’s identity and her upbringing in an Asian San Francisco household where her mother stressed the importance of viewing the body as a whole.

How does one balance their passions for creativity and artistic expression with maintaining an everyday life? This seems to be one of the hardest things to do when not everyone appreciates your creativity. Perhaps it may be possible, but very few people have been able to pull it off.

Meet the punk rock band Linda Lindas who are all still teenagers and are concentrating on their studies while on stage. They never go out to clubs after their concerts, instead, they do homework.

The Linda Lindas are comprised of the four members Lucia and Mila de la Garza, ages 15 and 12, respectively, their cousin Eloise Wong, age 14, and their friend Bela Salazar, age 17. They hail from Los Angeles and identify as both Asian American and Latinx. 

Linda Lindas didn’t grow up thinking they would be a musician. The fact that Mila and Lucia de la Garza’s father is a Grammy-winning producer had no impact on their future goals. Wong always wanted to study paleontology, while Salazar dreamed of becoming a doctor. Youngest and most gregarious of the bunch, Mila de la Garza always looked up to the character of Olaf from “Frozen.”

In 2018, Kristin Kontrol invited local girls to perform with her at a concert titled Girlschool L.A., marking the debut of Linda Lindas with the Dum Dum Girls. The band’s reputation grew as they continued to perform in Chinatown. They have supported Bikini Kill, Alice Bag, Money Mark, the Dils, and the Alley Cats, among others. Amy Poehler reached out to them to have them perform a medley of “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill and “Big Mouth” by The Muffs for her film “Moxie.”

They say they do their homework in the backstage area, on the plane, or during another downtime. They are convinced they are not yet adults, but they would still like to give their full attention to schoolwork. The band’s debut album, titled “Growing Up,” is centered around progress and ongoing education.

The Philippines, like many countries around the world, is dealing with skyrocketing food inflation due to supply issues and high fuel costs. 

26-year-old Mark Ezzer Ligan, from Bacolod, Philippines, has learned how to start and sustain his farm by producing vegetables such as okra, eggplant, soursop, and coconut in his family’s 3-hectare plot of land called MBL Integrated Farm. He also raises imported goats from Australia, cows, carabaos, and chickens.

Mark continues to cultivate the land and raise livestock to increase community production. He ensures sufficient supplies from eggs to vegetables and corn to fresh milk for the general public. As a farmer, he believes it is his responsibility to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.

More than 80% of Filipinos eat goat meat, but there are only two major commercial goat farms in the Philippines. The opportunity for growth for goat farmers is also substantial in light of this booming market.

Even more importantly, he benefits financially from their crop yields. Mark worked so hard that the provincial government of Negros Occidental recognized him as the 2019 Oustanding Young Animal Raiser. His success hasn’t hindered him from his commitment to his main goal of providing food, especially during the pandemic.