A digital pioneer and burgeoning entrepreneur, Michelle Phan first recognized the power of makeup at an early age. With a growing global community of over 7.5 million, Michelle’s videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times, making her one of the most watched talents in the digital space.

As an art student, Michelle continued experimenting with makeup, treating her face as a living canvas as she honed her skills as an artist. While Michelle studied portrait painting and the effect of light and color on the face, she was discovering how to translate this knowledge into the art of makeup and chronicling the process on her personal blog.

Michelle’s audience continued to grow online and as she further forged a new path for consuming content online, she soon attracted the attention of mainstream media—and established industry players. Legendary luxury beauty brand, Lancôme, tapped Michelle as an official online makeup artist, while publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Nylon, Forbes and Seventeen profiled her. Recognized as the #1 YouTube “Beauty Guru,” Michelle is 2nd most subscribed female, with over 4.6 million subscribers. Her signature video style—clean, artful, and expertly edited, with clear, easy-to-follow titles and voiceover instruction—has earned Michelle millions of loyal subscribers around the world, including a major following in the United States and Asia.

Not content to rest on her laurels, Michelle has continued to cultivate innovative ways to educate and connect with her community. YouTube approached her to develop her own network, which led to the creation of FAWN (For All Women Network), an outlet for Michelle to discover and develop talent, as well as curate, produce and share new content as Executive Producer. The MCN (multi-channel network), which launched in 2012, has given her the opportunity to introduce her community to new voices and reach new audiences herself, while staying true to her original vision in the video tutorials on her own channel.

That same year, Michelle also launched the beauty social networking site and sampling program, Ipsy.com. A destination for beauty devotees to network, try new products, and watch and upload beauty tutorials, the interactive community has quickly surpassed competitive sites. In May 2013, Michelle and ipsy hosted Generation Beauty, a first of its kind conference for beauty bloggers and online beauty content creators. Featuring workshops for aspiring beauty gurus and veterans alike alongside fun, interactive activities, the conference provided direction on elevating content and building a brand while continuing to strengthen the online beauty community in real life.

She is an award-winning content creator, and was recently honored with the first-ever Streamy ICON award, and the 2015 People’s Voice Webby Award for Best How-To and DIY Channel. Michelle has also been on Forbes 2015 30 Under 30 list in the category of Art and Style and Inc’s 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs of 2015. Michelle produces, directs, stars in and edits all of her own work, and has released over 300 videos since 2007. Her unprecedented, signature video style is clean, artful, and expertly edited, with clear, easy-to-follow titles and voiceover instruction.

In addition to her immensely successful YouTube channel, in 2011 Michelle co-founded ipsy, the world’s largest and most passionate online beauty community. ipsy is centered around the award-winning monthly Glam Bag, a personalized beauty sampling service based on individual style, beauty habits, coloring and preferences. ipsy boasts over 1,000,000 subscribers in the U.S. and Canada and is expanding rapidly. Recently Michelle launched ipsy Open Studios (ipsyOS for short), a studio space for up-and-coming beauty creators that will allow access to the tools and advice necessary to develop their creative talents further. In August 2013, Michelle teamed up with cosmetics titan L’Oreal to launch her make-up line em Michelle Phan. em is the first makeup line co-created by a community of beauty lovers and a beauty expert.

Most recently, Michelle has partnered with Endemol Beyond USA to launch a new premium lifestyle network named ICON. Creatively led by Michelle, ICON is an online global destination for the empowerment of viewers through inspirational premium content, conversation, and community. ICON serves a multi-cultural demographic and features original programming in beauty, fashion, wellness, DIY, food, human-interest stories, and travel. Michelle also launched a book in October 2014, called “Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success – Online and Off.”

In every aspect of her beauty expertise, Michelle strives to engage with her subscribers and empower them to use makeup as a tool for transformation and confidence. Michelle explains that the members of her community are “the ones steering the ship—they ask the questions, and I create my videos to answer them. Without my followers, I would be working in a void—like a teacher in an empty classroom. Their enthusiasm gives me the motivation and inspiration to educate and share every day.”

YouTube Sensations, Technology, Beauty, Makeup Artist, Viral Videos, Entrepreneurship, Women in Business, Website creator, Beauty Products, Inner Beauty, Cosmotology, Social Media, Lifestyle, Women, Influential Women, Asian Heritage, Asia & The Pacific, Business, Leadership, Business Leadership, YouTube Discrimination,