We were lucky to catch up with Emily Chang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Ever since I was little, I have always been told that trying to make it in the entertainment industry is so difficult. There is so much more than talent that comes with working in Film and TV and ever since I was eight years old, all I wanted was to be in movies and I was willing to do whatever it took to get there. Then I grew up and reality set in and I gave up on the dream until I went to college and met a very good friend of mine who is an actress who taught me that this is the only life that I get, and I should spend it trying to achieve my dream. And that’s exactly what I did. I dropped out of college. Move to California found my love for make up and special effects, and I attended the very prestigious make up school called Make-Up Designory. During my time there, I learned that to be in this industry, you HAVE to love what you do because there is going to be a time where profit is not a thing. I have peace in knowing that this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life and to get there I need to pay my dues and honestly it’s great because bottom line is that I just love being on set whether I’m getting paid or not. It is where I wanna be and I find it so enjoyable to be around other creatives who have the same dream as I do and with my skills, personality, creativity and adaptability I will get there one day.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Emily Chang and I am a make up artist for the big screen. I found my love for make up at a very young age while dealing with alopecia Universalis. For those who don’t know, alopecia, Universalis is complete loss of hair. I lost all my hair when I was 15 years old, and that was a very difficult time for me, but through that I found a love through make up because I could transform myself into someone that I wanted to be, and was able to look at myself in the mirror and liked what I saw. It took me a while, but I found out that I liked what I saw regardless of what I looked like. I was mainly beauty focused until I learned special effects and found a love for creating creatures and injuries as well as a simple full glam look. With my passion, I have been blessed with work straight out of school. Ive been growing my social media (_makeupby.emily_) quickly with the help of my amazing teachers at school and a portfolio that I’m very proud of. I am now a working make up artist in the industry, and I couldn’t be happier. I love making my clients or directors, producers, and actors feel very happy with my work and I love seeing it being expressed through other creatives that I work with onset. I love working as a collective and brainstorming ideas with other people who have the same visions as I do and my main mission in life is to create magic that other people enjoy as much as I do.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This is a very simple story, but it taught me a lot about who I am and how I work, but when I was in school, I had an assignment where we had to do a decade piece. I chose the 20s and for those who don’t know about the make up in that time, eyebrows were a huge trend in the 20s. It was the pencil, thin droopy eyebrows. I was being timed and I cannot figure out how to do these eyebrows and they looked awful. I had to redo them multiple times, and I had to step out and take a moment because it was so angry and upset with how my work was turning out. But I quickly bounce back and got right back to work and worked around the problem, then trying to fight it, and I learned that day that I am a problem solver and not a quitter.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Whenever I’m on set I try my best to be kind, hard-working, creative, and a teammate more than just trying to show off my work, which is how I’ve grown my connections through this industry. Every time I’m on a project with new people, I try my best to make a very good impression without straying too far from who I am. I never wanna be someone I’m not but being my best self is who I need to be when I’m working with these people because I know that I would love to work with them again and these are the people that get me jobs for what I love to do. I know that my work is very important but also keeping the energy energy light and fun is also very important to have on a set because energy is what helps not just me, but all of us do our best work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.makeupbyemilychang.com
• Instagram: _makeupby.emily_

Image Credits

Model: Rowan Cooper
Photographer: Deverill Weekes
MUA: me