As a beauty influencer, Cyrus Veyssi utilizes their platform to not only inspire others but also affirm their confidence in themselves.
How were you first drawn to social media, especially as a first-generation child of immigrants?
Both of my parents were artistic, so I was always pushed to be creative and to express myself. I took full advantage of that, and when I went to college, I found out about sociology. Everyone told me it would be a waste of time, but it ended up actually becoming the reason why I’ve been so successful in my career in media. I’ve always been profoundly moved by how involved people are in my life – how do these strangers find so much joy in my content? At first, I was making silly videos about beauty hacks and dumping your lame ex. It wasn’t that serious to me. But during the pandemic, someone commented on one of my videos saying “You’re Persian, you’re non-binary, and you’re queer, right? Your parents must be so disappointed in you.” I had this idea to bring my supportive parents in so people could see that representation. The first video I posted with my dad is the one that went viral on TikTok, and that was sort of the accidental rise to my career in social media.
Sometimes I forget the level of impact that social media has on people that don’t have access to the support systems that I have. Connecting with people and learning about their world has given me the strength and passion to continue posting. When I grew up, there was no representation of the queer SWANA [Southwest Asian and North African] people or the non-binary community in media.
How do you balance authenticity with what your following wants to see?
I always say it’s the balance of the flop. Some days I’m going to post content that I want to post, even if people don’t come to my platform to see it. I think when you have social media as a career, you definitely have obligations to always perform well, and that leads a lot of creators to burnout. So, at least once a week, I post organic content even if it’s not going to perform well, because at the end of the day, that’s what keeps me excited about continuing to create. It’s this dichotomy between finding strength in the people that saw a voice in me, and then also dissociating myself from the negativity.
What are some of the pros and cons of social media?
Shareability and access has become so much faster. When I was coming up, social media was unfiltered photos of you and your friends on Facebook from the party in your parent’s basement. Now it’s 18-year-olds talking about like their bougie life. I think a level of relatability has been pulled aside from social media, and I worry that the majority of people are looking at it and dissociating from reality. I like to think of it as a boardroom presentation: creators are presenting the things that they want their clients to see. So, as long as people understand that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes, you can avoid the toxic cycle and set boundaries.
What made you such a staunch supporter of showcasing representation through beauty and social media?
When I was 14, my mom caught me in the bathroom clipping my eyebrows because I saw an ad in a magazine where this beautiful model had thin brows. My mom said “Those bushels in the front of your brows are literally genetically passed down from generations.” It was these stories that I wanted people to hear, and I felt like beauty is such a personal experience. As someone who might have been persuaded to change a lot about myself that now I find so beautiful, it was really important for me to show that I can still feel very beautiful in my skin with those very proclaimed Persian features.
For me, beauty has always been an act of forgiveness. It wasn’t about how other people saw me, It was about restabilizing the relationship I had with my younger self. I find so much grace in giving myself forgiveness with every single beauty look that I do and every single video that I post. It’s almost like a little apology to my younger self, and I find a lot of strength through that. That’s what helped catalyze this passion that I had into the career that I wanted to make for myself.
What impact do you hope to have on the next generation?
There are only two people that are in your way of achieving what you want to do: yourself, and the person that wishes they could do it. You have to build a relationship with yourself. You have to talk to yourself like you would to your best friend. If I listened to everybody who told me I couldn’t do it, if I put my phone down, if I deleted my videos like people told me to, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.
I also want my followers to see that the longevity of your career and the longevity of your mental health is key. Cutting corners and doing things for the wrong reasons may not always be the decision that lands you in the place you’re supposed to be. I think if we can all just realize that we can’t put pressure on ourselves every day to feel 100%, I truly think that would change so much.
For the longest time, I felt like people would not see me as non-binary if I wasn’t feminine. I had to restructure that in my head and be like, “I can have no makeup on and a full face of facial hair, and my identity is still valid and non-binary.” People all the time will comment, “That’s a man. I can see your five o’clock shadow.” It’s not important to me. It’s none of my business. If I can see myself as who I am, that’s the first step in being able to unlock a world to so much more beyond what people before me have created and that were just keeping me from being able to be who I am. Beauty gave me that key. Beauty gave me the key to being able to unlock something so much bigger and be so much more comfortable and confident in myself.
