Check out our behind the scenes video of Mindy Kaling’s Audrey Magazine cover shoot!

What did you think of the photos from the shoot?

I’ll admit it. I am a consumer of brightening products and trust me I’ve seen and tried them all.

Alright, maybe not all of them but most of the products you can buy at your local oriental market. From Likas whitening soap to Glutothione cream, I have exfoliated, masked, and peeled my face in order to achieve lighter skin. I guess I have my ethnic traditional values to blame. Hundreds of years ago, light skin meant wealth and dark-skin meant working class (i.e. field work and manual labor) for Asians. Somehow the historic notion stuck with Asian culture until this day and unfortunately, several Asian Americans like myself have adapted the same concept. Lately I have been on a mission to truly appreciate my caramel skin and kick the whitening regiments to the curb!

As I was browsing on YouTube to catch up on current documentaries, I found an interesting story on the developing cultural underground movement in Japan where Japanese men and women want to emulate “Black culture,” or “hip-hop lifestyle.”

The rap/hip-hop music videos serve as their main inspiration associating the voluptuous and well-manicured video models as the new “Barbie.” Since their reformation, they schedule weekly appointments at their neighborhoods tanning salons and hold underground hip-hop parties where big hair, vibrant make-up and sexy outfits are a must.

Whether or not anyone believes this movement is joke, untrue or completely racist, it proves to be a brave surge of change to a longstanding traditional beauty standard. At the least, this movement helps women like me feel more comfortable in her own skin and open to the idea of change.

I believe that is amazing in it of itself.

Kimora Lee Simmons Harper's Bazaar Singapore via Harper's Bazaar Magazine

Gracing the January 2012 cover of Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, renowned Korean and African-American supermodel Kimora Lee Simmons shows off her to-die-for body reminding everyone she still has it! She shocked everyone in April when she hit the red carpet 25 lbs lighter and with this newest issue, those 25lbs are still nowhere to be found. Fitting perfectly in vibrant designer fashion pieces, Simmons displays her revamped body image: toned, fit and curvy. As seen on her reality television show Life in the Fab Lane, it has been a contant weight battle for the fashion mogul/model. Today, she has kicked her diet demons to the curb and attributes and maintains her new slender physique to eating more healthy food, monitoring her portion intake and maintaining an active lifestyle with her three kids. Kimora Lee Simmons was also spotted trotting around the sandy shores of St. Bart’s for the Christmas holiday in a revealing two-piece black bikini – abs fully in tact! You go girl.

Liu Wen

Liu Wen in xoJane.

Liu Wen in Dazed and Confused (UK).

Liu Wen in Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011.

Liu Wen’s modeling career really skyrocketed last year when she signed with Estee Lauder and became the first East Asian model to ever walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but her success doesn’t stop there. With the most booked shows for the recent New York Fashion Week, you know we had to include Liu Wen in our Best of 2011 models. Appearing in magazines everywhere from West East Magazine (Hong Kong), Vogue (US, Spain, Italia), Elle (China), The Room (Hungary) and Telegraph Magazine (UK), she truly is one of the top supermodels of the world. Continue Reading »

As we’re hitting the colder time of the year, a scarf is my favorite accessory to wear. They’re easy to carry and add a pop to any old outfit.

My usual scarf style is the “modern loop” which is basically a wrap around the neck. But I’ve been hoping to change it up a bit and get a little creative with my winter wear.

So imagine my delight when I found this mesmerizing video on 25 different ways you can wear a scarf! This tutorial is taught by youtuber wendyslookbook and is so fun and easy to watch and learn!

Special props to the editor and cameraman for taking this beyond just another homemade Youtube video.

Check out the video for yourself!

Which is your favorite way to wear a scarf?

With a big gala to attend, Audrey Magazine asks an important question: what to wear?

The theme of the night was “A Vintage Hollywood Black Tie Affair” so what better place to look for a dress than to designer Sue Wong’s fabulous line of vintage silhouettes, beads, feathers and hues?

I decided to capture the difficult task on trying on many beautiful Sue Wong gowns on film and share with you all the journey.

Take a look below! Continue Reading »

Held at the Vibiana on October 22nd, Gen Art Fresh Faces, sponsored by smart car, really was the fashion show to attend in Los Angeles this season. Known as the event to debut designers such as Phillip Lim, Geren Ford and Rami Kashou, the event, hosted by Zoe Saldana, was brought back showcasing seven emerging designers.
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On October 14th, Project Ethos’ pink-themed event, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, was a night filled with entertainment from art to music to fashion. Held at the House of Blues, guests were welcomed to take photos on the pink carpet and invited to sign the Ink It Pink wall, where for every signature, a dollar was donated to the cause thanks to Sharpie.
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After two seasons on the hit FOX series Glee, Jenna Ushkowitz is hitting all the right notes.

ISSUE: FALL 2011

DEPT: Cover Feature

Photographer: Diana King

Wardrobe: Lyndzi Trang

Makeup: Allie Lapidus

Hair: Gaelle Secretin

Photo Assistants: Kevin Burnstein, Kevin Kozicki

Styling Assistant: Jacqueline Nguyen

Location: Park Plaza Hotel

Story: Janice Jann

Two years ago, when I first interviewed Jenna Ushkowitz, she was in the middle of shooting the first season of Glee, an innovative new show with a lot of promise, hype and a heart-stopping cover of “Don’t Stop Believin.’”

Jenna was excitable and chatty, like any other 23-year-old with her first big break would be. I had asked her then if she was prepared for her impending fame.

Jenna replied, “We can just take it step by step. Do we feel that [the show’s] special? Yes. But I don’t think any of us are thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to be so famous.’”

Flash forward to the present. How things have changed. If Jenna didn’t think she was heading towards fame back then, she has to face that she is indeed famous now. Glee has become a cultural phenomenon, nominated for 19 Emmys and four Golden Globes, its songs topping iTunes every week. Chris Colfer has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Important People for his portrayal of gay teenager, Kurt Hummel. And Jenna, along with her on-screen boyfriend played by Harry Shum, Jr., are two of the most recognizable Asians on television.

The now 25-year-old Korean American, raised in New York by her adoptive parents, realized this when the cast headed to the Big Apple to film an episode last season.

“We thought we would go shoot and a couple of fans would be there,” Jenna remembers. “It was insane. Hundreds and hundreds of kids showed up. There were barricades everywhere. It was overwhelming, amazing and kind of wakes you up, going, ‘holy crap, this is my life now!’” For Jenna, life over the past two years has taken her from bartending to singing on Broadway’s Spring Awakening to playing goth-girl Tina
Cohen-Chang on one of the most influential shows on primetime television. And yet Jenna maintains she’s still the same. “Your life doesn’t have to change if you don’t want it to,” she says. I sat down with Jenna at Los Angeles’s exclusive members-only Soho House (one indication of how life has changed — Jenna’s a member),
catching her in between shooting the show’s season 2 finale and the Glee summer concert tour. Just like I would with any girlfriend, we chatted about boys, clothes and Glee.

Audrey Magazine: Life seems to be going very smoothly for you right now. Can you take us back to a time when this wasn’t the case?
Jenna Ushkowitz: In 2007/8, before Spring Awakening, I had just graduated from college and was bartending. I was really unhappy and was like, “I need to be getting a job right now singing and dancing and not slinging drinks,” you know? I was with my friend at lunch in New York one day and he asked, “What do you want to do?” I was like, “I want to be on a TV show and I don’t want to have to give up theatre.” And here I am. It’s weird. I will never forget that.

Because I did it. I don’t understand people who can just sit and be comfortable and not do something about it when they’re unhappy with their lives. I was always, “Get whatever you want, when you want it, and if you’re not happy, change it.” Life’s too short, why not be happy every single day? That’s why I was like, “I have to do this.” Even if it takes years just to get a show.

AM: We’ve heard some of your co-stars’ crazy Glee audition stories. (Lea Michele’s car crash minutes before her Glee audition.) What was yours?
JU: The whole cast [of Spring Awakening] basically went in and read for Glee. AlI I had to do was say “w-w-we’re d-d-d-dooomed” with a little bit of a stutter and Tourette’s. I didn’t realize I had to say another stutter line and they were like, “OK, do the other line.” So I was like, “Uh, yeah ….” I walked out of the audition and was like, “I didn’t get that.”

A month later, Ryan Murphy was in town and they asked me to sing and improvise for them. He asked, “Who do you think Tina is?” I did this whole improv in the stutter about how my mom thought glee club was a really good outlet for me and Ryan said, “I liked how you kept her really positive.” I passed and went to test for the network in L.A. I had to take a red eye and I couldn’t sleep, I was anxious. I had never been to L.A. by myself before. Two hours [after auditioning], they said, “you got it!”

I called my friend and she said that’s amazing [because] her boyfriend had just gotten a [beer bottle cap] and it said “Never flee from glee.” I framed [that]. It’s all about syn- chronicity; it was the right place at the right time. [In] two years I had gone from bartending to Spring Awakening to Glee with no breaks in between. I’m going in the right direction right now, I know that.

AM: I thought one of the breakout moments for Tina in the show was when she made the speech about how there were no Asian sex symbols to look up to, so she wants to become one herself. Did you realize that speech is just as relevant to Jenna Ushkowitz as it is to Tina?
JU: Now that I think about it, yeah! Subconsciously, it’s totally true. When you are a minority, especially in this show, people focus in on that and I’m glad I got that storyline. I never really thought about it, but my idols were Lea Salonga and Sandra Oh and they’re Asian, too! It wasn’t, “they’re Asian so I idolize them.” It’s just that they are amazing and broke barriers and are who I aspire to be. We are the few in Hollywood making a name for ourselves so I do think about young girls who aspire to do what I’m doing now.

We’re acting, but we’re also making a difference and I never thought I would be able to do both at the same time. To make sure that arts in education is pushed and the message that different is beautiful and good. Be who you are and never be ashamed of it. We’re showing the world what most schools are like and what kids in schools are like. Not the Gossip Girls, not the 90210’s, with more of the glamorous lives. I love those shows, but kids are more like, “you were me in school, you’re representing me.” So it’s cool we’re lucky enough to do that.

AM: You seem to get along well with the rest of the cast, always saying, “We did this and we did that.”
JU: We’re a family. We came up creating this thing with Ryan and we did it for ourselves, basically. It’s our baby and now we’re sharing it with the world. We really do love each other. We all hang out, we all go to dinners. We have wonderful relationships outside the show.

AM: Has the dynamic changed now?
JU: We’ve only gotten closer. We now know each other really well. We know how we work, we know what clicks. We’ll have tiffs, we’ll argue, but in the most lovely way. Literally, we are each other’s cores. They’re my family and I’ll be sad when they all go away ‘cause I won’t be able to see them every day like I do now. We’re all lifelong friends.

AM: Who are you closest with?
JU: I have different relationships with everybody. Those girls are my sisters. Kevin [McHale] and I are peas in a pod. We get each other. We finish each other’s sentences. We’re all extremely close. It’s weird, I know people say, “You guys are just faking it, you all hate each other” and the tabloids try to do weird stuff, but it’s just this organic thing and I think that’s why it’s so successful. The chemistry worked, you know?

AM: Speaking of chemistry, let’s talk about Tina’s rela- tionship with Mike Chang.
JU: Mike Chang is amazing. We’re the longest standing couple on Glee now. Not everybody lasts on Glee, as you’ve seen. But I love working with Harry and we have a great time together. I would like to see Tina and Artie get into it. Not necessarily get back together, but we never really resolved [the breakup]. I still feel unresolved about it and I don’t know if they’re doing it on purpose. I’d like to do a triangle, [but] I couldn’t pick which one to be with ‘cause I think they’re both great.

AM: What is it like kissing Harry?
JU: [Laughs] A girl never kisses and tells!

AM: What else is off-topic for you?
JU: Relationships. Off-topic. My family, I won’t talk too much about. You can hit on me all you want, but don’t touch my family. I try not to talk about them too much ‘cause that’s my safety zone. When you go home, nothing changes.

You want to share things with the people who know and appreciate you. I’m a pretty open book. But my personal life is my personal life. The tabloids have plugged me with Kevin and if you don’t give them anything, it just becomes boring to them and they kind of leave you alone. That’s why we Twitter, to let people see a little more into our lives rather than reading a tabloid. We prefer that, saying I had a lovely dinner with my friend rather than the tabloids saying, “walking into a bar drunk.” Once you get to the top, people love to bring you down. I don’t think we should give them a chance to do that.

AM: Do you even have time to date?
JU: Not really. In New York it was a lot easier ‘cause I had a lot of friends. Here it’s really hard — I didn’t even have friends. So to meet a guy? It’s just hard. Especially now. You have to be careful when you meet people and be aware of what they want. You never know. I’ve finally met some friends of friends.

AM: What kind of guys do you like?
JU: I said I would never date actors, but that’s a lie. Who else do you meet then? I’m a very honest and open person and I just hope someone will give the same to me. You don’t have to be successful, you just have to know where you’re going.

It’s weird, I thought I would be married by 26 when I was younger. Now it’s like, “Oh my god, no way.” Just a good person. Someone who makes you laugh every single day.

AM: Speaking of people you like, you’ve mentioned how you idolize Sandra Oh.
JU: I watch Grey’s Anatomy for Sandra Oh. She’s my favorite. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I still haven’t met her, but I’m dying to. I’m trying to get her on my show. As crazy aunt Sandra or something. She plays crazy so well.

AM: Are you hoping for a similar career path?
JU: I want to be remembered as an actor who really cared about her craft and her work. I want to do what Sandra has done, which is make herself an actress and not an Asian Amer- ican actress. And doing great work and people seeing past the, “Oh, she’s not blonde and blue-eyed.” I want to be able to break those walls and make it socially wanted — not “acceptable” ‘cause I think it is acceptable — to see an Asian girl on the cover of any popular magazine. That’s where I want to go.

Purchase Jenna Ushkowitz’s Fall issue here.

My nails were getting a little…janky.

I mean, I know hobo hipster chic is in right now but this was getting a little out of hand. (Please excuse the pun).

Because I’m a poor writer, I couldn’t afford a manicure and was a little too lazy to lather on some new polish myself, I decided to try these Nail Couture LA nail wraps.
Continue Reading »