Inspiring people to dream big and aspire to be even more than what they can be, YouTube personality and beauty guru Patrick Starrr, has launched his new beauty brand, ONE/SIZE. To go along with the launch, he dropped techno/club style single “GO OFF.”
Speaking on the inspiration behind the track and accompanying music video, Patrick says, “It was inspired by my being asked to [remove] my makeup by my manager at my first job as a makeup consultant. It was important to me to retell that story focusing instead on the determination I had to make it big. It was a vindictive story of success. I was excited to tell that story and connect it with the launch of my makeup removers called GO OFF.”
Patrick’s success, like every inspiring success story, didn’t happen overnight and makes it a point to spread the message to “keep going.” Talking about what he’d love to tell people who might be struggling with achieving their dreams, he says “Just understand that it will take a lot of time to get where you want to go. I’m 30 years old and I have so many more opportunities coming my way even as of yesterday which I had no idea would ever come into my life.”
He also advises, “The number one step to growing is letting go. Let go of the people who are holding you down; you have everything in you, just let go of the people who may not understand you at least for now so you can grow. A lot of people self-deprecate and think of themselves as the issue. Sometimes it’s more about the environment. It’s like a flower to bloom you need to push through the dirt but other things matter too, you need the right amount of water, oxygen, or the sun to grow. You need the right people around you to encourage a willingness within you to bloom.”
Letting go of the people who didn’t understand or support him was something Patrick admits he had to do early on in his career. But on the flip side, he has a group of people who have stuck by him pre-fame right through to his current status as a beauty icon.
Talking about the process of making the single, and behind the scenes memories, he mentions this core group of supporters, “I have a certain group of people who have been with me since the beginning who are still part of the production. My brother Peter and so many of my best friends who have been with me since pre-fame, pre-YouTube who really mean a lot to me. This also includes my best friend Roni (@muaroni) and he does my makeup for all my shoots. From having stayed on his couch once upon a time to now have him to do my makeup for a campaign, we have fond memories which we laugh about. Every time we go on set we ask ourselves, ‘what are we doing?’, ‘who do we think we are?’ The fact we’re all able to make something beautiful together is a memory I’ll always cherish.”
He adds, “Being in good company and around people who have the best intentions for you and have good hearts, who listen to you– it makes me happy. Being surrounded by people who believed in me. Them helping me back then is now helping millions of people.”
Here, the conversation naturally drifts to the intentions of his brand and how he hopes to help people with it. Firstly removing himself from the brand as its founder, Patrick explains that everything about the brand– from its aim to redefine beauty by promoting kindness to the pink and red colors– encompasses self-love.
He says, “I want people to see and love themselves through my brand. I want them to promise themselves that they’ll be kind to themselves. For me, everything has always been against me by beauty standards; my hair loss, weight gain, textured skin, my ethnicity, etc. None of it matches the typical beauty standard in America or the world, yet I am celebrated as a beauty icon in every single store in Sephora right now. So I want people to be confident that if I can do it, they can do it too.
“People tell me ‘I’m an inspiration,’ it’s never about my appearance, I’m not objectified by my physicality but by the way I present myself and my aura that transcends beyond the screen. The idea that I’m inspirational allows all these people to aspire to be more than they feel that they are.”
Then, going into the aspects of representation he hopes ONE/SIZE will promote, he explains that while a lot of boxes are checked off in terms of diversity; whether that be having male beauty brand owners/makeup artists such as François Nars, Angel Merino, Kevin Aquino or beauty brands fulfilling the skin color quota, no one talks about diversity and representation in terms of identity.
He says, “No one is talking about the trans or gay community. I have a gender identity representation story to tell, and a trend to set. I was speaking to Kris Jenner this morning and she posted about my brand. A world-renowned celebrity like Kris Jenner recognizing someone like me? It’s not just me she’s recognizing, she’s also recognizing the rest of my community, who are an extension of me. This is where I hope my brand stands apart from everyone else.”
Patrick’s commitment to elevating the voices of the unheard has unsurprisingly touched his fans, with him previously revealing that he had been receiving many messages since the launch was announced. Recounting one such message, he delves into a story of identity, confidence, and respect that’s sure to leave anyone listening to it with the biggest smile on their face. He recalls, “I had gone to an event in Dallas in 2014 and this person had gone to my meet and greet back then. Recently I had posted free Zoom classes on how to be an influencer, and this person I’d met in 2014 joined in.
“She commented, ‘You have truly inspired me from day one. When we met before I transitioned in Dallas, I was there just to meet you. Meeting you gave me the confidence to transition to being myself and embracing makeup because makeup is a one-size-fits all.'”
“I actually had met her again and she sent me pictures of us in 2014 and then her– in her true identity– and I in 2018. I sent her the whole collection to ONE/SIZE because if I can support her journey to becoming herself or even just to validate that she’s been seen, that’s she worthy of existing and has a purpose… That’s priceless to me.”
This isn’t the only way Patrick hopes to help people. On what he’d love to do next he reveals, “Just passing on the knowledge and mentor upcoming influencers. My peers and I have been able to carve out a niche for ourselves. While we haven’t had any formal training in this, I’d love to extend my beauty guru agency to mentor people to allow them to achieve their potential.”
On the topic of potential, Patrick says “I realized that I love commercial music, it’s just so much fun to make music videos to show products and find unique ways of marketing. As someone who loves experience, being able to add music to experiences, and my products that would be unique. So in terms of music, I want to make music for my brand. I don’t want to be making music about everything because that’s not my forte at all.”
Describing his career with three words, “ambitious, spontaneous and colorful,” Patrick Starrr’s journey has been quite a fairytale with his share of ups, downs, and in-betweens. It’s therefore, fitting that Disney movies were such a big part of Patrick’s attraction to make up.
Harkening back to his first memories of being attracted to makeup and the reasons behind it, he says, “ I grew up watching Disney movies and the themes of transformation like Cinderella or Snow White and having the right characters around you like Little Mermaid with Flounder and Sebastian around her– That was me and that was when I first became attracted to the idea of transforming; the idea that you can become something bigger than you are. Shows like Miss Universe, America’s Next Top Model were also so inspiring to me because it allowed me to see someone from their hometown becoming globally recognized.”
The shows that he watched as a young child have now aligned with his own life– with several celebrity collaborations including Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian West, Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, Tyra Banks, Kris Jenner, Naomi Campbell and more under his belt, a supportive following of over 12 million and now a brand owner with products carried online and across Sephora stores nationwide, Patrick Starrr’s journey is best described in his own words, “A Filipino boy with a lot of ambition and self-doubt was able to paint the world in so many colors through a platform called YouTube.”
From an ambitious youngster who prayed for opportunities to a spontaneous dreamer who hopped on a plane to LA in pursuit of his passions, Patrick Starrr’s life is one rooted in creation, transformation, and all the color in the world.