00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi, we are here with Halsey today.
00:05 Thank you so much for joining us
00:06 to talk about your music and your beauty businesses.
00:09 - Thank you for having me.
00:11 - You are an award-winning musician, a Grammy nominee.
00:14 Walk me through what it was like to realize
00:17 that you could sing and act at a young age.
00:19 - Oh my goodness.
00:20 I remember the first time someone ever told me
00:23 that I had a nice voice.
00:24 I was in the car, I was singing along
00:27 to probably an Avril Lavigne song.
00:29 On the radio, my mom turned to my father and said,
00:34 "Chris, listen to her."
00:37 And my dad was like, "What?"
00:39 She was like, "She's good."
00:41 And I just remember, you know,
00:43 the way that felt and how proud I felt in that moment.
00:46 I think that's one of those memories
00:47 that kind of like stays with you,
00:49 especially when it ends up becoming, you know,
00:50 part of your line of work.
00:52 And after high school, I intended to go to
00:57 like a pretty acclaimed university
01:00 and found out that I could not afford to go,
01:03 which was something I knew.
01:05 It wasn't a surprise to me that my parents, you know,
01:06 didn't have a lot of money at all.
01:08 But being 17, I couldn't really apply for loans
01:11 or I couldn't really take matters into my own hands.
01:13 And I was really frustrated
01:15 because everyone had told me my whole life, you know,
01:17 if you take these classes, you get good grades,
01:18 you do these things, you'll go to a good college,
01:21 et cetera, et cetera.
01:22 And that was like life kind of hitting me in the face
01:24 of like, it doesn't go that way sometimes.
01:27 And that was my big moment of like, well, what do you mean?
01:29 I did everything right.
01:30 And so from that moment forward, I was just like,
01:32 well, I'm just gonna do everything wrong
01:33 'cause doing everything right doesn't matter.
01:35 So I moved to New York.
01:36 I didn't go to college at all.
01:37 And then I started making music
01:40 and I just sort of never looked back.
01:42 - So being an entrepreneur, you, you know,
01:49 obviously have your musical career and your musical brand,
01:52 but you also ventured into other avenues
01:55 of entrepreneurialism.
01:56 You have a beauty brand now, About Face and AF94.
01:59 Walk me through your decision
02:00 to enter the beauty space specifically.
02:02 - I started doing my own makeup, mostly out of necessity.
02:06 My first record company was a boutique label
02:10 and their whole roster was DJs.
02:13 It was like male electronic artists.
02:15 So that initial conversation was really funny
02:18 when it started becoming like, yo, I need styling.
02:20 I need glam.
02:21 I need this.
02:22 And they were like, you have $20.
02:24 The other guys are showing up with the USB
02:26 in like the hoodie and doing the thing.
02:28 And that was like a moment where I realized
02:29 I didn't have access to the same resources
02:31 as some of my other peers,
02:33 especially my female or like female presenting peers.
02:35 And so I was like, okay, well, I'm not going to fall behind.
02:40 I just need to figure out how to do it myself.
02:45 I had a real motivation to make products,
02:49 quite frankly, that would just work for me
02:51 that I couldn't find on the market.
02:53 So with that being said,
02:55 I was actually approached by the founders of Hard Candy,
03:00 which was one of my favorite makeup brands ever as a kid.
03:03 And we just felt like the perfect pairing.
03:05 - My last question I have for you is what is next for you?
03:09 Do you have any big plans with the beauty brands,
03:12 with other entrepreneurial ventures, with your music?
03:14 I would love to know what you're looking forward to
03:16 in the next couple of months or year.
03:17 - Oh my gosh.
03:19 Let me tell you, I am doing a lot of things right now.
03:22 I'm definitely working on music,
03:24 but I'm kind of always working on music.
03:26 And, you know, About Face has a ton of really,
03:29 really exciting launches coming in the next year
03:31 and some retail expansion, same for AF94.
03:35 I'm raising my son, which is amazing.
03:38 He just turned two a couple months ago.
03:41 So I'm navigating that.
03:43 Yeah, really, I think just trying to continue
03:46 all the amazing projects that I have going right now
03:49 and integrating all that into motherhood
03:51 and enjoying the last year of my twenties.
03:54 - Yeah. - You know?
03:55 I got one year left until I start the big 30.
03:58 I started doing this when I was 18.
04:01 I felt so old at the time.
04:03 And I've been doing it for over a decade now.
04:07 So sometimes I just feel ancient.
04:10 And I realized, I think this past year,
04:12 just how young I really am.
04:15 And then I have such a long runway in front of me
04:18 to try new things and explore different things.
04:21 And I'm gonna try them all.
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