In this interview, TikTok star Jen Aedo shares how a viral video changed her life and made her believe in miracles. Jen also talks about how beauty and skincare helped her postpartum depression. You will be inspired by Jen’s journey and outlook on life. Interview conducted by Josh Skinner.
(minor edits made for better readability)
Josh Skinner
Hello, and welcome to this edition of American Influencer Real Talk. We have a special guest on I love following her on TikTok, and so do hundreds of thousands of other people. It’s Jen Aedo. Hi, Jen.
Jen Aedo
Hi there, Josh. How are you?
Josh Skinner
I’m so grateful to have you on the show.
Jen Aedo
Oh, my gosh. Thank you for having me.
Josh Skinner
Well, we’ve got a lot to talk about. Let’s start off with your specialty. It happens to be in the beauty market. What does beauty mean to you?
Jen Aedo
Wow. Oh my gosh. It’s so broad. Beauty means so many things. Honestly, I know a lot of people this is a little bit controversial, but some people feel like it’s self-care. And I really do feel like beauty does help with a lot of people. It helps with insecurities. It boosts people up. It makes people feel beautiful. I love that beauty can do that for people. And it’s not just makeup. I mean, skincare can do that. It gives people confidence. It makes people feel empowered. Like, that’s a huge thing. So I love that about beauty.
Josh Skinner
Now, tell me about your journey. Where did you start and how did you get to where you are with thousands of people following you?
Jen Aedo
Oh, my gosh. How much time do you have, Josh?
Josh Skinner
As long as you need.
Jen Aedo
Okay, let’s try to do the cliffs note version of this. So I went to cosmetology school right out of high school, so I got my license. My passion was to do bridal hair. That was my thing. And then that kind of got interrupted by my need to perform in front of people. So I took a little bit of time off from doing beauty stuff and hair to actually work at Disneyland, which actually makeup and hair came in really handy because I had to do all of that for myself and actually multiple other cast members. I needed help doing that. But the beauty stuff didn’t really hit me until 2017.
Right after my daughter was born. I had severe postpartum depression, which is something that I feel like most women don’t really talk about, but we should. It should be something definitely talked about a little bit more. Thank God for a friend of mine, she reached out. She could tell I was just really sad. Really cryptic posts on Facebook and Instagram. And she reached out and just offered to send me a couple of things from which she was part of an MLM.
I don’t know if you know what one of those things is, but it’s a multilevel marketing company, and she sent me some products to just kind of, like, make my day better. And amazingly, doing a face mask and washing my face pulled me out of a really dark spot. So I started really getting into skincare. That’s where it started.
And then fast forward to 2018. I moved back to California, and I got a seasonal job over at Sephora in Chino Hills, where I grew up. And that’s when I started to really, really, like, dive into makeup. Because as most people know, the perk of working at Sephora is that you will get Gratis. And Gratis is basically a training product that an employee will get to familiarize themselves with. So then that way, when a client has a question about a product or a brand, they’re able to actually talk to them about it because they’ve used it before they have a real experience using the product. So that’s when I dove head first into makeup, and then all of a sudden, support squad happen in 2020, and I feel like, after that, the rest is history.
Josh Skinner
Well, tell me about the moment that you feel that you became an influencer.
Jen Aedo
Oh, boy. Well, I’ll honestly tell you, I had one of these moments last night. But let me tell you, the first time that happened was when I still work at Sephora currently as a licensed beauty advisor. So I’m the one that kind of does all the facials and waxing and makeup appointments since now they switched over to license services. You have to have your Cosmetology license or your Esthetician license to do those services at Sephora now.
And I had a client that came in, and I was doing her makeup. She was a bridesmaid at a wedding. She just made an appointment, and she came in, and I was doing her face, and she was like, oh, my gosh, I love it. Do you have, like, a social media so I can follow you?
And I was like, oh, yeah, I post tips and all this other stuff. And when I gave her my handle, she typed it in. She’s like, oh, my God, I follow you. And then she clicked on my name, and then she was like, oh, my God, this is you. She’s like, I already follow you. And then so I took off my mask.
She was like, oh, my God, it is you. Because I had a mascot, she didn’t realize it was me. So that was very surreal. I never thought that would happen. Like, a complete stranger that just walks into my store already followed me, and she’s like, you’re the person that taught me to put on eyeliner. I really didn’t know what I was doing until I watched one of your videos, and it just made it so much more simple, which is, honestly, I feel like my biggest goal.
I want to take the complicated out of makeup and skincare. Like, it should be fun, it should be empowering, it should be something that brings joy to you. It shouldn’t be stressful. And I understand that that’s a huge thing for people when they go into a beautiful space, they look at all the products and all the people around, and they just get really overwhelmed and they shut down. So I want to prevent that, and I want them to feel confident when they go into a place and they want to try something new. But that was really cool. And then I actually do have like I said last night, I had a follower reach out to me.
Jen Aedo
She dm’d me. And she was like, she just asked me a simple question about a concealer. Like, she just wanted to know my opinion about it. And I responded to her with a voice memo. Like, I’m a huge fan of voice memos on Instagram because I suck at typing. But I’m also a grammar Nazi. I don’t like sending typos. I just voice memoir really quickly. And she sent me a voicemail back, and she was like, oh, my gosh. I did not expect you to respond. Like, the fact that you responded means so much to me. And then she was all, thank you so much. All the way from British Columbia. Like, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I was like, what? It’s so mindblowing. We never realized how far your reach is. So that probably those are the two big ones for me that I’m like, okay, I’m actually this is a thing.
Josh Skinner
Well, your videos have received millions of views, and I was wondering if one of your videos has over 22 million views. Will you tell our audience about that?
Jen Aedo
So, funny enough, it’s like that video, like, the context of it, yes, it has to do with beauty, but when you watch the video, it’s my honest, genuine reaction to something that happened from recording on a viral sound. So sometimes people don’t realize there’s a lot of times where you could say, oh, my gosh. You could take the sound down.
When you’re recording a TikTok, you could use a trending sound, but then you could take that sound all the way down to the level so you can’t hear it, and you only hear the person talking. So I used the sound bite, but I took the sound all the way down so you can’t hear it. It was just an affirmation. The affirmation says, whatever is coming to me will come easily and freely.
And it was just, like, a really nice affirmation. But I’m crying. Like, you could tell that I was, like, post-crying in the video, and people were concerned, apparently. People are like, oh, my gosh. She, like, summoned something, whatever. But what happened in the video is that after I recorded that video, listening to that sound, and I just saved it in my draft.
Jen Aedo
Someone from my past reached out to me, like, someone that I had not spoken to in, like, literally over a decade. Well over a decade. And this person meant a lot to me, so it was a real shock to hear from them out of nowhere. And it took me back because there were a lot of unresolved issues with this person. And basically, they said, hey, I have some pictures of you and your mom.
And just to bring you I’m sorry, I might get a little emotional. My mom passed away, like, right before the pandemic. So 2020 was really hard for me and my family, especially me. Like, I could not believe that I literally blinked and she was gone. But this person was like, I have pictures of you and your mom.
Do you want them? And I said, oh, my God, yes. Because you never realize what you don’t have until that person is gone. Like, I never realized I didn’t have any pictures of me and my mom. So, amazingly, they sent all these pictures over, like, overnighted them to me. And the moment that I opened that package.
And I was looking at these pictures of my mom. I got an email from Clinique. Clinique is the only brand or was the only brand that my mom ever used. She loved their clarifying lotion. She loved their almost lipstick. She loved everything about that brand. And like, literally all my makeup, when I was a teenager, was Clinique because she would just give it to me.
Like, if she didn’t love it, she would give it to me. So I was very familiar with the brand, but they reached out to me and they said, hey, we saw your viral TikTok about our almost lipstick black, honey, we want to work with you.
And I just lost it. I could not believe that that happened. That was the first time, like, well, I mean, a brand that, like, means so much to me and meant so much to her. It was the perfect collision of so many emotional things. So that really shocked me. But it was like a very happy it was a very happy shock to my system, I guess you can say. So that’s the reason why that video is pinned on my page, because it’s like a gentle reminder of, you know, whatever the world brings to you, you got to roll with it. You just got to roll with it, and you’ve got to trust it.
Josh Skinner
How did you get to that conclusion?
Jen Aedo
I think that comes from when I was younger, in my twenties, when I was young and scrappy, I guess you could say. I try really hard to control everything in my life. Everything. And the only thing you can really control is yourself.
You can control yourself, and you can somewhat control your emotions and everything else around you. You have no control over, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never have control over your spouse or your partner or your children or these are all things that you just have to go the ebb and flow with.
And you either have to make up your mind to be upset or be at an end with something or take it, take a deep breath in, and roll with it. I’ve had a discussion with many of my friends. I totally feel now that, like, happiness is a choice and happiness is within yourself, and it’s never within anything else but just yourself.
Josh Skinner
I love that, Jen, thank you so much for saying that. Jen, I have to ask you, what do you want your followers to do to be influential just like you?
Jen Aedo
Oh, wow. You know what? When it comes to beauty and when it comes to skin and all these other things, especially me as a makeup artist, I’m still out there daily talking to clients, working on clients, meeting different people with different colors of skin, and skin texture.
They’re different ages. And it’s such a wide range when it comes to social media, and this may be a little bit more on influencers than anybody else. I would really love to see if we could kind of kick back on those filters because it gives everybody a very unrealistic expectation of beauty. It’s almost sad because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a bride sit in my chair.
And because it’s their wedding day and because they think they’re going to use a full coverage foundation that they saw a 20-year-old using on TikTok or on Instagram, and they look great, or it’s a picture that has clearly been edited, they think by using that product, they’re going to look exactly like that.
When they have a different undertone, they have larger pores. They have so many other things going on with them. So if we could stop using filters, I myself, beginning the year I set up my stories, I’m like, you’re not going to see a single filter out of me for the rest of this year. You’re not going to see a single one. I won’t do it anymore. Especially me being 40.
Josh Skinner
No, you can’t be 40.
Jen Aedo
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That was another big thing. A lot of people there was a huge age gap, lots of influencers that were 20 years old, 25 maybe top out 27. And then also I would get like 50. You know, there was this huge gap of like 35 to 45. And I’m like, there needs to be some more representation there because we don’t have necessarily mature skin, but we also don’t have our baby fat still kicking it on our face anymore.
We’re looking into more options like Fillers and Botox, but there are also other things that we can do to kind of age gracefully. I don’t want anyone to feel like there are certain things that they have to do. You don’t have to contrary your nose, you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to wear full-coverage foundation. So, like, influencing-wise, I want people to look at beauty and beauty products and say, I would love to play with that, but I don’t need it. I don’t need to put it on my face, but I will use it because I like the way it feels. I like the way that it makes me feel, but I don’t need it.
Jen Aedo
I could take it or leave it.
Josh Skinner
I love that. Thank you. My final question is, what do you do with the haters?
Jen Aedo
Now? It’s funny. I really didn’t think I was gonna have this. Is that so silly? I really didn’t think I was going to have any, but they’re out there. Once you pass 10,000 followers, you’re going to have some people that really hate you. Honestly, more times than not, I just ignore them. The delete button is an amazing thing. More people should use that and flex it or the block.
You got to protect your own energy. You got to protect yourself from like if it’s going to stress you out then you just go ahead and hit that delete button. And I do. Many times. But I think there was a video that I posted like two days ago because I’m a single mom and I was talking about, I want a vacation by myself. That’s what I want for Valentine’s Day, a vacation by myself. And some troll was like, don’t say stuff like that. That’s so high maintenance. Guys don’t like that.
And I’m all thinking, Wait for a second, did I ask you to pay for this vacation? No, I’m going to pay for it myself because I know how to deal with things. Like, sometimes I do answer them, but you gotta take everything with a grain of salt.
Jen Aedo
Everyone’s gonna you know, I’m not there to please everyone. There’s going to be people that don’t really care for my opinions or views or techniques, and there’s going to be other people that are like, wow, it really clicked for me. Thank you for explaining it like that, or thank you for having a sense of humor or whatever. You could be the sweetest peach on the top of the tree, but not everyone’s going to like peaches.
Josh Skinner
I like peaches.
Jen Aedo
Oh, good, I’m glad you do.
Josh Skinner
We’re on the same tree, Jen.
Jen Aedo
Oh, good, I’m glad. I love this tree.
Josh Skinner
Thank you so much for being on the show. It was a pleasure.
Jen Aedo
Oh, thank you. I’m trying so hard. I just want to be as authentic as possible because I know that you got to show the ugly, because not everything’s pretty.