Entertainment

James Charles Named First Male CoverGirl Spokesmodel: ‘People Will Support You For Who You Are’

Published on: October 12, 2016 at 1:15 PM
By Alicia Bayer

CoverGirl spokesmodel Katy Perry has announced that makeup line CoverGirl now has its first ever CoverBoy, 17-year-old James Charles.

Perry introduced Charles to the world on Tuesday through her Instagram page after wrapping a CoverGirl shoot with the high school senior.

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CoverGirl introduced James on Twitter as a “makeup artist, boundary breaker, and the newest COVERGIRL! #COVERGIRLJames.”

Refinery29 reports that Charles will star in print, digital and TV ad campaigns for CoverGirl, starting with ads to promote the brand’s new So Lashy Mascara. Fans are hoping that there is eventually a James Charles line of CoverGirl cosmetics, just as Katy Perry got her own CoverGirl line.

James Charles, who currently has 70,000 YouTube subscribers for his makeup tutorials, has been building a large social media following since he first began sharing tutorials last year.

James frequently shares his flawless makeup looks through his Instagram account, jcharlesbeauty, where he has over 507,000 followers.

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While he shares plenty of glamour makeup tutorials on his YouTube channel and Instagram page, he is also an expert at special effects makeup of all kinds. His Instagram is filled with spectacular effects that he creates, generally using his own face as his canvas.

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Harper’s Bazaar reports that James Charles first went viral after he retook his senior photos and brought his own light ring since he didn’t like the way the first set of pictures turned out.

The magazine, which refers to James as “cute and bubbly” with an energy that’s “infectious,” noted that his skin and makeup were impeccable at a recent beauty event.

CoverGirl saw the potential in naming Charles their first ever male spokesmodel.

“All of our COVERGIRLs are role models and boundary-breakers, fearlessly expressing themselves, standing up for what they believe, and redefining what it means to be beautiful. James Charles is no exception,” CoverGirl said in a release. “One year ago, he boldly chose to launch his Instagram to the world, using transformative, dynamic makeup looks to showcase the many facets of his personality, serving as an inspiration to women, men, guys and girls who might have been afraid to do the same.”

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James Charles, whose full name is James Charles Dickinson, told the Times Union in May that he learned how many people will support you for being who you are when he came out as gay when he was 12 years old. For every person who didn’t support him, he said, there were 10 who did. “Life’s about blossoming amongst those who don’t,” he said.

Charles says that he began doing hair and makeup two years ago when a friend needed help getting ready for prom after her hair stylist canceled at the last minute. He watched some YouTube tutorials and found out he had a knack for it. After that, he started doing hair and makeup for others and things snowballed from there.

Once he started doing YouTube tutorials and posting to Instagram he began to get offers from cosmetics companies. As of last spring, he had agreements with major cosmetics brands such as Make Up For Ever, OFRA, Benefit, Too Faced and Morphe Brushes. The companies send him free products and he promotes the ones he likes on his social media platforms. They also sponsored him to attend beauty conventions across the country, such as Generation Beauty in Los Angeles and New York Fashion Week.

News of the groundbreaking CoverGirl announcement has been met with praise from people of all ages and genders.

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While many male makeup vloggers identify as transgender, James told Marie Claire in an interview last spring that makeup is just another form of creative expression for him.

“My parents started questioning me about whether or not I was transgender,” he told the magazine, but he explained that it’s not about gender identity for him.

“It took a lot of thorough conversations to explain that it’s an art form for me. I’m still confident as a boy and I will always be a boy. I can be confident with bare skin and with a full face.”

[Featured Image by jcharlesbeauty/ Instagram ]

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