Who is Laura Lee?
Laura Lee is an American beauty influencer, active on YouTube, Instagram and other social platforms. Her full name is Laura Ann Lee, born on 1st September 1988 in Alabama. She has two older siblings, a sister and a brother, and is from a well-settled family. She was attending the University of Michigan, which she completed with graduation.
After school, in 2012, she worked as a medical assistant. Still, she spent most of her free time watching makeup tutorials on YouTube. Since she wasn’t allowed to wear much makeup at the workplace, she loved to follow said tutorials on YouTube and create looks for herself. Since her makeup skills improved, she made an Instagram account to post pictures of the results. Alongside makeup looks, Laura was posting modelling photos of herself, pictures of new things and short videos. A year later, in 2013, she created her YouTube channel.
Like most beauty influencers, Laura started with makeup tutorials, reviews, tips, and tricks. She was getting some views, but not enough to be considered famous or an influencer. She felt like the YouTube scene of 2016 was full of talented people, and it was really hard to shine through. At that time, people had almost unlimited options on how to learn makeup secrets. Laura knew she possibly could not have better skills than beauty gurus who spent their whole lives studying fashion and arts and learning about makeup.
In order to succeed, one either had to bring something new to the table or differ in content. Knowing that Laura decided to lightly switch her content. Since she wasn’t short on money and knew that people were fascinated by the possibilities of internet shopping, she started to focus on hauls. She made multiple series, each dedicated to one specific online shop or topic, one of those being Amazon. In said series, she spent money on hundreds of Amazon items, later opened them on camera, and reviewed if they were worth the money. Similar series is dedicated strictly to Kardashian’s used clothing. As weird as it seems, her followers were very interested in these hauls and excited for every video.
Although her YouTube content changed, Laura stayed loyal to makeup and kept posting about it on Instagram. While being active on both social platforms, Laura collaborated with many makeup brands. In June 2016, she helped to launch an eyeshadow palette with Violet Voss and in 2017, she created her own lipstick with MAC Cosmetics. With those experiences, she managed to start her own makeup brand Laura Lee Los Angeles, in September of 2017. Just a month in business, she launched her first eyeshadow palette called Cat’s Pajamas.
Laura's famous apology video
In 2018, Laura’s career was threatened because people found some old tweets of hers that came out as racist. She almost immediately shared a YouTube video called My Apology, which surprisingly made the situation a lot worse. Said video went viral in just a few days, but for all the wrong reasons. Laura tried to excuse herself for being a small-town girl who hadn’t a lot of cultural knowledge. But it was hard to even catch this one sentence since she was sobbing and wiping her face the whole time. Her apology video turned into a funny meme, usually with the meaning that YouTubers should learn how to act sad. Simplified, Laura was mocked by the internet for being fake and forcing herself to cry, so much it became almost funny. Laura lost over 300 000 subscribers in just a few days and went silent for a while. In 2019, she made another video where she tried to explain the whole situation in a better way, addressing the original apology as well.
In 2020, when all the fuss calmed down, Laura launched her second company Nudie Patootie. This company is oriented mainly on fashion, selling clothes for all possible occasions. She was called out by Nudie Jeans, another fashion company, for copying their store name, so she changed it to Minim LA.
Interesting facts about Laura Lee
- As of 2022, she is 34 years old.
- Her zodiac sign is Virgo.
- Her height is 5'1'' or 155 cm.
- Her weight is 55 kilograms or 121 lbs.
- She has been married to her high school sweetheart Tyler Williams since 2015.
- In 2018, she adopted her sister's daughter, Eryn, since her sister suffered from drug abuse. Laura's mother was originally Eryn's caretaker, but they decided she would be better of with Laura and Tyler.
- She was named a Beauty Guru of the Month in 2014 by the StarCentral Magazine.
