Manny MUA Creates Awareness Around Genderless Beauty While Embracing His Latinidad
The year is 2016 and Manny Gutierrez, professionally known as Manny MUA, sits in front of the camera. “I want to have my own brand, guys,” he says, explaining one of the “20 Random Facts You Want to Know” about him he wants his YouTube audience to know.
“I want to have my own entity and be able to share my expression in creativity in a product with you guys, and I hope that it happens…I’m not gonna stop till it happens.”
Manny was not playing, he hasn’t stopped even after launching his cosmetics Lunar Beauty, selling lipstick, lip gloss, and makeup palettes that caters to “men, women and everyone in between,” as his site describes.
Manny started his channel in 2014 — one of the first men to invade the highly gendered space. With his beauty tips, reviews and makeup tutorials, he’s gained a community of 10 million faithful supporters and half a billion views on his YouTube channel.
Despite the following, the aesthetician of Mexican and Spanish descent faced an uphill climb to the next level of the beauty world. As a man, he didn’t get opportunities that female YouTubers would get with one-fifth of his following size. “Yo. It’s hard” he says, “Especially 5 years ago, the brands did not take me seriously, whatsoever,” he shared with CHICA.
Growing up in San Diego, he was constantly in search of a way to express himself creatively. “I always felt out of place or a little weird,” said the influencer. Originally, he wanted to pursue a career in the medical field as a plastic surgeon. Though he earned a BS in health science, he ditched the idea of medical school when he realized his passion was makeup, a creative outlet he learned to explore when he dressed in drag for the first time at 21 years old.
