Katy Perry took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce a groundbreaking addition to the long line of stylish, ambitious CoverGirl’s to grace the publication’s pages that includes Drew Barrymore, Christie Brinkley, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and a slew of other high-powered, famous women.
That’s right, CoverGirl has chosen a CoverBoy! James Charles (@jamescharles), a 17-year-old New York based makeup artist, will become the beauty and classically feminine brand’s newest spokesperson. After going viral on Instagram last month through documenting his beauty skills, Charles has amassed a small fortune of Instagram followers who celebrate his creative and artistic career.
Charles is the first ever male ambassador for the CoverGirl brand, a choice that he hopes will show the world that everyone and anyone can wear makeup. He started his career in the beauty industry doing hair, but after doing a friend’s makeup for a school dance, he launched his Instagram and YouTube accounts to document his experiment with doing makeup on himself.
Charles posts YouTube tutorials for both men and women on how to apply makeup. His “Boy Glam” and “Fake Freckles” videos have reached well over 100,000 views. However, he idea of males sporting makeup is not always well recieved. Charles told Cosmopolitan that he is thankful that Instagram has added filters to keep some of the negativity off of his pictures so he can focus on the positive support. He certainly isn’t going to let hate keep him from exploring his interests.
“Breaking gender norms just comes instantly as soon as a boy is comfortable and confident enough to put on makeup. I think it’s so important to love who you are and be comfortable in your own skin,” Charles told BuzzFeed.