Eva Chen

“Instagram was initially launched as a community for artists and photographers.”

“For a lot of children of immigrants, what happens is your parents want you to do something very linear that they can understand. I had an aptitude in sciences and never really questioned it.”

“Beauty is the lowest common denominator: I don't care what they say - every girl, every woman, wants to feel pretty and empowered and beautiful, within their own definition of beautiful. I love fashion, I love shopping, but I love beauty more because I love the science of it.”

“Print is very important because I think there is nothing like the tactile sense of picking up a magazine.”

“Basically, I feel like people have always taken photos of themselves. When I was in college, I had these Polaroid cameras my friends and I would have so much fun with. Today, we'd be taking those pictures on our phones. I think it's just part of culture today... Why not have fun with it?”

“I know how I shop and how I am inspired to buy things, and the majority of it is from Instagram. I look at people like Yasmin Sewell and Leandra Medine from the Man Repeller, as well as the countless models that have really cool street style, for inspiration all the time.”

“The eight months I took off between 'Teen Vogue' and 'Lucky' afforded me such amazing opportunities, and I learned so much from so many different people - the brands that I worked with, the companies that I was consulting for.”

“If you had asked me growing up what a stylist does or what a magazine editor does, I would have had no clue - how do you research something like that when you are a first-born child of an immigrant who only grew up knowing doctor, engineer, and lawyer as careers?”

“Instagram is the perfect place to reach your audience because the playing field is leveled if you can create engaging/amazing/compelling content that people want to follow. Remember that there's more than just showing product. Show the woman who designed it. Write about your muses.”

“The thing about Instagram and fashion is that is has absolutely taken down the sense of the velvet rope and has pulled the curtain aside on the entire experience that used to be for a select 100 people in the world. Now it is there for millions of people to consume.”

“To say I like social media is an understatement.”

“You can get inspired from a magazine, yes, but you can also be inspired from a website, from a street-style blogger, from what people post on Instagram.”

“When I use a polish, I end up changing my nail color 2.5 times a week. The '.5' is when I get them done and notice it's not perfect - I'll fix it myself.”

“I have a bag and shoe addiction. If I were a doctor or a lawyer, I'd still have it.”

“There are a lot of people on Instagram desperately trying to keep up with the Joneses.”

“There are different ways to show and tell through Instagram. What's right for one designer will be very different for another designer, and everyone's going to be figuring things out, but it's a great opportunity to use it for feedback.”

“The best perk of my job is getting to take products home. I mean, my bathroom looks like Sephora; like a clean, smaller Sephora.”

“You do not need to go to journalism school if you want to work in the fashion industry. I think high schools condition you to think this way: If you want to be a fashion editor, go to fashion school. If you want to be a writer, you should study journalism. I think that the best school in life is experience.”

“Build a lifestyle around your brand, and the audience will follow.”

“My job is more about helping people tell their stories in ever more interesting ways.”