Spotlight On: Deepica Mutyala (Founder of @livetinted) and How She's Changing Beauty Standards

The 4-1-1 on Deepica:

• Born: Sugar Land, Texas
• Current hometown: Los Angeles, California
• Astrological sign: Cancer
• Favorite podcast: "How I Built This with Guy Raz"
• Dream job when you were younger: Makeup artist
• Area of focus: Building my brand, TINTED, a social media community devoted to creating content and encouraging dialogue surrounding the representation of all skin tones in beauty.

5 Questions with Deepica

What was the turning point of your career?
Whenever I have to make big decisions, I always think to myself that if the worst that can happen is that I didn't even try, I take the leap of faith and go for it. For instance, I talked about starting a beauty YouTube channel for five years, but everyone told me the YouTube market was saturated. However, I could count on my hand how many South Asians were making a name for themselves on YouTube. So in January 2015, I finally started my channel. I simply used my iPhone and had no idea how to edit it! Somehow my second video got picked up by BuzzFeed. The day I received an email from The Today Show to talk about my beauty tips, I left my day job doing brand development at a startup (right here at Birchbox!) to pursue my channel full-time and help brown women be more visible in the beauty space with TINTED.

What's been the greatest example of someone supporting women you've experienced in your career?
Sherry Jhawar and Allison Statter, the two female co-founders of Blended Strategy Group (a talent and influencer agency), have shown both myself and TINTED an incredible amount of support. I'm incredibly grateful for the way they've believed in me and more importantly, in TINTED, and wanted to play an active role in creating this inclusive community where people of color can feel like they have a voice.

How do you keep yourself motivated and feeling empowered?
Id be lying if I said that every day was perfect. Whenever Im feeling down or defeated, I have a folder in my inbox of messages with positive reinforcement from my followers that reminds me of my purpose. Recently, I was on a friends podcast talking about my career and I was struck by how much Ive done so far in my career. When I take a moment to appreciate my wins, it encourages me to reach for more!

How do you maintain a good work/life balance?
Im currently in a phase of my life where Im meant to be grinding and hustling to achieve my goals, which I don't mind right now, but really doesn't leave too much time for anything else. That being said, I dont want to burn out, so Ive been practicing mindfulness and meditation and trying my best to get workouts in when I can.

Which passions and hobbies helped influence the person you are today?
My dad always tells people that he used to hand me a stethoscope when I was a child, but that Id always reach for a lipstick instead. My parents encouraged me to focus more on the strategic side of the beauty industry so I enrolled in business school as a marketing major. It wasn't quite what I wanted to do, but it let me pursue my interest in exploring the business side of beauty. I look back and am so thankful to have experienced that because it has really lent itself to what I am doing today at TINTED.