Blogger battles bias with beauty campaign
layered in bold colors, has drawn admirers. She has 6,000 followers on social media site Facebook and 600 students have attended more than 150 classes on the use of cosmetics run in a makeshift studio. But her high profile has drawn criticism and even discrimination: a Buddhist woman who enrolled in her class backed out on discovering Win Lae Phyu Sin was Muslim.
Some Facebook commenters have attacked her for being too flamboyant and using make-up, which conservative Muslims regard as taboo, but the blogger refuses to let critics waste her time. “When people attack or criticise me outside and online, I choose to ignore them,” she said. “I have a lot of work to do.”
Her growing fame, fed by dozens of online makeup tutorials and events at shopping malls, has prompted trips to Myanmar’s second largest city, Mandalay, and she plans to visit Kuala Lumpur, the capital of neighbouring Malaysia.
“After I graduated from high school, my boyfriend gave me make-up palettes as a present,” she said. “I didn’t know how to use them so I Googled it and learned.” But acquiring professional expertise proved too expensive, so Win Lae Phyu Sin came up with the idea of six-hour sessions, aimed at regular “girls like me”, that cost less than $25.
A year on, she brings to every lesson two bags packed with eyeliners, brushes and small mirrors for every student. At one recent session, she discussed skin types before handing out bottles of foundation and eyeshadow for students to try.
Win Lae Phyu Sin is undeterred by those who denigrate her for being a Muslim and wearing a hijab that exposes the face. “’Don’t you know you will go to hell if you do that? Why don’t you take off the hijab during shooting?’” she quoted some Facebook critics as asking. But she added, “I will keep on doing this, because this is my passion.”