YouTube Phenom Brings Makeup to Masses

A 27-year-old single mom is bringing cosmetics to the masses—via YouTube. Lauren Luke's down-to-earth how-to videos boast more than 250,000 subscribers, the New York Times reports. In the 20 months since launching her channel, the British taxi dispatcher-turned-entrepreneur has partnered with Sephora to launch her own makeup line and snagged a book deal. “Her appeal is that she is the Everywoman,” says one fashion exec.

“I’m an average-looking girl who can’t wear 10 layers of fake lashes to get that mascara effect,” says Luke. “What the TV and the magazines tell you, it’s not normal.” Her success has led fashion magazines and cosmetics lines to rethink the way they sell cosmetics. “I’m not your typical gorgeous, skinny girl,” Luke says. “But people know with me that what they see is what they get.” (More Lauren Luke stories.)