David Yi was a vocal proponent for diversity long before it became the politically correct thing to be. As one of the few Asian-Americans growing up in the US city of Colorado Springs, he started a club in high school called the International Diversity Council and worked on the school paper, where he wrote about Asian-American issues. “I didn’t have many friends but it didn’t matter to me because I spoke truth to power,” he said on a recent Zoom call. “I was 15 years old and standing on stage in front of white folks talking to them about why they should care about diversity and why inclusion matters.” Those early experiences must have formed a template of sorts for Yi, who in 2016 put his forthrightness to good use by founding verygoodlight.com, a digital magazine that features colourful, relevant and incisive stories about things like why unibrows should be embraced, the realities of polyamory and protecting your mental health while on social media. The site, Yi says, was a natural progression for him given his teenage years as a self-professed “storyteller” and his background as a journalist (he worked at Women’s Wear Daily and the New York Daily News , and launched beauty and fashion coverage at Mashable.) The website was also ahead of its time in many ways. Yi recalls the first story on the site about the experience of being an Arab-American in a “Trumpian” era. “We wanted to do these stories that nobody was talking about. We were including folks from across the spectrum and five years later, we’re all talking about masculinity and femininity and what this all means.” Another Zoom effect: US men trying make-up. Drugstores respond The rise in popularity of the site – it gets millions of hits a month – is in keeping with the current narrative around gender identity and acceptance. “ Harry Styles wearing nail polish on the red carpet allows other men permission to express themselves,” says Yi, who is based in New York but was spending time in his family home in Colorado Springs at the time of the call. “It’s become more accepted and celebrated for men not to be gruff and have this mask of masculinity where they can’t enjoy certain things and be pampered.” For as much as he has pushed the envelope around the long-held image of masculinity, Yi isn’t done yet. On June 22, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish his first book, Pretty Boys: Legendary Icons Who Redefined Beauty (and How to Glow Up, Too) . Looking back, Yi says his interest in beauty stemmed from his childhood. “At a young age, I’d watch my parents slather their pores and practise self-care in the mirror, five minutes in the morning, five minutes at night,” he says. “They had come to the US from South Korea in the 1980s, and they would give themselves those few minutes of relaxation time, and I saw how vital that was for them to survive until the next day. My dad loved toners and moisturisers and my mom would not let me leave the house without SPF 50 on my face. I looked like Casper the Ghost.” That meticulous attention was a hallmark of Yi’s traditionally Korean upbringing, he says – long before K-Beauty became a phenomenon. “Very early on, beauty was a mark of our Korean household. It made me feel as if I could prepare for the day and I could be sound in mind, spirit and body. It was the vehicle that allowed me to reflect in the mirror and delve into who I am.” We want to promote this notion that if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you are that beholder, and you are the one who defines that for yourself, unabashedly, proudly and loudly David Yi Still, when Yi went shopping for beauty products, he saw that something was amiss. “There was a lack of representation,” he says. “When you shop down the beauty aisle, it’s very gender-based – it’s either hyper-masculine, with shaving creams, or hyper-feminine, with a lot of cosmetics. For me, I grew up moisturising but I also shave. I don’t belong in any section, and I think we need to talk about this.” He did one better than just talk. After four years of research and development, Yi quit his position at Mashable and launched his own skincare line, Good Light, in March 2021, with the tagline “Beauty beyond the binary”. The range consists of three gentle, clean and vegan products: We Come In Peace probiotic serum, Moon Glow milky toning lotion and Cosmic Dew water cleanser, all made in Korea. While the US is the brand’s main market, Good Light has recently announced plans to expand to China, after receiving investment from SuperOrdinary, a company that helps beauty brands launch in the country. “We‘re hopeful that Good Light will resonate with Gen Z consumers in China who pride themselves on diversity and personal expression,” co-founder Michael Engert says. “Much like our belief that beauty is beyond the binary.” “We wanted to be a gender-inclusive brand,” Yi says. “Whether you consider yourself female, male, anyone, you have a seat at the table, you are seen, heard, and beautiful. It transcends gender, identity, sexuality, race, skin tone and body size. We want to promote this notion that if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you are that beholder, and you are the one who defines that for yourself, unabashedly, proudly and loudly.” Still, he is not naive about the discrimination that is still faced everywhere, and is especially sensitive to it given that he always felt like “the other” when a young student. “In our [Asian] community, it’s like you’re always holding your breath and waiting for the other shoe to drop,” he says. “What I’m doing about it is what I’ve always done: being outspoken about the rise of anti-Asian sentiment. But people are not accustomed to outspokenness in Asian communities. They say, ‘I thought you were all invisible.’ But we’re vocal and we’re loud. And we have to be even more fierce during this moment. We’re going to continue this conversation, and I will never cower away from speaking my truth. I think the 15-year-old David would be proud of the David of today.”