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Cyrus Veyssi

Influencing with Intent: Cyrus Veyssi on beauty, boundaries and the embrace of non-linear growth.

If you’ve seen Cyrus Veyssi on Instagram or TikTok, you’ve likely been caught red-handed after landing on a seemingly innocent skincare tutorial only to find Cyrus calling you out for texting your good-for-nothing ex, again. In my case, an encounter with Cyrus had me questioning why we would invest in a man when we could invest in the South of France—and prompted me to secure those tickets. It’s safe to say Cyrus sees us through their content, and in their new Prime series INFLUENCED premiering this August, we get the chance to see them, along with co-hosts Achieng Agutu, Eyal Booker, Tefi Pessoa, and Taryn Delanie Smith, bridging the gap between TV and social media to delve into everything from fashion to finance, from beauty to boundaries.

As an Iranian-American, Cyrus talks about how embracing their Iranian roots, combined with their identity as non-binary, has shaped their understanding of beauty and self-expression. Through their content, Cyrus explores the notion of using beauty beyond self-expression, and instead as a tool for forgiveness and self-love. Dialling in from NYC, Cyrus’s sunny energy lights up my room in cloudy London as we chat about inspiration for the show, their journey to self-love through beauty, and the art of embracing non-linear growth.

I’d love to kick off with talking about your new show, INFLUENCED. Tell me a little bit more about the show, and what drew you to the opportunity?

So INFLUENCED is a talk show that surfaces everything from pop culture to social culture with a lens on what’s happening with Gen Z and Millennials in their world. It’s an exciting modern take on a lot of conversations that we see on social media every day from what’s trending, and what the trends are that people are doing in beauty and skincare and fashion and food, but then taking a step back and adding a conversation around what’s happening in social culture, what’s happening in politics and what’s happening in a lot of interesting verticals that intersect with the industries that myself as a co-host and the other hosts are passionate about.

It almost feels like we each have our own little podcasts that we transformed into this show where we get to talk to other people that are like-minded and have everything from silly conversations, to honest and serious conversations in a tone that hopefully feels very accessible. We want everybody to watch this – while we do cover a lot of issues that I think Millennials and Gen Z are really dived into, I think it’s something that your parents can watch, your grandparents can watch, teachers can watch. 

Yeah definitely. Watching you all sitting on the sofa together – it’s kind of like peering into your friend’s apartment and you feel like you’re part of the conversation.

100%! As creators, I think a lot of us are talking into our phones all day or on Face-Time and it feels like we’re Face-Timing you into the conversation. It was also such a pleasure to work with Hello Sunshine and Prime on this because they saw it through that lens too.  We want people to feel connected and like the hosts are all your besties and I’m excited for people to see it and absorb it that way- it’s gonna be so fun!

Every episode is its own journey – from fun light-hearted moments, to delving into deeper discussions about self-perception and identity. If there’s one core message you’re trying to get across from the show, what would that be?

The thing that I would love people to take away from the show is that your progress as a person is not only not linear but it can’t be linear. I think the whole point of the show, whether it’s myself talking about my experience with beauty and my growing passion for it (that hasn’t been linear); whether it’s Tefi talking about spirituality; or Achieng talking about mental health; all of us have this role and from my perspective my takeaway is hopefully that you’ll see that my growth hasn’t been linear and that it’ll continue to move in different directions and that that’s normal and that that’s okay. I know it’s something we say all the time, but we don’t show it. I think what you’ll see in the show is this journey that all of us go through in each episode regardless of what the theme is and hopefully the takeaway is that, as my dad always used to tell me, that you don’t win a gold medal every day. I think this idea of progress not being linear is so profound to me and I hope that people will resonate with that message.

I love that. You said some really gorgeous things in the show about how beauty has connected you to being Iranian and your heritage. Tell me a bit more about that.

100%. For me growing up, there were a lot of features about myself that were not only not accepted, but looked at as features that you wanted to change you know – my profound nose and my gorgeous bushy brows – these are all symbols of my heritage right? Like what my grandparents have passed down to me and I think my profound revelation in beauty was not in changing those features but enhancing that and looking around in media and not seeing that representation. I think that we’re living in the age of intersectionality and that’s so exciting because I can talk about being Iranian while talking about beauty, I can talk about being non-binary, while talking about being Iranian. I think these different parts of my identity have shaped beauty for me and something that I talk about on the show is this idea that for many people beauty is a form of expression and that’s so true but for me, it’s actually a tool for forgiveness. It’s this tool that I’ve used and it almost feels like every look that I do is an apology to a younger self because I had a lot of mixed emotions about my identity growing up as non-binary, queer and Middle Eastern in America and having to assimilate to a lot of the Western cultural tropes. I think for me it was like I realised how absurdly beautiful I was in that space and that beauty didn’t have to be a tool that I used just to express myself but it could actually be a really personal experience. I think now I’m at a point in my life where I’m happy to share that but I think more often than not I always say beauty is a very personal thing for a lot of us.

A lot of people, when I get negativity on my platform, ask how do you handle it, and I say it doesn’t exist to me because the whole point of this was not for other people – it’s for me. If people resonate with it, that to me is just a silver lining. So I talk a lot about that with beauty and I also want to say as a non-binary person I think the conversation that I was really excited to have about beauty is I think what people might not understand and the misconception about being non-binary is that it’s the same as being androgynous. For the longest time, I always felt like I had to be in a full face and make up in order for my non-binary identity to be valid and I think what I learned through mentors and other people who were like me, was that I didn’t have to look a certain type of way to be non-binary – it just was. I think that gave me a lot of relief and that gave me a lot of tools to explore different sides of beauty. What if I did beauty that made me look more masculine –  that wouldn’t make me any less non-binary! I think that’s a conversation that I was really excited to have because it was something that I was recently empowered to talk about.

And while there’s been all this progress, you’ve spoken previously about the toxicity that remains in the industry. What are some changes you’d like to see?

I think that for me there’s this idea of radical transparency on social media where you see every part of everyone’s life and I think that for me I had been really adamant on creating boundaries on social media. I think people don’t see a lot of my life behind the scenes and I think about it as like a presentation – for example let’s say you have a client in your office and you’re pitching them ideas, you’re only going to give them the high points and you’re not going to show them your vulnerability. Being a creator, we’re online so much and I think the one thing that I hope is that younger people who are watching either the show or just watching me as a creator understand that things take time. There is pressure to be a huge success by the time you’re 23 which is not normal, it’s not! I want to give people the freedom to explore their journeys. I changed my career when I was 28, you know?

I worry that with the instant gratification of social media and how quickly things turn around now and how quickly we have access to everything I just hope that younger people can give themselves grace and time and patience when it comes to their own journeys, whether it’s your career or whether it’s your own personal journey. I get comments all the time where people are saying how do you deal with so much hate online or how are you confident every day (which is like, not true!) but when it comes to that again, I’m like it’s time. It’s taken me years and years to cultivate, so that’s something that with social media I hope that my message again will reiterate that your journey will take time and that this other person’s journey is real and they deserve their flowers and so do you and those two things aren’t mutually exclusive because I think sometimes we can get to in our heads about that sort of thing.

You’re so right there – everything on social media appears to be so immediate when in reality there’s so much growing that has gone on in the background. 

Yeah totally, it’s like what happens when you post a video and you’re an overnight sensation  and you go viral, that’s such a wonderful experience, but you know, it’s also not something that happens all the time. I do think there’s such a pleasure in seeing my friends who are creators of all different sorts and following their journey for years and years.  And I think sometimes it does just take longer, and I don’t want that message to be lost that that’s normal and that that is also valid and really I hope that comes across too.

Definitely! The reason I’ve been loving your content for so long is that it’s just so self-affirming – really relentlessly positive and uplifting, even when talking about highs and lows. What triggered you to decide creating this narrative and sparking joy through what you do?

I think what motivated me was that… I’m a Gemini so I’m an overthinker… truly like I think about all the times when I was in high school, or even in college, and I can remember like dozens of incidents where I said to myself, I wish I had said this or I wish I had the confidence to have like retorted that this person who dumped me at a frat party you know what I mean? I thought of all these articulations, comebacks and manifestations that I never had the opportunity to say, so I think what happened is one day it just clicked and I was like, if I can create videos that empower other people to do that, especially younger people to do it at an age where I couldn’t, how great is that?! Maintaining authenticity online is difficult – I think part of it is you see a lot of me and that’s really who I am. I do tap into a character as well when it comes to certain pieces of content, of course, but I would say the toughest thing is how I balance my own self and what people see of me.

Something that I decided six months ago was that I’m only going to create when I feel good as what was happening was I was getting into the cycle of posting motivational content and inspiring content on the days where I didn’t feel motivated and like I’m really inspired, and I felt like that was such a disservice. So what I decided to do is pre-batch a lot of my content and then that way I can sort of protect myself and protect my feelings and really only post what I feel invigorated and excited. I think that has helped my content hopefully come off as more authentic because I literally probably just filmed the video and posted it like 15 minutes after, because I felt so invigorated to tell you that you have to unfollow your ex on Instagram because it literally just came to my mind and I posted it. So I’m really lucky that I’ve found this cadence of creating content when I’m inspired and again, creating those boundaries when I’m not. 

I mean you posted making the point why would we invest in a man, when we can invest in the South of France… Well I heard you! That’s me off, flight booked!

Hahaha, I love that! I’ll have to send my reccs. But you know, so much of it I see as being funny and playful through a comedic lens, but what I think makes a lot of it worth it too is when I get messages from people that are like ‘I’m a 48 year old woman who just recently got divorced and I don’t think you realise how empowering your content is’. I think those are the moments where I get reminded of how serious it is for people and how lucky I am that that message can then really motivate someone.  In my mind it’s this fun orchestra of affirmations that I’ve created but that it really does resonate with people I think in a more serious way is really one of the biggest privileges that I’ve had in my career.

While you’re out here spreading joy, laughter and positivity for all of us, who does that for you?

That’s such a good question! I would say my brother, my dad and my mother. My brother is probably the nicest person you’ll ever meet in your life. He is one of the people that always invigorates my empathy. I would say my boyfriend is the person who makes me laugh the most and I think he constantly inspires me with the relationship content in ways I never expected. When I started to create content, one of the people who inspired me to radically just let go and be myself is a poet, speaker and author named Alok Vaidmenon and they’re probably one of the most incredible mentors that I have in the industry. Alok is a non-binary artist who has paved the way for a lot of us to grasp onto that radical transparency and show up as we are. I’m really grateful to them for being in my life, being a friend and being a mentor in that space. I’m lucky I have inspiration for different feelings and emotions and different pockets of my life.

We couldn’t not mention your dad, the iconic Baba. He’s basically the internet’s dad at this point.

He’s the star at this point – I’m just here to build his focus! He really is coming into his own and he’s revealed this new side of him which is so exciting – I don’t think he ever expected that to happen! He was really confused at first, as any older boomer, immigrant dad would  be, but I think what’s made our bond so special is he has been there since when I say since the beginning I literally mean since the first video that went viral, it was a video of the both of us! So we have this unique connection where not only is he a supportive person in my personal life, but he has really been a huge catalyst to my career and a huge advocate for me to pursue it.  I also think it’s a very new experience for him to see how people don’t always have the framework of family built in as we did – the concept of chosen family was something very new to him. When he sees the hundreds and thousands of comments of young people saying ‘I’m 15 years old and I live in Iran and I’ll never come out to my parents, but your Baba is like my Baba’ for me it’s such a touching experience, but for him it’s profound. I think meeting the people who’ll message me with a very serious intention and a very hopeful intention – he’s experiencing that and it’s amazing. It’s such a gratifying thing for me to see that he’s enjoying it as well.

It’s truly beautiful to watch you go on this journey together. What a joy! Ok this last question is basically for myself… tell me a bit more about your skincare routine. I’m talking skincares hero products and what you’re not leaving the house without…

Ah! That’s my favourite question! In the morning, I’m a little low maintenance queen. I will wash my face with cold water and I will lather on the SPF. I love products that work harder for you, so I love a moisturiser + SPF combination and there is one from Origins that I love that I love to wear during the day.

I can’t leave the house without my Rhode peptide lip treatment. I’m a big fan of the Maybelline Lifter Glosses – you’ll probably find like 7 to 8 glosses in my bag. I also love sunscreen sticks! I always say you have to reapply your sunscreen every 2 hours, if you’re not doing it, it’s not working hard for you. So I always leave the house with a sunscreen stick, as well as a face mist – the Beauty Elixir from Caudalie – I go through one of those every 2 weeks.

When I get home, the typical night I’ll do a cleanse, use my Vinoperfect Serum from Caudalie – I use it every night, I’m on my 23rd bottle! Then I always like to do some form of deep moisture, Laneige has an amazing water bank if you have really dry skin, it’s just like a surge of moisture. And then you know, I am the boujie gay uncle in everyone’s life – I love my little La Mer moment, I love my Shiseido. When it comes to skincare my advice is always invest in the products that are staying on your skin the longest. And I think the most important thing no matter your skin care routine is SPF-SPF-SPF! You could have the most perfect skincare routine and if you’re not protecting your skin with sunscreen you’re really doing it a disadvantage.

I am taking NOTES! And taking my opportunity to add a PSA that everyone needs to bring a pad and paper for Cyrus’ iconic beauty hacks & dupes revealed in INFLUENCED, which you can watch on Prime now – you’re welcome!

Influenced is airing now on Prime Video.

Interview Cordelia Speed