Draw My Life - Michelle Phan

here it is draw my life

I had a tough time making this because

well I have to tell my entire life story under 20 minutes

I can barely remember what I did yesterday

so this will be a very brief summary

of my life I would love to get more in death but we can

save that for another time

so let's get trying

there are 7 billion people in this world

meaning there are 7 billion stories to be told

but today I'm going to tell you one story from someone

who was born in this Tiny Town in

Massachusetts called Boston or

Baston AKA Beantown January

1987 it was snowing

and my mother and father were driving

at this time my mother was 6 months pregnant

and she asked my father what my name should be

and they both decided on

Michelle however my mom looked over at him and asked well what about our

Vietnamese name he looked out the window and saw this beautiful

Snowflake and he said

tbang which means Avalanche

thanks Dad for naming me after something

so terrifying hi my name is Avalanche

and I could potentially kill you

nice to meet you

so that's me an avalanche

4 months later I was born

year of the rabbit

my welcome party was

lovely my mother told me that when she brought me home and placed me

in my crib my brother thought I was a toy

so he literally jumped and slammed

himself on top of me

apparently I stopped breathing

and my mother thought I died

anyways that's how I first met my amazing

Steve a few years later we all packed up and moved

to California now if you don't know this Landmark

this is the Golden Gate Bridge and it's located

in San Francisco this is where we

all right so I'm going to draw my family portrait

this is my mom her name is heing which means gentle one in Vietnamese

myself Michelle or Avalanche

my brother Steve and of course my wonderful

father we were a very loving family

while living in San Francisco

we moved several different times

at least over six times in one year

I remember packing and moving

and at first I thought it was fun

but later I found out it was because my father had a gambling

addiction he was a very loving father but his weakness was playing poker

it was so bad that he would gamble all our rent money and we

would get evicted that's why we kept moving

it broke my mother's

heart I'll never forget seeing my mother

cry I realized at a very early age

that I couldn't wait to grow up so I could help

her because we moved so often I ended up going to several

different schools in one year

so it was hard for me to make friends because not only was I

shy but I was always the new girl

luckily I had an

imagination and I drew a lot

Disney Princesses were one of my favorite things to draw

I wanted to be just like them

Oakland California this is where I made my first friend

I finally felt like I belonged

it was a wonderful feeling

and I remember I had so much fun

you never forget the first friend you made make

I will never forget

her sadly it didn't last long my father told us that we had to

move again and I never saw her again

but it's okay you guys are now my

friends so we were on the road again

we packed all our things in a van

and drove out to Florida

he said we would be moving next to Disney World and we could see

Mickey later we found out

that well that's our Leno that's where Disney World is at

and we are right there

Tampa not really close to Orlando

but my first day at school

was was pretty hard

I never felt so different in my life

there wasn't a lot of Asian people at my school

and my classmates they made fun of me

calling me names Man kids can be so

cruel but it's okay

I found something else that made me

smile it was drawing

I draw superheroes all day in class class

I even created a superhero

version of myself I seriously thought that when I grew up

I would have superpowers

one morning I woke

up and I noticed that my father was

missing my mother was so

I didn't know why my father

left but every night I would wait for him to come

back he never did

however we carried on

my mother is a strong woman

and she found a way to take care of us

we were happy we didn't have much but

we had each other

my mother was a bombshell

it didn't take her long to finally

remarry and we were so excited because

now we had a stepdad

we were so happy to finally have a father

again A year later my little sister was born

Steve and I were Overjoyed

to have a little sister

and I was excited

to be a big sister

and her name is

Christine I loved her so

much I was never happy when I was home

turns out my stepdad

wasn't the father I dreamt

of this is something I'd rather not talk about

but my mother was the best

she loved me so much and one Christmas

I'll never forget I got the very thing I've always wanted

a Sailor Moon Doll

it was everything to me

the second thing I wanted was this Barbie Dreamhouse

but my family couldn't afford it

which was totally fine because

I made my own dream housee

out of cardboard box

I cut out a door

a window and every day after school I couldn't wait to come home to

play with my dolls it's funny how the best things in life are the

most simple in middle school

I played the trumpet

oh man my mom she nagged at me all the time

she wished that I could play the flute or a violin

something that was less loud than a trumpet

High School I grew out of playing

dolls instead I played

games when my parents were arguing

I would either save the world

or become the World's Greatest

Warrior I even picked up on manga art and wrote and Drew a lot

of my own stories

it was my only escape from reality

see we didn't have the internet so you guys today lucked out

gosh teenage years always so awkward

I wanted to wear makeup so badly but my mother she wouldn't let me

but little by little

she allowed me to wear a little bit of

eyeliner and then mascara

and afterwards she let me wear colored lip gloss

was a pretty big deal for me

I loved makeup so much because to me

it was like drawing

it was on my own face

senior year of high school

I couldn't take the HT

anymore my stepdad left a lot of scars

that I'm still trying to heal

from the heart can only take so

much my mother said enough was enough

and we all left

him we packed up our things

and went to find a new

home it was just us

again but it felt

right just like old times

we didn't know what was going to happen

but we knew that we were going to walk

together it wasn't easy

we had to move a few times and

at one point we could only afford to rent a bedroom

from a family we all shared a bed

and my brother would sleep on the floor

my brother and I had to work to help out my mother

it was tough but

we made it through together as a family

we were unbreakable a miracle happened

I was able to attend college

that meant I had to move an hour away from them and I was

devastated I cried so much because

it was my first time away from home

and it also meant that I couldn't have my mom's f as much

man you cried too because it is so good

my college gave out laptops

to all the students

I always dreamt of having my own laptop

but I never thought I'd have one

well guess what this was a laptop where I filmed my very first makeup

tutorial I just wanted to show every girl out there how beautiful she was

and how makeup can be their own superhero

costume Batman Superman Spider-Man

without their costumes they're still powerful

but it's their costume

that tells the world

that superheroes anyways I'd love to go more into details about how everything happened

but this video would be 2 hours long so I'm just going to fast

forward to today I now live in Two Cities

one being New York also known as the Big Apple

and Los Angeles I got my family at home where they're safe and happy

my mother is as beautiful

as ever and hasn't aged a day

my little sister grew up so fast

she's now a beautiful young lady

as for my brother being the awesome guy that he is

found someone really special

he married a beautiful woman

you might know her as

promise so everyone is happy and healthy

healthy as for me

well well let's just say I met someone very special

in Paris this is another story that deserves to be told

but I'll save that for another time

but that's pretty much a brief summary of my story

even when times were tough

my childlike Spirit never died

I found that very thing that takes me to a happy place

it was Art and to others

it could be music

writing video games whatever it is

finding that special thing

will help move you

forward kind of like a lotus flower

finding sunlight in muddy

water when all odds are against it

it will still rise up

to bloom we all have a story to tell

and we are all part of something

beautiful to the world

you may be one

person but to one person

you may be the

every great dream begins with a dreamer

and every dreamer has a story

so don't settle for a happy ending

because to be continued

is way more fun

and I'm wishing you the best on your

story good luck on the next chapter in your