Makeup artist Patrick Ta is best known for his jet-setting life, his throng of celebrity friends and clients including Ariana Grande, Adriana Lima and Chrissy Teigen, and an Instagram feed full of bright, beautiful makeup admired by millions of avid followers. What you won’t see is the fact that this globally successful makeup artist was badly bullied as a child. Here, he opens up to GLAMOUR about his experiences…
“The bullies were so bad, I dropped out of high school”
I was called so many names. So many. Fatty, Fatty Patty, Fatrick… And I didn’t deal with it very well. I’ve spent most of my life feeling super unconfident and that feeling is always kind of there. It never really goes away. I’ll always feel like Fatty Patty on some level.
“Being recognised for my work gave me confidence”
My lack of confidence only started to change when I started to get recognised for my work. People started appreciating what I had to offer, and not just how I looked – which is ironic, because obviously makeup is so visual, but it goes to show that makeup and beauty go so much deeper in so many ways.
“Finding your passion will set you free”
If you’re someone who is getting bullied, I think it really helps to discover what you’re passionate about and what inspires you and focus on that rather than the bullies. If you pursue your passion, you’ll shine and prove all those bullies wrong in the end.
“Being chosen as Shiseido Global Colour Artist was a huge compliment”
I’ve ony been doing makeup for six years and to be trusted by Shiseido, which is such an amazing, heritage beauty brand, is such a huge compliment. Plus, I’m so grateful to be part of a brand that is so innovative. For the recent makeup relaunch, they pulled all their products off the shelves and reformulated them to be the absolute best. I think that attitude of bettering yourself and letting go of the past in order to excel is something I truly respect.
“I’m so grateful to my parents”
I wanted to share my story because I wanted to show the world how grateful I am to my parents. They have done so much for me and helped me grow as a person and they always supported me through everything. That unconditional love, they always believed in me, and this was kind of a way of saying thank you for making me the man I am today.
I got messages on Instagram from parents that made me cry. They sent me pictures of their children who were also being bullied and going through similar experiences as I did. One mother even got her son to read my post out loud so he would believe that this phase in his life would pass and the future would be brighter. It’s so moving for me to hear that.
“If I saw my bullies now, I would just be nice”
When you’re young you don’t really know how profound an impact your words are having – as someone who has been bullied, I do know how devastasting a hurtful comment can be, so I wouldn’t say anything horrible to my bullies if I saw them. Being nasty would just add to the problem.
When you’re young, you just want to be accepted and hang out with the cool kids but I wish I could go back in time and tell myself not to care. When you grow up, you realise there’s so much more to life and the bullies won’t matter any more.
