Meet Ally

Photo by: Mon Millena

Meet Ally. An 18 year old figuring out her life through the fierce pursuit of creative outlets. To put it simply, Ally's an insanely talented dancer and a self-taught make-up artist behind Bejer Beauty. She produces works of art in every aspect of her artistic process and we were lucky enough to work with her for this week's post. This collaboration has been in the works for quite a long time now. It first started with us getting the privilege of her doing our make-up. In exchange, not only did we get a chance to interview her, but we also got a chance to create Flux + Folk piece for her. 

Keep on reading to see what an F+F x Bejer Beauty collaboration looks like! 

Can you describe yourself in third person, the way an author would write about a character?

Ally Bejer is a short, Filipino girl who, if you asked her to describe herself she would say “I don’t know, man.  I like to dance?” 

She has thick, brown hair that is extremely difficult to maintain, and a silver nose ring that highly contrasts her baby face. Despite the fact that she is an introvert who often tends to overthink things, she loves to see the joy in life and tries her best to make others happy. 

Ally loves to travel, sing Disney songs, joke around, and fangirl over the fictional character, Bryce Loski. In addition to this though, Ally is constantly overwhelmed and clueless about where she’s headed, she is excited to experience what the inevitable future has in store for her and her undeveloped pinky toes! 

What fuels you to move and make? What inspires you to create? 

What inspires me to create is music itself!  I’m sure we’ve all experienced music making us feel “some typa way” and songs that just compel us to get up and dance.  As for the actual act of dancing, I would have to say that it’s all my loved ones around me that motivate me to share my passion with the world. I definitely wouldn’t be the dancer that I am today without all my teachers, coaches, and teammates that I’ve had the honour of sharing this art with.

Photo by: Mon Millena

In your experience as a dancer, has there been a moment in the midst of a routine in which you’ve had an epiphany? 

In all honestly, no. If anything, the journey towards making a routine is more enlightening!  Realizing things about either my faith, the team, myself, or even life in general happens behind the scenes- during all the hard work that goes into preparing a routine. On stage I try to be 100% focused!  Most of the time anyways…

Is there a song you’ve recently heard that you’ve been dying to choreograph a routine for? 

It’s not so much discovering a new song, then instantly developing the dire need to choreograph for it, it’s more so little concepts that I imagine every day.  Sometimes I’ll just be on the bus listening to music and I’ll think, “Wow, this song would be perfect for a contemporary duo” or “Oh, I can picture a costume that totally suits this song” or I’ll even envision some sort of waacking beatkill during a song.  If anything, I guess I’ve been conceptualizing dances for a lot of the songs from the Hairspray soundtrack.

Photo by: Mon Millena

You’ve recently started pursuing make-up and have been trying to get more experience in the field. Has this always been a passion of yours or is it a more recent venture? 

I guess a little bit of both?  I used to be scared of eyelash curlers and thought there was no point in makeup.  However, I started watching this Youtuber named Michelle Phan all the way back in grade 5 or 6 because I thought her videos were really funny. The content of the actual makeup didn’t strike me the way it does now until the 8th grade.  Because I had to wear stage makeup for dance, I started watching makeup tutorials to learn! Through Michelle Phan, I fell in love with many other Youtubers and had the pleasure of watching the community grow into what it is now.  

This initial interest recently grew into a passion to pursue makeup artistry when, in complete honesty, I started earning money. Since I finally had the money to spend on products, it gave me the opportunity to practice executing everything that I’ve learned from tutorials throughout the years. I guess I discovered that I kind of have a knack for it, and I love how I get to express my creative side through this art!

There’s a lot of common misconceptions about why people wear make-up. What is one misconception that you fervently want to dispel and why?  

Oh man, I really dislike it when people assume that people wear makeup to impress others. I can’t even recall how many times someone has asked me, “what’s with all the makeup? Who’re you tryna impress, huh?” It just peeves me because more often than not, makeup lovers wear it for themselves!  In all honesty, there have been a handful of times where I’ve just sat at home playing with makeup without even seeing anyone or going out later. A lot of people have a passion for makeup because they love how it makes them feel! I know I do.

As someone who has multiple passions (dance, make-up artistry, etc.), do you feel the need to focus on each endeavor one at a time or do you try to balance both simultaneously? 

Everything that I have a passion for definitely goes hand in hand, and I think that’s just because life naturally connects things all together. Using makeup and dance for an example, is really convenient because of all the stage makeup and theatrical looks that a lot of performances require. At the end of the day I think it’s really just up to the individual to be as innovative as possible with the all the passions they have.

However, I think I’m just at the time and place in my life where I need to focus and see where I can go with this whole beauty thing. For majority of my high school life I would dance for hours and hours every day, and while I often miss that schedule, I think right now I just need to take a step back and see where else my heart wants to lead me. Hopefully there will come a point in my life when both will intertwine and I’ll get to dance as much as I did before!

As someone on the brink of young adulthood, what has been some of the toughest challenges you’ve had to face while navigating the transition? 

There has undoubtedly been A LOT of challenges that I’ve had to face lately. If I had to narrow it down to the two most difficult ones, it would be loving myself and learning to be patient. I think everyone struggles with loving themselves to a certain extent, and this was especially true for me throughout my senior years of high school. 

Reminding myself on a daily basis to forgive and forget all the small things and to be more positive is evidently easier said than done. I’ve been taking numerous baby steps to slowly, but surely embrace and accept who I am! In regards to being more patient, this is extremely challenging since I consider myself to be a perfectionist who prefers things fast-paced. More often than not, I just need to slow down, take a deep breath, and remember that it takes time for things to fall into place- and that is totally okay.

What would be your advice for those that are scared to pursue their passions?

So what if you’re scared?  It’s inhumane to not have fears. I’m terrified too, but here I am, trying my best! Please remember that you have your support system to guide you through scary endeavours, and that everyone starts somewhere. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to chase your goals, but through all the doubts, mistakes, and setbacks that you’ll encounter in the process, the learning experience will be so worth it.

Lastly, I know you’re a big fan of corny jokes. Care to leave us with your favorite one? 

What kind of dance does a plumber like to do? A tap dance! 

(Fun fact: this was read at my graduation commencement as I tapped danced across the stage.)

That pretty much sums up Ally! Be sure to check out her Instagram portfolio to catch a peek at her make-up artistry. Trust me though, you're seriously going to want to see her work in person (and probably on your own face too). 

Before we go, here's a glimpse at what goes on in Ally's brain in the form of a worksheet questionnaire we got her to doodle on.