What fuels the creative spirit? Passion – that’s right! Through Passion Pursuits, our short-form documentary series, we’re celebrating the diverse talents of Singaporeans who have overcome challenges and forged their own paths in the creative industry. This time, beauty is in the eye of the beholder as we step into the world of makeup, content creation and parenting with Francesca, better known as workingwithmonolids.
Each movement of a brush, each dip into a palette could turn a single look into something extraordinary. A swish of a liner, a light touch of a hand and the precise placement of each and every stroke create a masterpiece on the otherwise small canvas of your eyelids. Francesca has always loved experimenting with her makeup and eyeshadow – especially since her monolids didn’t fit the beauty trends.
Let’s throwback to 2016. Bright lipsticks, colourful eyes and vibrant makeup looks – this was what Francesca loved about the beauty scene. With so many hues, techniques and styles, how could you ever get bored of it? If you have a blank canvas that you can customise every day, the best thing you can do is whatever you want. “Makeup’s all about self-expression,” she says. “Anything can be an editorial look as long as you wear it with confidence.”
Francesca Tanmizi, better known as workingwithmonolids, is a beauty influencer and content creator based here on our sunny island. Featuring a past of creating eye makeup tutorials, she now presents more lifestyle-oriented content, with her family as well as storytimes at the forefront of what she creates.
But how did workingwithmonolids come about? It was a straightforward reason: the Indonesian-born content creator did not fit into the traditional beauty standards of having double eyelids. However, she didn’t do what many others did and had an eyelid surgery. Instead, she embraced it with open arms – “I have monolids, I’m working with it, so that’s it.”
Francesca started with a blog – just a little something to keep track of all her products. It was where she would swatch and review her makeup as well. It has since evolved into an Instagram page to share and showcase her masterpieces. As she toyed around with styles, techniques and designs, it was a fairly simple look that skyrocketed her into everyone’s feed – a floating liner that was visible even with her monolids.
But if you check out her page right now, there aren’t very many makeup videos at all – most of the content now showcases little snippets of her every day. You’ll see all kinds of videos, from Francesca talking about various experiences to vlogs of her daughter being absolutely adorable – in fact, there’s a folder of it on TikTok! Why the sudden change? Well, it was a pretty expected evolution.
Firstly, it’s simply due to the makeup trends of this generation. The whole internet is obsessed with ‘clean girl’ makeup now. Many companies release the same neutral brown palettes with similar vibes; there isn’t much of a point in getting more than one.
Outside of that, however, Francesa realises that, in full honesty, she just likes talking. As an open person online, her socials are filled with vlogs, storytimes and POV videos, giving her audience a peek into her life – the bright moments and the darker ones.
Beyond just her brilliance in makeup, Francesca has talked about her alopecia issues and other struggles. “I’m from a generation where we see our parents hiding every health issue,” she mentioned. “But alopecia, I think it’s more like when you get to my age, you stop giving a fuck.”
And so, her content slowly transitioned away from being solely beauty content. As a resident yapper – her words, not mine – a single visit to her TikTok page presents you videos of Francesca sharing her stories and ranting, among many others.
Unlike many content creators, many of her videos are unplanned and unscripted, displaying an authentic and unfiltered experience of Francesca’s life. “I like TikTok more. Everybody’s unserious, and it’s where I prefer to be. I mean, you can joke about your trauma and everybody laughs about it too.”
However, with AI and social media advancing, the internet is slowly becoming more and more of a dangerous place. Yet, Francesca has realised that her public status provides a bubble of safety instead. “With AI, I just think it’s even more scary not to be on social media,” Francesca muses. “In a way being public protects you in some way because at least you have a voice to be like, hey, that is not me. My picture was taken without my consent.” This voice her platform has given her as well as the established persona her audiences know her for creates a loophole in the hostile world of deepfakes and AI.
And of course, many of her posts and content feature the light of her life and the apple of her eye: Evee, Francesca’s five-year-old daughter. But having a child in the spotlight so early on – isn’t that dangerous? “We did think maybe, we want to do what most parents do: keep her off social media, make sure she’s not online, but we soon learned it’s just not possible.” With how prevalent social media is in daily life, it’s unrealistic to keep Evee off the internet completely – especially since how adored she is by her parents.
So she tries her best to ingrain in Evee the way of the internet and the longevity of anything that goes up online. But, Francesca considers herself far from the perfect parent – in fact, she refrains from sharing parenting advice at all. “I keep the kid alive, but I feel like there’s some stuff I do that’s not very responsible,” she admits.
While the influencer is very open to showing the escapades she and her five-year-old go on, she is frank and honest about her parenting style. What works for her may not work for you, and who knows how Evee will turn out when she is older?
All she knows is this: she refuses to let Evee grow up in the environment she was subjected to as a child. “I think a lot of millennial parents tend to overcompensate for our boomer parents,” Francesca says. Unlike the older ways of parenting that include ignoring minor health problems and poor mental health, she and her husband take everything extremely seriously – which equalled many A&E trips, just to ensure that Evee was safe and healthy. “My husband always says, like, just see it as paying money for our mental health.”
After all, all the money is worth it when they scroll through all the videos of Evee at night, having fun and being happy – all 87,000 of them.
Hear From Francesca Herself!
This is just a peek into Francesca’s daily! Wanna know more? Check out her full episode on the Passion Pursuits YouTube channel as she brings us around her home and unveils her evolution as a content creator. Be sure to drop by her Instagram and TikTok for a firsthand peek into her life as well!
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Cover Photo By Passion Pursuits.
