London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Aug 10, 2025

Why this popular Asian beauty YouTuber wants to tell you her salary

Why this popular Asian beauty YouTuber wants to tell you her salary

Singapore-based Tina Yong, one of Asia’s most popular beauty YouTubers, isn’t afraid of talking about sex, relationships, mental health – or how much she earns.

Most YouTubers hold various cards close to their chests. Discussing what plastic surgery they’ve had, past acrimonious relationships and – most taboo of all – how much they earn is usually out of bounds.

But not Singapore-based beauty YouTuber Tina Yong, who’s not afraid to address the kinds of thorny topics most of her peers shy away from.

In between videos about hairstyle tutorials and K-pop-inspired makeovers, Yong coolly talks about the events that led to the breakdown of her previous marriage (a mutual incompatibility with her hard-partying ex), what cosmetic procedures she’s had (her eyelids) and just how much she’s made from YouTube in the past six months (a high of US$15,255 in May and a low of US$11,377 in September, or an average of “around US$10,000 to US$15,000 a month”).

And her 3.17 million subscribers love her for it.


“The older I get, the more comfortable I am in my own skin,” says Yong, who is Vietnamese but grew up in Australia. “I hope that by me being open and honest about these topics, it can help other people who may be going through something similar.”

But isn’t she worried that revealing just how much she earns will make her a target of criticism, no matter how unwarranted? Yong admits she was “a little hesitant” about sharing those details in a recent video, where she revealed the entirety of her YouTube analytics page to her subscribers and explained what each statistic meant.

She says she decided to reveal the page – and all the juicy figures within – so aspiring vloggers could get a better idea of the inscrutable industry.

“This kind of information wasn’t available when I first started my channel, and I kept thinking about how useful it would’ve been for me back then,” she says. “I knew that it would shed some light, and help those who were thinking about creating their own YouTube channel.”


A trained hair and make-up artist by profession, Yong set up her YouTube channel in 2013 without any delusions; she was, in her words, simply creating videos she thought her clients and students would like to see. It turned out that millions of others wanted to watch them, too.

Her uncomplicated beauty tutorials regularly rake in millions of views; in fact, her channel broke 1 million views in less than 10 videos, with her sixth video, “Big Voluminous Hair in under 5mins!” garnering 1.3 million views to date.


Yong is now working on opening her own make-up and nail studio in Singapore.


Yet as her channel began its steady ascent, Yong’s mental health took a nosedive.

In a 2018 video, a teary-eyed Yong confessed to the pressures that life on camera brings.

“And I’ve never told anyone this,” she starts, addressing her then-subscriber base of 2 million followers, “but when I first started YouTube in 2013, I was really depressed with my life at the time. My marriage was going down the drain, my relationship with my family wasn’t there, so when I found my passion in make-up, and being able to share it with you guys on YouTube, that really helped me get over that really bad time.”


Yong says her nascent YouTube channel quickly became an escape for her, something to “fall back on” after her marriage dissolved. But as her subscriber numbers began skyrocketing, her anxiety grew.

She says she struggled with impostor syndrome– the feeling that she couldn’t match up to the bubbly persona she created for the camera – and felt a growing sense of dread each time she uploaded a new video.

“During that time, I was so focused on creating content and chasing numbers that I eventually burnt out,” she says. “I felt like I was at the peak of my career, but I wasn’t feeling happy or fulfilled inside – the more popular my channel became, the more I was afraid that if I didn’t keep that momentum going, then I would lose everything.”


Yong holds a make-up demonstration.


Adding to the pressure was the fact that Yong wasn’t just providing for herself: she wanted to “take care of the people that [she] loves”, including her immigrant mother – who had fled Vietnam to give her three children a better life – and her husband Alfred Tran, who left a high-flying finance job in 2017 to help Yong with the business end of her brand.

Yong says that she’s since managed to get a handle on her anxiety. “Blending my personal life with my online personality has become more common – I think it’s gotten a lot easier over the years to handle, because I’ve learned that I don’t necessarily have to share everything in my life, and I still have control over what I choose to share.”


Yong and her husband Alfred have been based in Singapore for the last 4 years.


Yong is now working on opening her own make-up and nail studio in Singapore because she wants to connect physically with her supportive fan base.

“One of the ironies of being on YouTube is that even though my content is watched by millions of people, I’m not actually physically interacting with anyone,” she laughs, adding that this face-to-face interaction is “one of the things I’ve missed the most” about being a make-up artist.

“When I first started my channel and it was gaining popularity, I was chasing goals like reaching a million subscribers, for example – but that didn’t fulfil me,” she says. “Now, I’m just creating content that makes me happy, and that I enjoy.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Street justice isn’t pretty but how else do you deal with this kind of insanity? Sometimes someone needs to standup and say something
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign U.S.-brokered accord at White House outlining transit link via southern Armenia
Barcelona Resolves Captaincy Issue with Marc-André ter Stegen
US Justice Department Seeks Release of Epstein and Maxwell Grand Jury Exhibits Amid Legal and Victim Challenges
Trump Urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Resign Over Alleged Chinese Business Ties
Scotland’s First Minister Meets Trump Amid Visit Highlighting Whisky Tariffs, Gaza Crisis and Heritage Links
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
×