Anya Tisdale is Nobody's 'Cakeface'

As an emerging Gen-Z beauty artist with a growing social media following, Tisdale has faced her ups and downs with her artwork and its online presence. She primarily shares her work on Instagram, where her followers can engage with her and her art through posts, livestreams, and reels. While this digital existence has connected her to a community of beauty artists and makeup fanatics, it also can make her the target of internet hate and cyberbullies. In spite of the negative criticism, Tisdale has made it clear to her fans and foes that the only person’s approval she is interested in is her own. Her motivations for her work are not predicated on likes, comments, or shares, but rather the self-fulfillment she feels when creating art on her personal canvas— her face.

office caught up with Tisdale to discuss her viral 'cakeface' series from this past year, her relationship with social media, her artistic inspirations, and more.

Check out the interview below.

Tell me a little about yourself. How did you end up in beauty and fashion?

I feel like I always start with saying that it was very accidental. I've always been very involved in the arts. I went to a performance art camp for 10 years— painting, singing, dancing, pretty much everything that you could imagine. But having a career in the arts was like purely accidental. Because I started really getting into makeup as a form of art, and that being my main medium when the pandemic started. So I had way too much free time on my hands. I feel like a lot of other people might have had a lot of free time on their hands, especially when we went right into quarantine, coming from university and then going straight into quarantine. And I just was experimenting, trying different things, posting different things, and just kind of exploring and growing my skill set in makeup. And that's how I kind of came at the point where I'm at now, where it's kind of my main thing. It was definitely very accidental. But it's been very fun.

I love all your make-up designs— they’re so bold and innovative! Where does the inspiration come from for your artwork?

I pretty much feel like I can get inspired by anything. It could be food, it could be a couple of colors that I really like together. It could be a flower or an animal— I try not to limit myself to just one niche of things. One, because it's not fair to myself to kind of limit myself, but also because I'm always trying to push myself outside of my comfort zone. So taking inspiration from things that maybe you wouldn't expect to get inspiration from— that's something that I try to really do, just pull inspiration from the world around me.

Your ‘cakeface’ series was a huge hit this past year! Can you talk a bit more about the origins of this look?

So it was two things. One was flipping cake face, because I remember in high school, I didn't really wear makeup, and other people would. And sometimes people would be really mean to them about the amount of makeup they were wearing, using the term, 'cake face.' And I was like, 'That's really mean. Why is that a bad thing, if someone wants to wear makeup? Why are we making this a meme, when it could be really cool?' I wish when I was in high school I was trying the stuff that the other girlies were doing. But that was one thing: just flipping something that I grew up hearing that was very, very negative and very mean and meant to degrade other people, and turning it into something that's very creative— not even necessarily positive, but just interesting and intriguing and bright and colorful and just kind of whimsical.

Then the other thing is, last year or two years ago, I just started getting all these little bakeries on my (Instagram) Explore page. Do you know what I'm talking about? The little cakes, like tiny little cakes, that have a ton of frosting on them. And it's all very intricate. There's so many different little bakeries that are making these tiny little specialty cakes. And I was like, "Hmm, that'd be really cool if you just put that on your face somewhere." And that's where it really came from. So it was a combination of those two ideas.

Social media has been an important way to share your work and connect with fans of your art. How do you feel about your relationship with the internet?

I think the one thing about the internet is sometimes you think it's a battle with the internet, but it's really just how you, yourself, view the internet. It's not you versus the internet— it's you versus what you feel about the internet. I've definitely gotten better at this, but there was a point in time where I was just like, 'If I don't get enough likes on a post, then that means that my work wasn't good, and everybody hates it, and I need to take it down.' But that's just not the case. Because at the end of the day, did I like it? Did I think that it was good? Did I think that it was that it was a good piece of art that I made or a good makeup look that I did? My negative relationship I had with my thoughts about the internet and my thoughts about how my work was being consumed by other people forced me to change my mindset about my own work. The reason why I started posting on Instagram wasn't for other people. And it wasn't for likes, and it wasn't for attention. It was because I was exploring something, and trying something new, and wanting to get better at something that I was interested in, and just having fun. So my big thing that I've learned is the minute you feel like it's not fun anymore is when you need to reevaluate that relationship you have with what you think the internet is. So yeah, I mean, it's been ups and downs, but at this point in my Instagram career, I just kind of am like, 'I'm gonna post when I want!' Cause it's my like 'internet diary.' Like, it's my little documentary. So if I want to jot something down, I'm gonna jot it down. So being in the position I'm in has made me analyze my relationship with the internet and the internet itself much more closely because it's now become such a big part of my life because it's my job. 

How do you think makeup can be used as a tool of empowerment?

I mean, you can do so much with it. Beyond just like, you know, eye shadow and your typical, everyday face— you can do so much with it in terms of transformation and bending the rules and breaking the rules and things like that. You kind of have to feel powerful when you have so many capacities and capabilities in your own hands, and can take that and use it to— not even to impress other people, but impress yourself. It doesn't matter if you're someone who's doing special effects or prosthetics, or if you're just doing a shimmery eyeshadow— there are just so many possibilities when it comes to makeup, and when it comes to using different products and such that the power is really in your hands, regardless of what it is you're trying to create. And I think that that's really cool.

Who are some of your style icons?

I look to a lot of my friends for inspiration and just the way they carry themselves like not even necessarily with makeup. Some of them are more on the makeup side, some of them are more in fashion and stuff like that, but the way that they carry themselves is so iconic. Like my friend Kimasa (she's @bby.plantain), @okaysophi, @sweetmutuals, @pradaolic— all of these people have totally honed all of their crafts. And the way they carry themselves is just so inspiring because they're just like, 'I'm going to do what I want to do, and I'm going to look good when I do it. And that's what you're getting for me, and this is what I have to give, and you can take it, but regardless, it's for me anyway, so who cares?' Those are the kind of energies I really look up to because it can be really easy to fall into the trap of the Internet where you feel like you have to perform for a crowd, when at the end of the day, you should just be doing this for you. When you're producing work that makes you happy, and makes you feel good about yourself— that's the best part of it.

Name one beauty product you can’t leave the house without.

I'm honestly gonna say like, a good lip gloss. I like the NYX Cosmetics Butter Gloss.

What’s next for you in your journey and your art?

I'm very excited to graduate, first and foremost. My next big thing is— obviously fingers crossed because I really don't want to jinx it, but I've already spoken it into the air, so I'm gonna say it— my partner and I are moving to New York. He graduated MassArt last year with a BFA in fashion design, and he's just been waiting for me to finish up school, so we can move. I'm very excited to move to New York because I've lived in Boston my whole life, and it's kind of hard to find jobs that have anything to do that I do right now in Boston. And I feel like I love New York. I used to hate New York, but I love New York now. Just because I was scared of the trains. But now I know how to take the train to New York, so I'm fine with it. But I'm excited to move to New York. That is the next thing, just to see where things go.