Fort Smith, AR —
After another late-night session of watching YouTube makeup tutorials, 29-year-old single dad Darren Cho expressed the frustration he has been feeling every time he gets his 5-month-old daughter, Bella, ready for the day. “I love her so much, and it’s not her fault that her mother left us ‘to go find herself,’ but society places too much pressure on single dads to get it right all the time. I don’t know how to do any of this. How much blush is too much? One swipe and I might as well not have bothered, but two swipes and it’s like she’s one of those babies who gets paraded around in those creepy pageants.”
Cho pointed to the corner of the nursery where he stores all of Bella’s makeup and various other beauty products. “I’ve got like 12 different brushes. The lady at Sephora said I’d need a few blending sponges, so I got those, too.” He added, “I’ve been learning how to contour from Kylie Jenner, and I think I’m okay at it. But the winged eyeliner is really killing me. One eye always comes out better than the other. And don’t get me started on her brows. We’ve both cried for hours over those baby brows. Am I supposed to be making them thicker, thinner, darker? There’s so much to know about child-rearing these days!”
As we were leaving, Cho was sitting down at his computer where he clicked a YouTube video that promised to teach him how to highlight his baby’s Cupid bow and matte down shine for up to 8 hours. Tomorrow he plans to figure out which Instagram filter works best with her skin tone.
By Emily Sanchez, Photo Edit: Paul Klingle