A 16-year-old aspiring makeup artist wanted to buy his mother a special present on Mother’s Day. Without enough money to buy her a traditional gift, he decided to draw up a makeshift card and treat her to a beautiful makeup makeover.
Claus tweeted the final look with the caption: “like mother like son.”
like mother like son pic.twitter.com/9Xk0cQKxBG
— spencer claus (@spxncxrx) May 9, 2016
A month later, for Father’s Day, Claus recreated the same look, this time with his father.
His tweet went viral with over 10,000 retweets.
“The one with my dad was more of an inside joke just because my dad is so un-glamorous,” Claus explained in an interview. “It started out just being funny for us but turned out to be an example of parenting done right.”
like father like son, right? pic.twitter.com/SCiMajOsJA
— spencer claus (@spxncxrx) June 19, 2016
Claus, who identifies as genderqueer, told MIC he has received both praise and hateful messages since sharing he started wearing makeup.
“I get a lot of people saying that makeup isn’t natural on men and my response to that is that makeup isn’t natural on anyone,” he said. “It’s none of your damn business who wears makeup and who doesn’t. I think a lot of boys use it as a means to express femininity, which I definitely do.”
But Claus has the full support of his parents, as evidenced in the above images.
"makeup is for girls"
"boys don't know anything about makeup"
"girls just look better in it"
mhm pic.twitter.com/R5SvsX8BMT— spencer claus (@spxncxrx) April 13, 2016
“I came out of the womb with jazz hands and until I was 13 my mom would gently ask me once every couple months, “Do you think maybe you like boys?” he said. “They were trying to pry open the closet long before I even know there was a closet. Everything else — theater, school, work — they’ve been fantastically supportive of too.”
“If I could teach people one thing from these images or from my work it would be this: Parents, embracing your kid is so much easier than trying to change them,” he said. “Whatever endeavors I choose, [my parents] support me whole-heartedly. Makeup was just another one of those things! So, teens, live your life; parents, help them do it. It could end up being really fun.”
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