From The Sims to Helsinki Pride: How beauty icon Joseph Harwood got their start in video games

Trailblazer isn’t a word used lightly, but for British multihyphenate, gender-nonconforming artist and beauty maven Joseph Harwood, it’s a title that fits perfectly. The first transgender creator to brand and monetise beauty content in the United Kingdom, Harwood made waves in the early 2010s with their pioneering YouTube videos featuring makeup tutorials, boy-to-girl transformations and celebrity-inspired looks, racking up over 100 million views. Today, they continue to push the boundaries in the beauty sphere and beyond, paving the way for a more inclusive future.

“I always said to everyone when I started, that if I wasn’t successfully doing art for my job, I would be painting the walls of an asylum somewhere, because I would still be doing a creative outlet, whether it would be for my job or not,” Harwood says. “I’m just grateful that it is my job.”

Hailing from the charming seaside city of Brighton, where Harwood also currently resides, it was evident from a young age that they harboured an artistic streak. “I grew up in the church, so I wasn’t really exposed to pop culture and the normal influences that kids were exposed to – I wasn’t even allowed to watch things like Billy Elliot,” they share. “So I had a very narrow perspective of what was going on.” However, they were allowed to play video games, which became their portal into another world, with Harwood constantly sketching out characters from the games.

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Upon getting their hands on The Sims and its ‘Body Shop’ program, Harwood made a groundbreaking discovery. “They made the faces of the characters look like a flat image, and once I saw that there was all this clever shading and amazing detail work within this flat picture that was then wrapped around the 3D models, I thought, ‘My God, I could do that with makeup – I could change the way I look,” Harwood recalls.

In their early teens, Harwood began to “put myself out there” on MySpace, and by 14, they had amassed over half a million followers on the site. “I remember the day that my mum was taking me to get my braces taken off. We were going up the road, and I was being followed by people who recognised me from MySpace,” Harwood says, chuckling. “My mum was like, ‘What the hell?’ She thought I was in trouble or something.” Harwood’s burgeoning online presence, showcasing their angelic, androgynous features, led to them being scouted as a model, landing gigs for the likes of McQueen and walking runway shows during London Fashion Week.

While travelling to Japan for modelling, Harwood’s trajectory was permanently altered upon unearthing the progressive beauty products the country boasted, which weren’t available in Europe. This ignited their passion for formulating innovative and inclusive makeup products. Cue a beauty training course with The Prince’s Trust, followed by further mentorship with industry heavyweights such as MAC’s Terry Barber, Mathu Andersen (known for his work with RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Barbara Daly, a regular Vogue makeup artist whose clients included Princess Diana – all of whom recognised Harwood’s palpable talent and ambition.

In 2014, riding the wave of their ultra-popular YouTube videos, Harwood won Simon Cowell’s digital iteration of Got Talent – the You Generation – with a gender-focused makeup clip. Despite their historic triumph as the first-ever trans person to win, the achievement didn’t receive the same media promotion as other franchise winners. This disparity highlighted for Harwood just how much work there was, and still is, in advancing diversity and inclusion.

Speaking about enduring issues such as tokenism and lack of LGBTQA+ representation in media and in leadership roles (“We need to ensure that the people in the decision-making roles behind the scenes are actually representative of the groups we claim to be including”), Harwood says, “We’re still in the fake inclusivity era, and I think it’s become way worse in the last ten years than it was ten years ago for trans people.” They add, “There are so many obstacles just because of who I am and what I am. But if I was going to give up, it would have been a long time ago – you’ve got to find a way to get through it.”

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Harnessing their extensive platform, Harwood has worked resiliently towards a better future for the LGBTQA+ community. They have partnered with brands like MAC, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, and the L’Oreal-run label Jecca Blac, with whom they created a transgender-focused makeup line, which became a roaring success. Additionally, Harwood founded Perfect Androgyny, a space dedicated to spotlighting queer creatives, and has raised significant funds for charities supporting the LGBTQA+ community. They also consult globally as a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) expert for corporations while serving on the Diversity and Inclusion board of the British Beauty Council. “I always get told that I have this ability to pivot when things get tough,” Harwood reflects. “When things go wrong, I don’t let it affect my character – I make something different out of it.”

Harwood’s visionary efforts even took them recently to the Finnish capital, where they served as an ambassador for the 2024 Helsinki Pride. The opportunity arose after they launched their website, Jhournal, where they curate travel tips tailored to the LGBTQA+ community.

“It was absolutely extraordinary – it was a remarkable place to be,” Harwood says of their Nordic escape. “Always in the back of my mind, there’s been this familiar connection,” they explain. “I took a DNA test and found out we’ve got heritage in that side of the world, so I was determined to go.” Visiting smack dab in the sweltering summer, Helsinki was at its best, with Harwood summing up their trip as a “real healing experience”.

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“Everything about Helsinki blew my socks off. There’s so much I could rant and rave about, like the library [called Oodi] with the access to the incredible 3D printers and the studios, treated like it was a joy to have that. And then I learned about the schooling system and the sense of community. I saw the political parties at Pride and I saw that everyone was engaging,” they muse. “There was a sense that we’re all from different walks of life, but we actually get along. And we’ve got a common goal, which is that we all care about each other’s welfare and want to make this horrible world a happy place.” In Helsinki, Harwood also got the opportunity to meet some of Finland’s leading activists from whom they learned about the country’s LGBTQA+ community, which Harwood describes as being “organised in a much more sensible way.”

Looking ahead, Harwood continues their impactful work while growing as a cosmetic formulator and a multidisciplinary artist, with aspirations to venture into fashion someday. They also dream of returning to Finland, experiencing the country at the polar opposite of their last visit: the winter. “I would love to go to Lapland and continue my adventures there,” they say. “I really want to see what it’s like when it’s dark. The last time [I was in Finland], it was all bright, so I’m very intrigued.”