Through July 4, The Post, in conjunction with Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, is featuring US citizens explaining what the American dream means to them in 2026. Among them is Anastasia Soare, the founder and CEO of the global beauty brand Anastasia Beverly Hills.
It’s only on this American soil that an American dream could happen …
I’ve lived half of my life in Romania and half of my life in the United States …
The first six months [in the US] I cried every single day. I missed my family. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know the language. I remember going to [the] supermarket. I will never forget this. And I wanted to get grapes. And my husband said, “Oh, no, no, no, we cannot afford that. It’s too expensive.” And I was thinking, oh my God, we used to have in the backyard grapes. And here we cannot buy grapes. We lived in a small apartment in, Sherman Oaks in California … I started working. I barely spoke English.
One day I went to the owner [of the salon where I was working] and I said, look, I see a gap in the beauty industry here … nobody pays attention to eyebrows here …
I decided that I wanted to open my own business …
By 1994, I was so busy. I built an incredible clientele, with many celebrities, because nobody was doing eyebrows …
I went on [“Oprah”] and the phone would not stop ringing for six months. It became the biggest thing ever.
In 2007, we were able to go in Sephora and Ulta, and then we start selling in 2,500 stores around the country, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and then expanded internationally
By 2018 … the company was valued at $3 billion …
There’s no other country that could offer you the opportunities that you have here … It’s not easy. It’s a lot of work, a lot of determination. But this is the only place where you could achieve the American Dream … Every day I go to work and I love what I do.
The American Dream Video Project showcases real stories that illuminate pathways to opportunity. Featured at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD), this series is part of the Center’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. MCAAD is Washington, DC’s newest cultural institution, offering interactive exhibits and stories about achieving the American Dream. For more information, visit mcaad.org.