Eva Chen (born 1980) is an American journalist. She is the director of fashion partnerships at Instagram[2] and a children's book author.[3] Previously she was editor-in-chief of Lucky[4] and beauty and health director at Teen Vogue.[5]
Chen grew up in New York. Her parents, who are originally from Taipei and Shanghai, own a consulting textile import-export business, and Chen attributes her early love of fashion to her mother's influence.[6] Chen attended the Brearley School,[6] then went to college at Johns Hopkins University where she was pre-med, but eventually decided to major in English.[7] She pursued her master's degree in journalism at Columbia University.[8]
In college, Chen interned for fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar. After graduating from Hopkins in 2001, she worked briefly for Cravath, Swaine & Moore before joining the then-recently launched shopping magazine Lucky, where she worked in the credits department logging the prices and sellers for the magazine's array of products and eventually became editor-in-chief. She next moved to Elle where she worked in the beauty department for three years before she became beauty editor of Teen Vogue.[9]
At Lucky, Chen was the youngest editor-in-chief in the magazine's history.[10] She also became the first head of a commercial arm for the publication, Lucky Shops, serving as both editor-in-chief for the magazine and chief creative officer.[11]
In July 2015, Chen joined Instagram, owned by Facebook, to develop partnerships with fashion brands.[12] She is presently Head of Fashion Partnerships for the social media platform, and has launched a number of fashion and e-commerce features at Instagram, including shopping fashion looks directly from influencers' feeds[13] and the Instagram Shop account.[14]
Chen with illustrator Derek Desierto signing books at BookCon in 2019
Chen is also an author[16] of several children's books, including I Am Golden (2022), which focuses on uplifting Asian American children and teaching them self love and validation.[17]
In 2000, Chen studied abroad for a year in England at Oxford, where she met her husband, Thomas Bannister.[20] Chen and Bannister have three children, born in 2015, 2017, and 2021.[21]