Bretman Rock Reflects On His Social Media Fame, New Book & Why He Left the Beauty Community

I was never in the closet girl.

I came out the vagine and the doctor was like,

It's a they, them.

[staff laughs]

[beeps]

Aloha, everybody,

it is I, Bretman Rock, but you already knew that.

This is Becoming Bretman Rock.

Dun dun dun.

Oh my god.

Trigger warning already.

I'm giving myself the trigger warning.

Okay, Bretman, be prepared for what you about to see.

This is my very first viral Vine video.

I really don't know why this went viral.

This is so long ago, 2014.

I believe I was dancing too I'm So Fancy

by Iggy Azalea at the moment,

and I just have a cute little like fake Versace scarf.

Aw, if I could tell Bretman to that Bretman

I would tell him,

Bitch that Versace scarf is gonna be real one day bitch.

But it was me basically hiding

like a Versace scarf on top of my forehead

and I pulled it down where she says I'm so fancy.

Being so young and on social media

was definitely a double ended sword I think.

In a way I kind of got a little bit

of a head start than most influencers now.

But at the same time, because I was so young

and I was also living in an island,

a population of four freaking people,

it was hard for me to feel the sense of like

people were actually watching me.

And I think that's why I was very ignorant

in the beginning parts of my career,

especially when I was younger.

I didn't know much about the world.

And also a first generation immigrant,

I still learning English and I remembered like posting it

and I remember the next morning I had woken up

bitch, back in the day 1K likes was like

I really thought I was famous.

I really thought I was like an island celebrity.

And I woke up to, I think it was like 10K likes

and it had like so many reshares

and I remembered walking to school that day

and I just remembered asking everyone,

my whole entire school if they saw my video.

No one did, no one did. Not one, single bitch.

But bitch, I went to school that day

feeling like everybody knew me.

Oh, I love that Bretman.

That's Bretman Pebble right there, that's my bitch.

He wasn't a rock yet, he was just a pebble.

20, Oh God.

I love like my base so much it hurts.

The makeup, the makeup.

I look scary girl.

Who told me that I could wear,

I literally popped on blue contact lenses

and said, I'ma do red eyeshadow.

Girl, I look demonic, I literally look demonic.

Oh I think I remember titling this video

Pink Glam Makeup Tutorial or something along the lines.

It's definitely not giving pink.

Ugh, this is so cringey.

I think I love looking back at like makeup trends actually

because there's no way I would walk around

with my eyebrows looking like that now,

my nose literally looks like a penis.

I feel like I always just laugh

about how our makeup techniques changes

even just just like in a year.

But that look is giving definitely 2015 IG makeup.

For sure, with the tapestry in the back.

You cannot get more 2015 than that.

I think at the time when I came on

it was a lot of Asian woman

that was in my beauty industry at the time.

Before I started Beauty I saw Patrick Starr

and you know that's like my Filipino aunty

and she taught me so many things.

She owes me so much money because

of the makeup she made me buy.

I really just was like, Damn, all these Asian girls

are doing it and I'm beautiful as well.

But I didn't think at the time

that I was like, I'm so different,

I'm so much more entertaining than y'all.

Not at all, I was just truly inspired by them.

Next, okay, this is 2018, Forbes 30 under 30 in Asia.

This was such a big deal to me.

I still remembered when I got the news,

I saw it on Twitter and I was just like, not gonna lie

I did not know what Forbes under 30 was at the moment,

I didn't even know it was a big deal.

So it wasn't until my cousins came up to me and was like,

Bitch do you realize that is such a big accomplishment?

But literally at 2018 I was like 20

and like I don't know what anything was.

My cousins were freaking out and I just,

that's when I kind of realized like

oh my god this is actually a big [beep] deal.

There was like two or three Filipinos on the list.

My mom saw it on the news back home

'cause we have the Filipino channel, that's all she watches

and she watches the news back home and I was on the news.

That was the first time my mom kind of had a glimpse of

or understood what Bretman Rock was doing because

up until 2018 she thought I was selling drugs online.

[staff laughs]

Well it's my fault cause I never really explained

to her what I do 'cause, I don't know why.

But she thought like when people would ask me for pictures

she thought that they were just my friends

and I'm like, Yeah mom.

And then one time we were at the mall

and there was like groups of kids

like taking pictures of me and I was like,

Oh my gosh she's literally gonna get it now.

She goes, Wow you have a lot of friends.

I'm like Okay girl, whatever. Yeah I do.

I'm just, you know Mr. Aloha.

Honestly though this list was a double ended sword

because girl, my Filipino ass family,

they really was like bitch you rich now.

Everybody was asking me for money.

So if anything Forbes shut up.

Y'all don't gotta tell everybody how much I make,

just put me on the list.

'Cause now my family thinks I'm a millionaire

which I am, I'm not.

[staff laughs]

Next question please.

[drums tutting]

2018 again, my Morphe Babe in Paradise collaboration.

I was in high school when I was

still doing the formulations for this.

I used to bring lab samples in school

and test them out to all my girlfriends

and they were like my Guinea pigs

and obviously island girls come in

all shapes and sizes and color and so

who else I was gonna test it out besides my friends?

After school I would kind of like

return pictures of my friends and their skin,

how they reacted to it.

I'd be like, Girl, this one was too oily,

this one was too dry, this one was chalky,

ashy as [beep], don't ever send this shit to me again.

And then it came out right after I graduated.

I'm surprised people still have it.

I get tweets about it every day.

People were like, Bitch I just hit pan

five years later bitch, where's the?

like they're asking me to bring it back

and I'm like, Girl ask Morphe.

This was when everybody was using highlighter on everything

and if you dig up, if you Google Bretman Rock license

you will know why I stopped using highlighter bitch

'cause on my driver's license I put so much Babe in,

it was actually this product right here.

And girl my driver's license was just like two shiny cheeks,

the eyeballs, and teeth.

[staff laughs]

'Cause it literally messed up with the flash of the camera.

So that's a tip for y'all, maybe skip the highlighter

when you're doing your ID pictures.

I think it was very important that

I did my first collab with Morphe.

I just love how much they supported

not only me but so many queer people

that were doing makeup at the time.

It was very important to me

'cause they supported the dolls and the girls and the gays.

All right, next moment in my career is,

[drums tutting]

2021, my MTV's Following Bretman Rock season one.

Well I'm most proud of with this work was

one, bitch I'm putting four brown people

in MTV with their reality show, queer as hell.

So many people that worked on the show were island people.

I was very adamant about

how many island people I wanted to work.

Kanakas included, Kanaka is native Hawaiians.

And I think when the show came out

I think that's when I realized it was not even about me.

It was about immigrant kids who literally had a dream

and he followed through and he grew up in a family

that he didn't have to come out to

and just like supported him and lifted him up.

That's who it's for.

[drums tutting]

MTV movie and TV Awards Breakthrough Social Star.

What can I say?

What am I'm gonna act surprised, no bitch.

I would like to thank everyone

that watched me grow up on the internet.

I knew I was gonna win that breakthrough Social Start Awards

because they told me [laughs].

They told me prior and I had to act surprised.

I literally was like, [gasps] I won?

[staff laughs]

You think I was gonna have an outfit change and lose?

I remember just being so intimidated at this movie awards.

I was sitting next to Miss Reality star Christine Quinn.

She was asking me all these questions

and I'm like, Girl, I'm literally freaking out.

I was just watching Selling Sunset, what the [beep].

And just the fact that I was just

in front of like reality stars winning, I felt real great.

[drums tutting]

So this is my formal living room.

I feel like it represents a lot of like Bretman Rock.

2021 again my Architectural Digest open door.

This was a big deal to me because I don't think I've ever

watched an Architectural Digest tour

that was based in an island home and I felt

like I was like, Oh my god,

I'm the first one coming into Hawaii.

And here I'm wearing like traditional Filipino wear

and I just look like a badass rich ass Filipino ass bitch.

And I just look like a Filipino

goddess to be honest with you.

And like just taking you around this mansion

that I bought with my own money.

I got to show my house full of like little trinkets

that I collected throughout the years.

I love supporting Asian designers.

I also have so many local Hawaiian designers in there

and like my, all of my art wall that I have

that I found at like SWAT meets when I was like a kid

and like some that I found when I was,

you know, I had more money in me.

I was ready for the comments to be like,

What is this [beep] house? This is a mess.

What the [beep]?

But all the comments were so nice.

I think people genuinely got the vibes.

They were like wow this is the first Architectural Digest

that I saw where it's actually feels

like a home and not like a set.

And I'm like, Yeah, because I actually live here.

Shout out to my ex who are breaking up with me, cute.

And I'm saying that because if he did not break up with me

I would not have found this mansion, girl.

And also shout out to my HOA for kicking me out

and bullying me out of my neighborhood girl.

If y'all did not do that

I would not have moved into this mansion,

so thank you bitch.

[drums tutting]

Honestly, it's not that I stopped wearing makeup

it's the fact that I stopped doing makeup content

and it's because I don't wanna be tied

with the beauty community anymore.

I am not a beauty guru.

Girl, now this video.

The girls were not happy with this video.

Ultimately I said what I said and I meant what I said.

White people ruined the beauty community, and I'ma go.

When I first started the beauty industry

I fell in love with the creators

and it made me wanna do what I wanted to do

which was literally just share makeup

and share my confidence with the world.

Share people how to grow their eyebrows back

share people how to contour,

share to people my new favorite foundation,

and I don't know why it got lost in translation

when you know non colored individuals were coming in

and it just became a money industry

and like it just became an ick to me.

Like ugh, when did beauty become so ugly?

That part.

And so yeah, I was like

it's no longer a beauty industry, beauty community.

And I used the word community very loosely, like my whole.

Um.

[staff laughs]

Bitch it was like, ugh, how are y'all

do not even know how to apologize?

It's as simple as addressing what you did,

saying sorry, and never doing it again.

But you bitches are gonna cry, make up excuses,

not say sorry and still do the shit you say.

The beauty industry came became the sorry industry

and, bitch I'm sorry.

No, no, hell nah.

Skipping over to 2023 we have You're That Bitch,

And Other Cute Lessons About Being

Unapologetically Yourself by yours truly.

This is my book right here in the Flesh.

I was always offered to write a book from my team.

They were always asking me to write a book

but I was always like, Girl, I have nothing to write about.

I'm 24, what have I gone through

that is more traumatizing than the next person?

But I think when my dad passed

I started to kind of like spiral into

like how I dealt with so many things

because when my dad died,

my brother and my sister were like,

Girl, why aren't you crying?

People need to know how I deal with things

because I think my friends and even my siblings

I don't wanna say look up to me

but like you guys are asking then,

I think a lot of people are probably wondering

how the hell Bretman Rock juggles the world.

I think there's a lot of sides of Bretman Rock

that they're going to meet for the first time

when reading this book.

I feel like I never really get to talk

about the business savviness of Bretman Rock

and talk about like how I'm actually pretty good with money.

Something that I never shared with the world

is that I always kept for Bretman Rock is my heart

and my love life and I always try to shut the [beep] up

about my love life and I don't talk about it much.

So I think I can't wait for them to meet

like Bretman Rock as a lover and see how I am.

Spoiler alert, chaotic.

You know, at the end of the day

I know the whole entire book is about me,

but I think it's not titled, I'm that Bitch for a reason.

And I think I want people to see themself in the book

and see their life issues and like things that they

went through and some of the things that I went through.

Whether it was my parents getting divorced, my first breakup

and that [beep] hexing me and just, you know,

figuring out the world as a young adult.

I would want them to know that you are that bitch, period.

All right guys, hope you guys enjoyed this video.

This has been Becoming Bretman Rock.

Yeah.

Buy dis shit.

[staff laughs]

February 14, buy dis shit.

[Bretman laughs]

[relaxing music]