Three weeks before the 2025 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Jasmine Tookes got a call: they wanted her to open it. She was nine months pregnant. Her doctor said no.She begged him anyway. She flew from LA to New York with a private doctor monitoring her vitals the entire flight. She walked the runway in four-inch heels, praying her water wouldn't break under the lights — and became one of the most talked-about moments in the show's history: the first visibly pregnant model to ever open it.Ten days later, she went into labor on the steps of her own foyer. Alone. Her husband was out driving the neighborhood trying to get her older daughter to fall asleep. She called 911, got on all fours, felt the top of the baby's head, and started pushing. It happened in twenty minutes. She passed out right after.This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Jasmine — Victoria's Secret Angel of over a decade, founder of body care brand Brunel, and mother of two — to talk about what it actually felt like inside her body walking that runway, the birth story that came right after, breastfeeding for three years, getting shingles from nutrient depletion, and what two decades in the fashion industry have taught her about confidence, beauty standards, and what she wants her kids to understand about how she sees herself.→ Have a beauty question you want me to tackle on the next Inbox? DM @mirrormirrorwithamy on Instagram→ Subscribe so you don't miss next week's full Mirror Mirror episode.ABOUT MIRROR MIRRORMirror Mirror is a podcast that cuts through the noise and uncovers the science shaping beauty and the psychology driving our desire for it. Hosted by Amy Chang — LA Times contributing writer, Marie Claire 2024 Power Player, and a trusted authority in beauty, with over 2.4 million followers who turn to her for insights on cutting-edge treatments and science-backed skincare.Expect unfiltered conversations, expert insight, and the freedom to love your lipstick — while still questioning what perfection means.LISTEN ANYWHEREApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/bh/podcast/mirror-mirror-with-amy-chang/id1876357199#beautymyths #skincare #aesthetics

After my first pregnancy, I followed Taiwanese postpartum confinement practices for 40 days — herbs, cooked meals, no leaving the house, a night nurse living with us. My milk came in immediately. I stopped bleeding in three weeks. I felt held. After my second pregnancy, I had none of that. COVID meant no in-person support, no family, no village. I took no maternity leave. Six months later, I got shingles. At 30-something. All over my hand. Studies now show it takes up to a year for a mother to fully recover from birth. American mothers get six weeks of leave — if they're lucky. This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Esther Park, founder of Amma and Co. — a postpartum care retreat based at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach in Orange County, modeled after the Korean postpartum retreat centers where 85% of Korean mothers spend one to two months after giving birth. Esther grew up in Seoul, competed on Korea's version of American Idol at 18, worked at L'Oréal, and went to business school during COVID before founding the first postpartum retreat on the West Coast. We talk about why Eastern cultures treat postpartum as a sacred recovery period while Western culture tells women to bounce back, what the research actually says about how long recovery takes, and what it looks like when a mother is truly supported from the start.

Marianne Fonseca has been a model for 20 years. She's lived in Brazil, China, Europe, and the US. She's getting married in six days. And this week, she's flying to Costa Rica for stem cells before the ceremony.She also founded Gente Beauty — a Brazilian body care brand built around at-home lymphatic drainage — when nobody in the US had heard of lymphatic drainage and investors didn't understand what she was building. Three years later, the category has exploded, and Gente is stocked at Nordstrom, Revolve, and Amazon.This week on Mirror Mirror, I sit down with Marianne to talk about the Brazilian body care culture she grew up in, the 20-year modeling career that took her across the world, the brand she built from scratch that investors initially didn't believe in, and what it actually looks like to bring at-home lymphatic drainage into a daily routine.We also get surprisingly personal — her upcoming wedding, her love story (they met at an Oscar after-party and her fiancé wrote a song about it), and why she's getting stem cells done abroad six days before saying yes.→ Have a beauty question you want me to tackle on the next Inbox? DM @mirrormirrorwithamy on Instagram→ Subscribe so you don't miss next week's full Mirror Mirror episode.ABOUT MIRROR MIRRORMirror Mirror is a podcast that cuts through the noise and uncovers the science shaping beauty and the psychology driving our desire for it. Hosted by Amy Chang — LA Times contributing writer, Marie Claire 2024 Power Player, and a trusted authority in beauty, with over 2.4 million followers who turn to her for insights on cutting-edge treatments and science-backed skincare.Expect unfiltered conversations, expert insight, and the freedom to love your lipstick — while still questioning what perfection means.LISTEN ANYWHEREApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/bh/podcast...Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NcpTY7...Instagram: @mirrormirrorwithamy#beautymyths #skincare #aesthetics