The Most Exciting Beauty Treatments to Try in 2026
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Celebrity medical aesthetic provider Vanessa Lee got her start in the beauty world as a nurse. "I never wanted to be a nurse, but I'm Filipino American, first generation. My mom was like, 'You want to go to school for art?' And I was like, 'Yes,'" Lee said. "She was like, 'Wrong answer. We're going to nursing school.'" After working as a cosmetic nurse for a decade, Lee founded the beauty concept bar The Things We Do in 2018.
For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Lee shares how she got her start, the treatments she's most excited about this year, and more. For excerpts from our interview with her, scroll below.
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Can you share a little bit about how you got your start in beauty and skincare and really what your expertise is?
I started The Things We Do in 2018, … but before that, I had been working as a cosmetic nurse or aesthetic nurse injector for 10 years. I never wanted to be a nurse, but I'm Filipino American, first generation. My mom was like, "You want to go to school for art?" And I was like, "Yes." She was like, "Wrong answer. We're going to nursing school." I was like, "You know what? Let's just do this. I can do art on the side and maybe after like a year or two I can ditch the nursing thing and go full-time with writing and creating and all of that stuff."
Ended up doing the nursing route. working at a plastic surgery office when I first started but was working in their minimally invasive wing. This was back in 2008, 2009, where the business that it is now is not what it was back then.
Our industry, minimally invasive aesthetics, has really only been around for about 20 to 25 years. I've been in it for about 17 years. Everything was just starting to happen, and it was so exciting.
