Of all the bizarre outfits and accessories Lady Gaga wore in her “Bad Romance” video, who would have thought that the one that would catch fire would be those big anime-inspired eyes she flashed in the bathtub?
Lady Gaga’s big eyes are likely computer-generated, but teens and young women across the country have been replicating them with special contact lenses imported from Asia.Known as round lenses, these are colored contact lenses—sometimes in odd shades like purple and pink—and they make the eyes appear larger because they not only cover the iris like regular lenses, but also cover part of the white .
“I’ve noticed a lot of girls in my town have started wearing them a lot,” says Melody Vue, 16, of Morganton, N.C., who owns 22 pairs and wears them regularly.She said her friends tend to wear round lenses on their Facebook photos.
Anime Contact Lens
If it weren’t for the fact that they’re contraband and ophthalmologists have serious concerns about them, these lenses might just be another cosmetic fad.In the United States, it is illegal to sell any contact lenses (corrective or cosmetic) without a prescription, and there are currently no major contact lens manufacturers in the United States that sell round lenses.
However, these lenses are readily available online, usually for $20 to $30 a pair, and come in both prescription-strength and purely cosmetic options.On message boards and YouTube videos, young women and teenage girls have been advertising where to buy them.
The lenses provide the wearer with a playful, ocular appearance.The appearance is characteristic of Japanese anime and is also very popular in Korea.The star-chasers there, known as the “ulzzang Girls,” posted cute but sexy avatars of themselves online, almost always wearing round lenses to accentuate their eyes.(“Ulzzang” means “best face” in Korean, but it’s also short for “pretty.”)
Now that circular lenses have become mainstream in Japan, Singapore and South Korea, they are popping up on American high school and college campuses.“Over the past year, interest here in the United States has increased dramatically,” said Joyce Kim, founder of Soompi.com, a popular Asian fan site that has a forum devoted to round lenses.”Once it’s been released, discussed, and reviewed sufficiently by early adopters, it’s now available to everyone.”
Ms. Kim, 31, who lives in San Francisco, said some friends her age wear round lenses almost every day.”It’s like putting on mascara or eyeliner,” she says.
Websites that sell FDA-approved contact lenses should verify customers’ prescriptions with an ophthalmologist.In contrast, the circular lens website allows customers to choose the strength of the lens as freely as they choose the color.
Kristin Rowland, a college senior from Shirley, N.Y., has several pairs of round lenses, including prescription-strength purple lenses and lime-green lenses that go behind her glasses.Without them, she said, her eyes looked “very small”; the lenses “made them look like they were there”.
Ms Rowland, who works part-time at a Waldbaum supermarket, is sometimes told by customers, “Your eyes look big today,” she said.Even her manager was curious, asking, “Where did you get those things?” she said.
Anime Contact Lens
FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley was also a little surprised.When she first got in touch last month, she had no idea what round lenses were or how popular they were.Soon after, she wrote in an email that “consumers can face serious eye damage — even blindness” when they buy contact lenses without a valid prescription or the help of an eye professional.
S. Barry Eiden, Ph.D., an optometrist in Deerfield, Illinois, and chair of the contact lens and cornea division of the American Optometric Association, said people selling round lenses online “are encouraging the avoidance of professional care.”Improper contact lenses can deprive the eye of oxygen and cause serious vision problems, he warns.
Nina Nguyen, a 19-year-old Rutgers student from Bridgewater, N.J., said she was cautious at first.”Our eyes are precious,” she said.”I don’t put anything of any kind in my eyes.”
But after she saw how many Rutgers students had round lenses — and the surge in online users — she relented.Now, she describes herself as a “round lens addict.”
A makeup artist named Michelle Phan introduced round lenses to many Americans through a YouTube video tutorial in which she demonstrates how to get “crazy, gooey Lady Gaga eyes.”Ms Phan’s video titled “Lady Gaga Bad Romance Look” has been viewed more than 9.4 million times.
“In Asia, the focus of makeup is on the eyes,” said Ms. Pan, a Vietnamese-American blogger who is now Lancome’s first video makeup artist.”They love the whole innocent doll-like look, almost like the anime.”
Girls of many races like this look these days.”Round lenses aren’t just for Asians,” says Crystal Ezeoke, 17, a second-generation Nigerian from Louisville, Texas.In a video she posted to YouTube, Ms. Ezeoke’s grey lenses made her eyes look otherworldly blue.
At Toronto-based Lenscircle.com, most customers are Americans between the ages of 15 and 25 who have heard of round lenses through YouTube commentators, said site founder Alfred Wong, 25.”A lot of people like the baby eye look because it’s cute,” he said.”It’s still an emerging trend in the U.S.,” but “it’s growing in popularity,” he added.
Jason Aw, owner of the Malaysia-based website PinkyParadise.com, is well aware that his shipments to the United States are illegal.But he’s sure his round lenses are “safe; that’s why many clients recommend them to others.
He wrote in an email that his “job” is to “provide a platform” for those who want to buy lenses but cannot do so locally.
Girls like Ms. Vue, 16, of North Carolina, help direct customers to websites that sell round lenses.She posted 13 YouTube comments about the round lenses, enough to get her a coupon code on tokioshine.com, which gave her viewers a 10% discount.”I’ve had a ton of messages asking where to get round lenses, so this is finally a reasonable answer for you,” she said in a recent video.
She said she was 14 when Vue asked her parents to buy her her first pair.These days, however, she’s reconsidering them — but not for health or safety reasons.
Ms. Vue said the round lenses were too popular.”It kind of made me not want to wear them anymore because everyone was wearing them,” she said.
Post time: Jul-09-2022
