Through July 4, The Post, in partnership with the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, is spotlighting Americans reflecting on what the American dream means to them in 2026. One of those voices is Anastasia Soare, founder and CEO of the global beauty company Anastasia Beverly Hills.
For Soare, the American dream is inseparable from the opportunities she found after arriving in the United States. She spent half her life in Romania and the other half in America, a journey that shaped both her outlook and her career.
Her early months in the US were deeply difficult. For the first six months, she said, she cried every day. She missed her family, knew no one and could not speak the language. One memory has stayed with her: a trip to the supermarket in California, where she wanted to buy grapes, only to be told by her husband that they could not afford them. The moment struck her sharply. In Romania, grapes had grown in the backyard. In America, she was living in a small apartment in Sherman Oaks and struggling to get by.
Even so, Soare began working despite barely speaking English. As she adjusted to her new life, she also began to notice an opportunity. While working at a salon, she approached the owner with an observation: there was a gap in the beauty industry. In her view, almost no one in the US beauty market was paying real attention to eyebrows.
That realization became a turning point. Seeing an unmet need, Soare decided she wanted to build a business of her own — a step that would eventually lead to the creation of one of the best-known beauty brands in the world.
To Soare, that transformation is proof of what makes the American dream distinct. In her telling, it is the kind of story that could only happen on American soil.
By 1994, I was so busy. I built an incredible clientele, with many celebrities, because nobody was doing eyebrows …
I went on [“Oprah”] and the phone would not stop ringing for six months. It became the biggest thing ever.
In 2007, we were able to go in Sephora and Ulta, and then we start selling in 2,500 stores around the country, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and then expanded internationally
By 2018 … the company was valued at $3 billion …
There’s no other country that could offer you the opportunities that you have here … It’s not easy. It’s a lot of work, a lot of determination. But this is the only place where you could achieve the American Dream … Every day I go to work and I love what I do.
The American Dream Video Project showcases real stories that illuminate pathways to opportunity. Featured at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD), this series is part of the Center’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. MCAAD is Washington, DC’s newest cultural institution, offering interactive exhibits and stories about achieving the American Dream. For more information, visit mcaad.org.
