From foster care to fashion: Meet Eriq Moreno
His models grace the covers of magazines and represent fashion lines like Los Angeles-based designer Eva Varro.
He is Eriq Moreno, a makeup artist and hairstylist. He's done the Eva Varro fashion shoots for the past 10 years, but it's his backstory that is so moving.
Moreno says he is the oldest of seven siblings and ended up in foster care as a child until he aged out at the age of 18. He found himself homeless and says he called the streets of downtown LA home for two years.
Moreno is now a working beauty expert. He also works for the non-profit Beauty Bus which provides services for hospital patients, largely cancer.
Moreno credits his change in life to his late partner of 17 years who offered a place a chance to get off the streets. His partner died a few years ago of cancer.
Moreno is now sharing life with partner Galen and bringing beauty to light. A highlight was doing makeup on supermodels Janice Dickinson and Beverly Johnson.
His advice for other at-risk youth, "You've got to be unrelenting. It's so possible"
According to the RightWay Foundation, half of foster youth aging out of the system become homeless within a year and a half.
See Moreno's makeup and hair on Eva Varro website at https://evavarro.com/.