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United States Amanda Nguyen is a civil rights activist and social entrepreneur, recognized for her work in championing the rights of sexual assault survivors and for being the first Vietnamese American woman to fly to space.
e.l.f. Beauty partnered with Amanda Nguyen, a globally recognized activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, to elevate survivors and inspire empowered women. The partnership included features in an episode and support for the Survivor Fashion Show, building on an ongoing collaboration to democratize dreams.
Amanda Nguyen partnered with Orce Cosmetics, a luxury beauty brand, to set new standards in beauty. This collaboration was announced via her Instagram.
Amanda Nguyen, born on October 10, 1991, in California, is an American civil rights activist and social entrepreneur. She graduated from Centennial High School in Corona, California, in 2009 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 2013. During her time at Harvard, Nguyen interned at NASA in both 2011 and 2013, conducting research on exoplanets at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She also served as the Deputy White House Liaison for the U.S. Department of State before leaving in 2016 to dedicate her full attention to her nonprofit organization, Rise.
In 2013, following a personal experience with sexual assault during her final year at Harvard, Nguyen founded Rise in November 2014. The organization’s mission is to protect the civil rights of sexual assault and rape survivors. A key achievement of Rise under Nguyen’s leadership was the unanimous passage of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act through the U.S. Congress in October 2016, signed into law by President Barack Obama. This legislation ensures critical protections for survivors, including the right to have rape kit evidence preserved without charge for the duration of the statute of limitations. Her activism expanded globally, leading to the first Survivor Town Hall at the United Nations in 2019 and a historic UN resolution in 2022 recognizing access to justice for survivors of sexual violence worldwide.
Nguyen’s career has also seen significant milestones in space exploration, aligning with her long-held aspiration to be an astronaut. In 2021, she became a scientist astronaut candidate at the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences, focusing on women’s health research in microgravity. On April 14, 2025, she made history as the first Vietnamese American woman to fly into space aboard Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission, conducting scientific experiments including one on wound dressing. Her advocacy extends to the #StopAsianHate movement, which gained significant traction after her viral call for media coverage in February 2021, and includes innovative projects like the Survivor Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week to empower survivors.
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