Darian Symoné Harvin is a writer, author, on-air host and overall storyteller who explores beauty, creativity, and pop culture. Born in Long Beach and raised no in Buffalo, New York, Darian operates across media, from audio and television to video and print, with a clear belief: social platforms don't make the meaning. She does, and so do the people she covers. Today, Darian is the host of Full Coverage, a show that puts beauty and artistry at the center by sitting down with the people behind the looks that become conversations.

Through all of it, Darian has merged her love of beauty to figure out what it all reveals about ourselves and our world. She considers her projects less portfolio than summoning.

Darian started her career interning at NBC News and Parkwood Entertainment before landing her first job at Dateline NBC, where she found a love for social media and, more importantly, became passionate about the clearest ways to communicate news directly onto the platforms where people were actually meeting it. From there she built a career as a news curation editor, blending social media with website and mobile app discovery. Along the way she started her own trend forecast podcast, Am I Allowed to Like Anything? from 2014-2018 as a space for people in the media to celebrate what they love in culture and talk about what’s next.

After BuzzFeed News, she turned toward beauty media, a landscape that mostly exists to serve the brands. Coming from a world where the job was to serve the reader, Darian brought reporting and cultural sensibilities into beauty writing; something that felt more true to her. That instinct became Studio Symoné, her own platform where digital storytelling meets IRL community, gathering women who love beauty while deeply understanding the politics of their own existence. She runs a popular newsletter of the same namesake.

Since then, Darian has continued to appear on podcasts, speak, and expand as a creative strategist having worked with Sephora. She's previously Beauty Editor at Large at LA Times Image magazine and interviewed prominent voices for cover stories and profiles — in print and digital — for the New York Times, LA Times, Essence, Allure, and The Cut. She's also the author of Black Icons in Herstory. In sum is all up: Darian’s path has been equal parts hard work and kismet. 

Portrait by Paris Mumpower

  • How Do I Ask for the Braids That I Want?

    Beauty stylists weigh in.

    The Cut

  • Bephie's Beauty Supply Is Redefining What Community in L.A. Streetwear Looks Like

    Beth Birkett is the founder of a brand that is part streetwear, part collective of women of color redefining beauty and fashion as 'vivid, powerful and individual.'

    Los Angeles Times

  • Lauren London Is Working On Her Spirit

    Lauren London reflects on acting, Nipsey Hussle, and Black L.A.

    Los Angeles Times

  • Black Hair Will Always Be Political

    How stylists are using the art of braids to reclaim the narrative and send a clear message.

    ELLE

  • ‘Black Market Flea’ is the Connective Tissue for Black-Owned Fashion in L.A.

    As much as it's a showcase of L.A. streetwear brands, artists, healers, it’s a showcase of love.

    Los Angeles Times

  • Skin Whitening Products Get A Rebrand, But it Doesn't Erase Centuries of Colorism

    The Black Lives Matter movement set off a worldwide conversation about racism and colorism, and many beauty brands that have long marketed "whitening" products are quickly changing course.

    Allure

  • The Real Queen of Realness

    Tracee Ellis Ross Is Living An “Abundant Juicy Life” And Wants You To, As Well.

    New York Times

  • The Beauty Industry, According to Leiomy Maldonado and Junior Mintt

    Two Black trans women discuss their relationship with beauty.

    The Cut

  • Megan Thee Stallion Knows 'Tuition Ain't to Joke'

    The 24-year-old enigmatic rapper hosted a kinder beauty pageant, with scholarship money as the prize

    New York Times

  • From Beyonce to Zoe Kravitz, Why Braids were the Hairstyle of the Decade

    We saw an influx of celebrities wearing styles that put the artistry and tradition of hair braiding front and center.

    Teen Vogue

  • Nails Tips from 'Claws'

    Morgan Dixon, the show’s chief manicurist, talks about her inspirations for the best dressed hands on TV.

    New York Times

  • The L.A. Style Education of Shion Turini

    How did your favorite stylist’s favorite stylist tap into the fashion zeitgeist of the city? Bring the community into the process

    Los Angeles Times

  • Ecstacy for Your Feet Feels Like a Therapeutic Pedicure

    There are many different kinds of podiatric self-care that one can indulge in, and in my own personal journey to finding the most thorough of them, one rises above the rest.

    Los Angeles Times

  • L.A. Artist Maggi Simpkins is Reimagining the Narrative Possibilities of Jewelry Design

    The details in Simpkins’ one-of-a-kind rings contain stories that can make you feel all the things.

    Click Here

  • Is this Finally the End of Skin Whitening?

    The BLM movement set off a worldwide conversation about racism and colorism, and many beauty brands that have long marketed "whitening" products are quickly changing course.

    Allure

  • Veronica Webb on the Revlon Ad That Changed it All

    The model's legacy, in her own words.

    Click Here

  • Hailey Bieber Knows You're Sick of Celebrity Beauty Brands

    Allure's May cover star wants her beauty brand, Rhode, to be "cool and attainable."

    Allure

  • Ciara's Lasting Career is a Testament to her Community

    Nearly two decades after “Goodies,” the triple-platinum artist, mom, and beauty entrepreneur pays tribute to the Atlanta community that shaped her.

    Allure

  • Keep Your Respectability Bullshit Away from my Bonnet

    The internet is telling Black women not to wear bonnets in public. The internet is wrong.

    Allure

  • Glossier Keeps Popping up in Black Cultural Spaces

    After noticing a little pink bag at the Ashanti x Keyshia Cole Verzuz battle, we decided to explore the brand’s efforts to broaden its customer base — and whether it can work.

    Allure

  • While at Home, Black Hairstylists Return to their Roots

    Homes across the U.S. are transforming into makeshift salons.

    Allure

  • What Had Happened at the Oscars was, Simply, Hair

    Jada, Will and Chris each had their own hair story: Jada’s alopecia, Will’s seemingly painted-on buzz cut, Chris’ problematíque doc. But their situation was not an isolated flourish; it was the last chapter in a series of interlinked narratives.

    Los Angeles Times

  • Sarah Jakes Roberts is Remaking the Image of a Modern Christian Pastor

    The old mentalities about what it means to be a woman of faith are dying. Walk into ONE in L.A. and you’ll see what shattering stereotypes looks like.

    Los Angeles Times

  • The Story of L.A. Beauty Past, Present, and Future in One Zine

    There’s an energy radiating through the city. Lizzo’s hairstylist Shelby Swain, Hollywood’s Local 706, the nail artists of L.A. and @c0mptonkitty can show you what’s up.

    Los Angeles Times

  • The Crown Act Should Be Passed in All 50 States, So Why Hasn't it?

    Inside the political fight to end race-based hair discrimination with a single bill.

    Harper's Bazaar

  • These Black College Students are Using an Age Old Tradition to Pay for School

    Hair styling has been the most prominent way Black women have gained financial independence in American society. 

    Refinery29/Unbothered

  • We All Need a Gammy in Our Lives Right Now

    Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Jada Pinkett Smith’s mother and fellow host of “Red Table Talk,” is the voice of reason you’re seeking.

    New York Times

  • More Natasha Rothwell, I Beg of You

    Insecure’s funniest cast member on tough friendships, comedy, advocating for yourself.

    The Cut

  • Tina Turner Became the Woman I wanted to Be

    Her sense of self is what guides me in my beauty journey.

    Elle

  • Chloe X Halle Are Not Your Perfect Angels

    “The way our music has evolved is exactly how we're evolving as young women.”

    Teen Vogue
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The long story: My career, according to me.

One day, I really started to understand how all of the pieces of my life came together. The truth is, I have been working as a writer and a storyteller for most of my life. Here are glimpses of that story. 

I am a multimedia beauty reporter and social media editor/curator using my journalism and curatorial skills to craft distinct narratives on beauty, pop culture, and the intersection of both. 

I was born in Long Beach, California. Months later, I drove cross country to my dad's hometown, Buffalo, New York. Growing up my mom was a hairstylist and later an interior designer; we had a hair salon in our basement. My dad, a basketball coach and later a pharmaceutical salesman. My grandmother owned a restaurant called Gigi's and I grew up around her, food, and knowing what community looks and feels like.

I have always been a writer and a talker.

I attended Emerson College and majored in Broadcast Journalism because it felt like the most natural extension of what I liked at the time; talking to people. This is when I interned at my local news station News 4 Buffalo, NBC News, and Parkwood Entertainment. At Parkwood, I learned how I could apply creative processes to my work in journalism. I also studied abroad, lived in a castle (???) for 3 months, and traveled to over 10 countries. 

After graduation, I moved to NYC. My first job was at Dateline NBC as a Program Coordinator where I was assistant to the executive producer and got involved with the digital team.

I became obsessed with news and social media and the intersection of both.

I later became Managing Producer of HRDCVR, a culture magazine reimagining who and what we cover and deem as relevant, and expanding that to involve storytelling of communities that are underserved in media, but shaping the cultural zeitgeist.

After this, I dedicated my time to working on thoughtful and viral ways to present news and content to people on the internet and IRL, for platforms like BuzzFeed News, Yahoo News, Teen Vogue, NBC News, and Vox.com.

During the first podcast "boom" I started, 'Am I Allowed to Like Anything?' where I talked to people about their work, their lives, and things in culture they were actually loving. I booked, produced, and edited the show myself. It ran until 2019.

I needed a change of scenery.

In 2017, I moved to LA. Quit BuzzFeed News, but continued to do freelance social media and curation work. I started to explore the world of beauty as my interest in the industry grew, and it dawned on me that I could apply all of the skills I learned in a newsroom to the beauty 🤝 PR media world.

Beauty is a global, multi-billion dollar industry. It should be covered with the same rigor as politics, tech, and sports (but we know why it’s not). Plus, I wanted to add something that felt unique to me. Something that felt designed to serve the everyday person, whether it be the beauty junkie or the person who didn't realize they cared about their routine haircut until COVID-19 came along and they were unable to see a barber.  

This is how the STUDIO SYMONÉ newsletter was birthed.

By this time, I had talked to Megan Thee Stallion about her beauty pageant and Tracee Ellis Ross about being the real queen of wellness for The New York Times. I interviewed college students at HBCUs and PWIs who do hair in school as a means to support themselves while getting through school for Refinery29’s Unbothered. I reported on how braids defined the 2010’s and interviewed Chloe x Halle for the digital cover of Teen Vogue. I interviewed Dr. Fauci, barbers, and hairstylists about their shops as vaccination information centers, and community centers.

But my newsletter, STUDIO SYMONÉ, is where I thrive. STUDIO SYMONÉ is a newsletter, where I publish a curation of news at the intersection of politics and pop culture, and share my point of view. It happens to be on Substack. STUDIO SYMONÉ is a practice for me in defining beauty for myself, through the topics, people, and conversations I believe it falls under. Yes, makeup, hair, skincare, and nails but also wellness, self-care, spirituality, gender, sexuality, women's health, athletes, and music.

Today, I am a reporter, writer, journalist, news curation editor, social media editor, editorial curator, copy editor, and really, the publisher. Encouraged by friends, I also see myself as an artist. As I started to outline my own experiences and notice patterns in my life, I realized they were right. I’m a budding DJ; I love disco and funk, and music is such a through-line of my work. And oftentimes, I feel the term “creator” is used as a notch down from artists, a way to keep some creatives from recognizing their true worth and power. We are artists.