Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Elizabeth TenHouten Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Ming Zhao

Ming S. Zhao
Authority Magazine
9 min readOct 11, 2022

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Not every poem you write is going to make the cut and become part of your book. When you start writing to put a book together it’s all about “gathering” and making sure you have enough. But you have to realize that it is quality over quantity. Find the poems that move you the most and commit to including only those.

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth TenHouten.

Elizabeth TenHouten, accomplished beauty expert and author or the beauty cookbook, Cooking Well: Beautiful Skin (Hatherleigh Press, 2009), and International Bestseller, Natural Beauty: Homemade Recipes for Radiant Skin & Hair (Hatherleigh Press/Random House, 2013) is known for her distinctive approach and expansive knowledge of beauty, which she frequently brings to various outlets within the industry.

For five years, Elizabeth was the Editor-in-Chief of Celeb Life Magazine, served as Contributing Beauty Expert for DiscoverBeauty.com and ShareCare.com, and had a monthly column in Beverly Hills Times Magazine.

Elizabeth took her creativity and entrepreneurial spirit elsewhere and began a career in songwriting. As a songwriter, singer, and guitarist, she released her album Broken in 2020. It is available on all musical platforms around the world. Her lyrics were inspired by her poems.

A poet all her life, Elizabeth selected poems for her book, The Stars Fell into the Ocean (Amazon, 2022), from her vast collection of poems written over the past several years. She has been featured in the Dark Poet’s Society, and her poems have been featured on several poetic peers’ Instagram accounts. She writes with soul, and opens up her world for readers to observe, so the feel as though they have a glimpse into her heart.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in a loving home in an artistic world in Laurel Canyon. I’m sure the creative types who would visit contributed to my love of the arts. My mother would take me to museums to foster that love.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

My dad gave me my love for poetry, as he would reward me with a dollar for each line memorized and a dollar for metaphorical translation and a dollar for literal translation. What that did was not only give me my first job lol, taught me the value of a dollar, but it got us to discuss the memorized poetry. It was wonderful.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting story since I began my career as a poet is that people will read my Instagram for The Stars Fell into the Ocean and read the in-depth messages I pass along about love and broken hearts and they think that every word I write is autobiographical and so they think they know me and my world.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The funniest mistake I made when I was first starting out as a poet was to think that every single one of my poems was going to be my very long poetry book! Not so fast there kiddo! I learned the value of editing and cut about 20–25 poems for the final book.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My mother helped me along the way as I was writing the poems. I would send her a poem at 1:30am and ask her if it was any good. She would always get right back to me with an honest opinion. In college at Penn, my mother would go listen to Patti Smith recite poems in cafés, well before she was famous, and she knows good poetry. So, I always trusted her take on my poems.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Failure has lessons inside of it, so it is not a concept to be feared. Do not give up on your dream, just because you don’t click with one person, or your work doesn’t resonate with someone. Stay the course and you will reach the stars.

Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?

I would love to see my books being actually published, rather than on Kindle. My book is not available on Kindle. I am old fashioned and love the concept of holding a book, but the real reason my book is not on Kindle is because it is also an art book. For each poem there is a work of art connected to the poem’s words on the opposite page. It is available for shipping on Amazon!

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

Thank you very much. I honestly see myself continuing down this path of the artist I am and embracing the poetry. I am writing more poems for my second poetry book, and I am writing more songs, with my songwriting partner, and expect an album out next year. So exciting projects are in the works!

We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?

Everyone needs to see themselves reflected in the art, whether it is film, television, or a work of art opposite a poem in a book. Diversity needs to exist so that we can truly share our art as a whole.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each. Five tings I wish someone told me when I first started are critical to who I am as a successful poet today.

  1. Not every poem you write is going to make the cut and become part of your book. When you start writing to put a book together it’s all about “gathering” and making sure you have enough. But you have to realize that it is quality over quantity. Find the poems that move you the most and commit to including only those.
  2. You do not have to have 100 poems to have a legitimate poetry book. I used to have this number in my head that I had to have 100 poems and then I’ll have a book. It’s simply not true. Some poetry books only have 40 poems and they are great! I surrendered to this notion and wound up with roughly 75 or so poems? I do not recall the exact number.
  3. It is going to be an emotional journey. I wasn’t prepared for how I would relive the poems that were autobiographical while editing. Before I hired an editor, I was my own editor until I thought it was perfect. But it took a lot out of me and there were down days when all I could do is cry because I was living in the truth of the poem while editing. So, I wish someone had prepared me for that.
  4. Not all publishing houses publish poetry books! Poetry is a niche subject, and there are just not that many publishing houses willing to stretch their works to accommodate poetry. When it came time for me to publish, a lot of writer friends gave me numbers and emails of publishers, and when I contacted them, they were either strictly a children’s publishing house or publish health and lifestyle books. It was very hard to find a publisher. My prior career of course was in the beauty world, and Hatherleigh Press publishes in that realm with Random House. So there was my answer, and I didn’t even realize it. If you want to buy a book, where do you go? Amazon!! So, I set out to find the most beautiful printing house and got my book ready to be sold by me, as a small business, from my house through Amazon to the buyer. And that’s exactly what I did and my book is doing well on Amazon.
  5. Your work does not end once you have the book up for sale on your Amazon account. No, no no. Now your work begins! Marketing is an important part of selling any book, and my poetry book was no exception. I decided to go all out and throw a red carpet evening of the arts, including a dramatic book reading and a giant projector of all of the images 10 feel tall! It was held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. It was a night to remember and kicked off the launch of my book, The Stars Fell into the Ocean.

Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.

I meditate which I find truly helpful for my mind to thrive. I have a mantra handed down to me from a monk, and I repeat it as I meditate to myself with my eyes closed. I also practice yoga everyday as a way for my body to thrive. I practice at a studio near where I live under my favorite teacher. As far as for my heart to thrive, I believe that continuing to write songs and poems is a way in and of itself to keep my heart thriving!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I do have a favorite for quotes, and that is Marcus Aurelius. Right now, my favorite quote these days is this: “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” I am surrounded by beauty. The beauty of metaphors and images conjured by my poems, and the feelings of love or heartbreak from my songs, which is beauty to the ears. There is beauty in everything I am doing right now, so I find this quote perfectly relevant at the moment.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would create one long poem that everyone who wanted to contribute to it had their chance and choice to do so or not. It would be the Poem of the World, and everyone would be represented and each part of the poem would matter just as much as the next part. That would be my movement!! The movement of the Living Poem of the World!

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why?

Maybe we can tag them and see what happens! The person I would most like to have lunch with is Patti Smith. She is my idol on many levels. She epitomizes the “Punk Rock Laureate” title she is known for. Just Kids is in my top 5 books of all time, and I love how she fused her poetry with her music. I aspire to do the same. I have listed her as my idol elsewhere I am sure, because for me she truly is living in her art.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

Follow my Instagram account:

@the_stars_fell_into_the_ocean

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Ming S. Zhao
Ming S. Zhao

Written by Ming S. Zhao

Co-founder and CEO of PROVEN Skincare. Ming is an entrepreneur, business strategist, investor and podcast host.

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