Chen grew up in New York. Her parents, who are originally from Taipei and Shanghai, own a consulting textile import-export business, and Chen attributes her early love of fashion to her mother's influence. Chen attended the Brearley School, then went to college at Johns Hopkins University where she was pre-med.
Career
In college, Chen interned for fashion magazineHarper's Bazaar. After graduating from Hopkins in 2001, she worked briefly for a law firm before joining the then-recently launched shopping magazine Lucky, where she worked in the credits department logging the prices and sellers for the magazine's array of products and eventually became editor-in-chief. She next moved to Elle where she worked in the beauty department for three years before she became beauty editor of Teen Vogue. At Lucky, Chen was the youngest editor-in-chief in the magazine's history. She also became the first head of a commercial arm for the publication, Lucky Shops, serving as both editor-in-chief for the magazine and chief creative officer. in 2019 In July 2015, Chen joined Instagram, owned by Facebook, to develop partnerships with fashion brands. She is presently Head of Fashion Partnerships for the social media platform, and has launched a number of fashion and e-commerce features at Instagram, including shopping fashion looks directly from influencers' feeds and the account. Chen is also a book author and has written three children's books, all illustrated by Derek Desierto: Juno Valentine and the Magical Shoes, A Is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World, and Juno Valentine and the Fantastic Fashion Adventure. On May 27, 2010, Chen was invited to and gave special remarks at her alma mater Johns Hopkins University's 2020 Commencement ceremony. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speakerAlexis Ohanian; philanthropist and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel.
Personal life
In 2000, Chen studied abroad for a year in England at Oxford, where she met her husband, Thomas Bannister. Chen and Bannister have two children together, Ren and Tao, born in 2015 and 2017.
