Archive for Women Entrepreneurs

Rare Beauty- Selena Gomez

As someone who loves all thing beauty and has tried most of the brand on the market, one that has always stood out to me is Selena Gomez’s brand Rare Beauty. Selena’s company has totally shifted a once one-dimensional market by making her products more accessible for all.

One thing about Gomez that really inspired the design behind her products is that she has lupus. She has been able to take the problems she has struggled with and applied it to her brand so that others struggling don’t have to feel alone as well. She says on her websites story, “We want to promote self-acceptance and give people the tools they need to feel less alone in the world.” Her brand has done this by making each one of their products more assessable by all. For example, most of their products have little spheres on top so someone who struggles with their grip is able to hold on and open it far easier than most other products. They were able to produce this design by partnering with experts at CCRI (Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare) who, “conducted a study to gather information on what product attributes aid or hinder usability and satisfaction for users with disabilities.” All of this effort has absolutely paid off, we see this in her company’s 1.3-billion-dollar net worth according to multiple sources. Not only does this money go back into her brand, but she only is the founder of the Rare Impact Fund, which is a charity that helps grow the mental health institutes in underdeveloped areas.

Not only has Selena had a massive impact in the makeup community as a whole, but she has changed the lives of so many women who have struggled with disabilities to feel seen, heard and loved!

Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez | Vegan & Cruelty Free Makeup

 

Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Makeup Line Preview | Makeup brands, Selena ...How Selena Gomez Built Rare Beauty Into TikTok's Favorite Brand - Bloomberg

 

Simone Hufana

Simone Hufana is a great example to college students of how it is totally possible for students to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and be incredibly successful at it.

Simone started out with a passion for bringing women of color to the spotlight. She developed a clear goal and started taking systematic steps towards it. She was purposeful about engaging in the community and understanding how people felt and what they experienced. Thinking through the ways that she could make the most impact was crucial for her. She networked, attended workshops, used social media, and soon developed a brand with a specific audience.

Her initial idea was to create a coloring book that represented women of color who were influential. ColorHerStory was trying to change the lack of representation of successful and accomplishing women specifically in education. Market research consisted of understanding the needs of her target audience. she sent out surveys engaged with educators and parents

Books and Big Dreams: Inside the Mind of a 19-Year-Old Entrepreneur ...

In 2017 she hit a milestone when she won Shopify’s beast mode a business competition. This showed that the business world recognized her work and the talents and passion that went on behind her business.

Simone’s still developing story is inspiring to young people who have passion’s and visions that are just waiting to come to life. She exemplifies creativity and bravery additionally; she was not afraid to go into coloring books which one would think are a boring market but that actually have a lot of value interest and impact especially in education. In a way she discovered a secret that nobody else was solving in the way she chose to and she has been relentless in pursing success for her mission.

 

Olivia Abrams – Tick Mitt

Two people smiling and posing in a forest during autumn.

Have you ever wanted an easier way to remove ticks that’s also non-toxic and reusable? Well Tick Mitt is the perfect solution for you! Tick Mitt was founded by Olivia Abrams in March 2023 after she realized that she wanted to continue entrepreneurship after graduating from Lehigh University in 2021. Olivia had to create a business plan for her final entrepreneurship class at Lehigh, and she chose to do it on Tick Mitt.

Four colorful bath mitts, pink and yellow, and turquoise and green, with white cuffs.

Her father Steve also just recently sold Magnolia Bakery in 2021, but it wasn’t till late 2022 that the both of them started thinking about continuing Tick Mitt and launching the idea. Both Olivia and her dad Steve have been bitten by ticks in the past, which made her want to continue with Tick Mitt. They both wanted to focus on reducing tick bites and tick-borne diseases. Olivia’s venture was funded with some money from the Magnolia sale and some of their media connections.

A yellow and a grey oven mitt on wooden background.

But what really is a Tick Mitt product? The Tick Mitt product is a mitt that can remove any loose ticks, while also being washable and reusable. The mitt is eco-friendly, non-toxic, reusable, and can be used for pets and humans. Steve and Olivia partnered up with a tick expert and product engineer to create the mitts to cling onto ticks. Olivia first focused more on pets in the beginning and then branched off to target camping, hiking, gardening, and other outdoor activities. Since they’ve expanded their target market, they’ve helped lots of people gain their freedom to the outdoors again without fearing ticks as often. Tick Mitt has been featured on Good Morning America and The View, which caused her products to be sold out immediately in the beginning. So far, the company has made around $450,000 in sales and has been sold in the U.S., Canada, South Korea, Sweden, and Norway. Tick Mitt has also won Product of the Year award at Outdoor Retailer, and more than 25,000 people have used it. The mitts come in many different colors and are easy to use and re-use!

You can check out her website here!

Sources:

TiCK MiTT – Tick Remover for People and Pets

Product of the Year Winner Tick Mitt Tackles the Tick Problem Hands-On – Outdoor Retailer’s The Daily

Female alumnae find entrepreneurial success – The Brown and White

Olivia Abrams

Glossier- Emily Weiss

Most likely if you were to ask just about anyone under the age of 21 if they’ve heard of Glossier, they would say yes. From popular makeup products to clothing and a variety of other products, this beauty company is much more than just lip-gloss and mascara. Glossier, which is most well-known for its classic lip balms has made its way into millions of makeup bags around the world. Created in 2014, the company started out as a beauty website that was founded to share genuine information with people from all over. Glossier has built its foundation on the slogan, “Skin first, beauty second.” They have devoted their company to being beyond makeup, because they believe that healthy skin promotes natural beauty rather than makeup that is used to try and cover that natural beauty.

Since its launch in 2014, Glossier has amassed over 1.8 billion dollars. Its co-founder Emily Weiss spoke in ELLE magazine about all of the iterations of Glossier and how its adapted and changed through the years. Starting in 2014, Emily raised 2 million dollars in funds to kick start her business, and in its beginning years it prided itself in being direct-to-consumer. But in 2022, customers and fans of the company were begging in just about every way for the company to be sold in another popular retailer, Sephora. And within one year of this merge, Glossier had grown 100 million dollars in sales in Sephora locations alone.

Continuing in the interview, Weiss expands on how important the company’s image beyond makeup has brought devout customers to the brand, she references how, “We want to create a brand whose sweatshirt you want to wear,’ and here we are, lots of sweatshirts sold.” Emily’s Quote truly represents Glossier in its whole, how a company so revolutionary for its time is truly unlike any other beauty brand on the market, and how Glossier’s innovative and unique ways have created the wonderful community that surrounds the company.

 

a brunette woman with her arms crossedGlossier Review - Must Read This Before Buying

Glossier

Helping Young People Achieve Their Dreams as an Entrepreneur Who Has Achieved Hers

Erin McGoff was in the midst of getting her degree to American University when she started realizing her talent in professional advising. People seemed drawn to her for help with applying to jobs through resumes, interviews, and beyond, and McGoff enjoyed every minute of it.

However, this prospect was left unexamined as she graduated and became an editor and director of films, including award-winning Amazon film “This Little Land of Mines.” McGoff was supported through winning various awards, including AU SoC Woman of the Year Award and the International Reporting Fellowship award from the Pulitzer Center, and has worked with many mainstream companies, including National Geographic and Google.

However, McGoff saw an opportunity in the surge of popularity with TikTok during the pandemic to fill the gap in a lack of career advice being readily available to those who needed it. She started posting tips on navigating the professional world, including a humorous element to appeal to a young target audience she thought might benefit from such advice as her friends did and which she delighted in as a young adult. Her main channel is deemed AdviceWithErin and exists over several channels, boasting 845,000 followers YouTube and 2 million on Instagram.

Scrolling through McGoff’s YouTube account, users are met with videos detailing anything from “How To: Negotiate Your Salary in a Job Offer” to “How to Deal with a Rude Person (in work and life)” to “Cabin Tour: building a TINY HOUSE (325 sqft) | Update #3,” showing a diverse pool of content that appeals to many different demographics within her target audience of those seeking advice in entering the professional world and those just generally interested in her channel. McGoff is an exemplary example of someone who kept a skillset in her back pocket and acted on it from a mindset of openness and passion whenever she saw an opportunity to do so.

Erin Smith- Founder of FacePrint

Erin Smith a nine teen year old girl, thought unlike anyone else. She was watching a video of a guy named Michael Fox, and from that video, Smith had some great ideas, and she couldn’t get those ideas off her mind. Her analysis of it was “Whenever a Parkinson’s patient would laugh or smile, it came off as really emotionally distant.” Smith took this and reached out to clinicians and caregivers to ask about this, and she found out that they have seen similar facial expressions from their patients. This was all before a Parkinson’s diagnosis was made. Smith who is a science enthusiast grew up doing experiments in her own kitchen. She wanted to make a change so people could be diagnosed with a disease, so she got to work and started to build a diagnostic system that was called FacePrint. This is really cool to see, as Smith saw a problem with a laugh or a smile, she knew there was a issue and that she needed to make a change to help these people out. She innovated in a special way to help this generation with a serious problem. Face Print is a selfie stick that captures changes in facial expressions over time to help catch disorders like Parkinson’s.  Smith hopes that FacePrint becomes a tool that diagnoses and monitors the disease. As of now, her creation has an 88 percent accuracy rate and that is nearly 7 percent more than regular tools. Smith has been receiving funds from Michael Fox foundation and pharmaceutical companies. Her technology is going under trial at Standford University. Smith has done some many great things with this product and to sum it up she had said this “I really want to optimize for my personal learning,” and “as well as for the best way I can help shape and build the future of neurological and mental healthcare.” This is so amazing for a teenager to do. The fact that she is saving our generations health is just so awesome. She definitely fills for a girl with a mind like an entrepreneur but not only that, she wants to help everyone, that is so special.

Link to Source: Meet 16 Teen Founders Who Are Building Big Businesses — and Making Big Money | Entrepreneur

Eleven the Entrepreneur

If you’ve watched Stranger Things on Netflix, I bet you’ve heard of the starring actress Millie Bobby Brown. She took the world by storm as Eleven, kickstarting her career as a talented actress. Many people know her, but fewer know her as an entrepreneur. She gained huge amounts of recognition and popularity from her roles in Stranger Things and other shows and movies in her teenage years. This fanbase gave her a platform to launch her own business at only 15. In 2019,  Millie started Florence by Mills, a clean fragrance and cosmetics company. She named her business after her great-grandma, Florence, whose love for life and self-expression inspired her. After sitting in hundreds of makeup chairs for acting roles, Millie discovered her cosmetics preferences and realized that makeup should be about self-love. The vision of her brand is focused on the enhancement of natural beauty and artistic expression. She was adamant about making her products clean with no harsh chemical or toxic ingredients or animal testing. Millie created the Olivia Hope Foundation, a fund inspired by her friend Liv, who battled leukemia. Florence by Mills donates to this fund in support of finding a cure for childhood cancers. In February 2024, Millie expanded her brand by launching Florence by Mills clothing, a sustainable clothing brand with an emphasis on loungewear and activewear designed for comfort and style. This brand dominates a portion of their revenue to Girls Inc., One Tree Planted, and Joey’s Friends as Millie has expressed her passion for charity work for women, the environment, and animals. Millie’s businesses have both flourished because of their quality products and positive impacts. She turned her commercial endeavors into social enterprises that give back to the community. Millie’s positivity, creativity, and empathy are embodied in her brands, and her products are high quality, affordable, and fun to use.

 

Check out her clothing and beauty brand.

Scents, Smells, Soaps, Tricks, Trends & Tips

At the young age of seventeen, Katie Carson started a business. It all started in a soap making class. Katie was inspired by that class to create her own business out of soap. That is where her passion and love for soap began. Obsessed with knew scents, smells, and soaps, Katie dove into her imagination and began to create creative soaps. On her website, Katie states that her mission is to love people through soap art. She demonstrates this through all of her social media platforms by creating content that is engaging and humorous. Katie markets her company mainly through her YouTube channel and Instagram. Her YouTube channel has over nine hundred videos full of content for her customers. She makes videos about tips, tricks, trends, and more. She creates playlists for her videos and has several organized topics. On the YouTube channel, there is a video line where she records herself creating new soaps and shares her knowledge to assist other soap creators. Many of the soaps she creates are inspired from her own imagination, she comes up with new scents on her own. Her brand, Royalty Soaps has partnered with several companies, such as, google, Squarespace, skill share, Tik Tok, Audible, Hello Fresh, Brooklinen, and Rakuten. Royalty soaps is unique because of its owner, Katie Carson and her view on the world of soap making. She sees soap as a way to positively impact others. One quality that has helped Katie Carson to excel in her career is her desire to always be genuine. Throughout her videos she strives to have a consistent positive attitude and takes every opportunity to show her comedic side. Even when she started a family, she continued to run her business. Katie Carson can be an inspiration to all of us because she is doing what she loves and making a positive effect on the community through her love of soap.

Katie Carson - Age, Family, Bio | Famous Birthdays

Pixel To Persona: Safiya Nygaard

Safiya Nygaard is a very successful American Youtuber from Chicago, Illinois. She attended Standford University, studying English and Drama. She quickly noticed her love for production and began working for BuzzFeed in 2015. She started her career at BuzzFeed creating the popular show called Ladylike with a few others. After she left BuzzFeed she was able to put more effort into her own YouTube channel. She has gained over 10 million subscribers since she started posting on her channel in 2017.

Collabs, New Brand, and Other Opportunities:

YouTubers certainly are entrepreneurs but not what some people would think. YouTubers advertise content and as they come into their “voice” that then turns into a brand and this has been successful for many YouTubers including Safiya. Safiya has been able to be a part of many great projects and opportunities. Some of these projects include creating a lipstick collection with popular makeup brand: ColourPop. Aswell as collaborating with fellow YouTuber Cristine Rotenberg AKA Simplynailogical with a limited-edition collection of nail polish from Cristine’s brand Holo Taco. Safiya also owns her own apparel brand called Fiendish Behavior which is a perfect embodiment of who she is. She has added her makeup experiments to her hoodies, t-shirts, stickers, tote bags, blankets, and sweats. Safiya would call her clothing style as “comfortable vampire” which means wearing all black in comfortable styles and textures.

She is known for her series called “Bad Beauty Science” which essentially means mixing large amounts of a single type of products and creating a “Franken” etc (She has mixed almost every type of makeup product together).  This has iterated into many off shoots of channel topics. She loves testing “Weird Fashion” such as Platform Crocs, 9-foot-long jeans and many many more. Recently she has moved into showcasing her cool travel opportunities with her husband also fellow YouTuber Tyler Williams. They have visited an underwater hotel, slept in an Igloo, slept in a Japanese Capsule Hotel, and again many other places. As a fellow viewer and subscriber, I like to say she is an investigative channel of weird things but weird is a good thing because that makes the content very interesting. I found her channel in 2018 so I have been a loyal lover of her content for 7 years and still enjoy every aspect of her videos. One other detail I would like to mention is when she has a video idea she will do whatever it takes to complete it just because she is that interested in the topic. Some of my favorite longer more deep dive type videos include, “I Stayed At Every Hotel On The Vegas Strip”, “I Ate At Every Celebrity Chef’s Restaurant On The Vegas Strip”, and “I Got An 18th Century Makeover” just to name a few. In her 18th Century Makeover video she got the opportunity to live out her childhood dreams and visit Colonial Williamsburg and get to wear 18th century attire and get to participate in activities there. In her earlier videos she would mention how she wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg and now she finally got to go. It was really cool for me as a fan to see her get to visit a place she always talks about, and I was very invested in videos like these.

Conclusion:

These videos take a lot of time, planning, and funding. I am amazed at the work that is put into these videos from Safiya, Tyler and their team. Both of them are also relatively young being 32 and 33 years old. They all have been working very hard on this channel and brand since they graduated college. As a long story short I really wanted to showcase at least one YouTuber in the blog post agenda and I think it is a very interesting type on Entrepreneur to research.

Here is Safiya’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbAwSkqJ1W_Eg7wr3cp5BUA

(I tried every method but I was unable to add any pictures, her thumbnails are really eye catching)

Wise Pocket – Sofia Overton

Sofia Overton noticed at just 13 years old a common problem: many clothes for children and women lacked pockets. She came up with an idea to solve this problem, socks with built in pockets. With the help and support of her family and friends she turned this idea into a business and started selling them. Deciding to go on shark tank was one of the best choices she ever made. She rigorously prepared and made a massive effort to improve her presentation skills. The Sharks were impressed by her pitch, and they offered her a deal. The deal was $35,000 for 25% equity in wise pocket products. After this win, her company grew through new problems and challenges. The company started to use social media to grab interest in their products and carved out a unique space in the fashion world. The socks come in fun colors and patterns and in many stylish choices.

10 Interesting Facts About Sofi Overton You Do Not Wish to Miss Out

Sofia’s business endeavors serve as a great example to young people today who have a dream of starting a business. Not only did she find a problem with a unique market, but she competed on shark tank and earned a deal. This deal launched her business into a new level of success. While navigating new problems and challenges the business grew into different areas of interest for a unique market.

It’s inspiring to see someone take an idea and run with it. We can learn from Sofia and learn to take risks and grow through great opportunities. Her developing story goes to show that there’s no substitute for following a dream with passion.