You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hi, everyone, welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about the choices we make and where they lead us. My gorgeous guest today is a trailblazer who founded a brand that is vegan, clean and able to be used by people who are immune compromised, which is so cool. Her beauty brand has an incredible message behind it and I can't wait to talk with her. Please welcome the founder of Thrive Cosmetics, Carissa Bodner to the podcast.
Jenny, thank you so much for having me.
I'm thrilled that you're here.
I'm so excited to be here.
You are beautiful. For anybody that can't see you right now, she's beautiful.
You're so kind.
This is so fun. I want to go back though. We were just chatting before a minute ago about our humble beginnings. Yes, we both grew up in the woods. We did out in the country. You grew up in rural Washington.
Yes I did, and Stanwood, Washington.
Shout out to Stanley.
I always shout out my hometown. I grew up in a small town of Stanwood, Washington, which is about five thousand people.
It sounds very similar to I don't even know how many mine had.
I didn't know until somebody in the press told me that. I thought it was kind.
Of wait, do they have, Like, was that fast food restaurants in your town or no?
No? So when I was when I was really young, they didn't. And when we I was just talking about this the other day, when we got a McDonald's, it was like a national holiday had happened. What about you?
Same thing. We had a dairy Queen when I lived there. Dairy Queen's the best.
Ow My god, you know what we should be doing is eating doing this interview while we're eating dairy queen ice cream cake, because I think that's the best ice cream cake plan.
I'd give up my no dairy for you.
Yes, yes, But we're small town's sister is how fun? And my mom is named Jenny. Your dad's name is John. Yeah, so awesome. My dad's middle name is John. So we're basically sisters.
Growing up in a small town like that. How did you figure out what you wanted for your life?
Oh, my goodness. I think for me, I wanted to work in the beauty industry because I loved that it was this vehicle for helping me who. I think we all can relate to having different insecurities when we're growing up, like we go through the acne pace. I mean, hopefully people don't, but I think most of us do. And you know, I had you know, I had teeth that were all over the place, and so I was trying to draw attention to my eyes instead of my lips
at a certain point. And I remember reading that. Do you remember the Bobby Brown book that had it was like an actual book that you could read with makeup artistry tips. It came out in the nineties.
I don't think I ever saw I saw the hairstyle ones. Oh yes, those are different, though, what the what was this one?
I mean it was it was an instructional book. This was before you two, and we didn't have internet at the time, and so it was really this opportunity for me to learn. I would read books like the Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary to learn how to make the makeup, and then I would read the artistry books to learn how to do makeup. And so I loved it. Wasn't like I had this clear path of, Oh, I'm going to be an entrepreneur or I'm going to start a beauty company. In fact, that was not on my Bengo card, as
the cool kids say. Now, it was really about wanting to work in this industry and I wanted to make the makeup. And I didn't even know what product development was, which is kind of an industry term, or cosmetic chemistry, Like, I had no idea that that's what it was. I just knew I wanted to make makeup and I wanted to put it on people. And when I fried my hair from a Loreal Faria box because I wanted that Jenny Garth blonde and I was I'm blessed with beautiful
brunette hair that box died transtir So. But you know, I just yeah, it's I think it comes from that personal passion of like it's so creative and artistic, and I would say I am a really creative person. But it's also this opportunity to help other people feel confident. Yeah, And I've always loved like I started as a makeup artist when I was eighteen at Sephora.
Oh like, okay, so you're the one of the gals in there that they offer to do your makeup. Yes, they help you find things.
Yes, I was.
I was.
We were called cast members at the time, okay, and yeah, I was a cast member. And when we were working on the sales floor, we were on stage. And I loved the Sephora training was so cool. I worked there for five years, four years while I was in college and then one year after college while I was a product developer as well. So it was such a great experience. But as far as growing up in a small town, like, my goal was to win, you know, like the high
school things like you know, most popular or whatever. My goal was to win most likely to stay in Stanwood.
Oh my god, did you get that title?
No? I didn't win it.
No, did you win? Did they give you any I got?
I'm gonna be honest. These are the two I got. I got best Hair okay, I can see it. And I got most Gullible Okay, which, like I still have mixed feelings about. Oh my god, did you win any of those awards? No, I didn't go to high school. Oh yes, I mean I did for a minute, but yes, and life happened. Yes, you were a global star.
I went to the High School of Life.
Yeah. When did you win? I mean, I know nine two, But I don't know what age you were. How old were you?
I was sixteen going on seventeen.
And you were like the biggest star on the planet when you were sixteen years.
Old when I was seventeen eighteen. Thanks God, nuts.
Yeah, what do we need to have a prom for? You? Have you had prom?
I did go when I was a freshman in high school. I went to my senior boyfriend prom. I've done it. And now I have three grown daughters who have all had their proms. Okay, which so grateful. That's over. But what did your parents do? Like, did you have entrepreneurialship in your genes?
Oh? I think I had it in the soil that I was raised on. I in Stanwood, everybody was an entrepreneur in some way. My dad grew up in Your dad was a teacher, so is mine. Do you know, Woul Do you remember what grade he taught?
My dad taught adult education. He taught adults that hadn't gone through the school process to learn to read.
My dad did that too. That is yeah, that is so cool. He still does that. He's now retired from his full time job, but.
He still does that. That is crazy.
Yeah, he so. My dad started as an elementary school. Actually, let me get this right. I think he was a special education teacher, and then he was an elementary school teacher, and he did all kinds of different jobs within education. But I'm really inspired by my dad and teachers in general because I getting to watch how much they how much they really sacrificed to really show up for students
and really change lives at such a meaningful level. Yeah, it's a big reason why we added our education pillar. We have so many different causes we support, and education is one of them. Is really important, and a big part of it, I think is my you know, growing up with a teacher in my household, and at the time I didn't really appreciate all of Like did you get those workbooks on the summer from your dad? Like my dad would like we would have like work like
I had summer school, but it wasn't official. It was like the bot our summer school.
No no. I When he left the school, he became a farmer, so I got to bail hay in the summers.
Yes, yes, I think though, like what a gift to grow up the way that we did. I so when I say the soil that I was raised on. I think, you know, my parents always fostered an entrepreneurial spirit within me, even though they weren't entrepreneurs. But growing up in Stanwood, to the point of not having a large restaurant chain in the in the town, every time we were shopping, we were voting with our dollars to support our friends
and family in the area. Right. So, I don't come from a family of entrepreneurs, but I think stan would be in my hometown really left an imprint on me that entrepreneurship or business ownership could be this vehicle for really living your purpose and having fun and making a living while you're doing it. So most of the people I grew up with are entrepreneurs. In my small town, most people don't leave Stanwood, so they own a construction
company or they own a beauty salon. And I didn't know what I was going to do, but I feel really lucky that I grew up around so many entrepreneurs.
Yeah, definitely, I love that it was in the soil.
Yeah, it was. It was, and I spent a lot of time in the dirt. I grew up on a dirt road, so my parents would be looking for me and I'd be like in the woods or like, yeah, I was doing all kinds of crazy stuff.
Okay, our childhood sounds so similar. Were you alone when you were out there in the dirt?
I was too. Yeah. I have a sister, but I like to joke that she was more of an indoor cat. So she likes to play with dolls. She liked to play with dolls and things like that, and I was more of a you know, we didn't have cable, we didn't have internet, and it was what.
Year are we talking here? Like what year did you come up in? In this in what's called what's the Stanward?
So we're talking about the nineties. We're talking about like peak nine oh two one oer era, which was on Fox, right, yes, yeah, okay, we didn't have cable. No, nobody had Fox. Yeah, yeah, we didn't have cable. But I definitely know of nine two one oer and have seen it. And I love the whole I choose me and how this is woven into really who you are as a person. I think it's so cool. And but yeah we're talking I was
born just like Taylor Swift in nineteen eighty nine. Okay, I felt really seen when that album came out, I bet, and I'm a swifty Swifty I mean too, I mean did you see her eras tour? I mean epic?
Yeah, it is so good.
I still watch it, like the the Disney Plus version of it. It's so good.
I feel like once was enough for me. Okay, I'm not that much of a Swifty fan. I love listening to her music, though, like girls have grown up on it so inherently. I know every song, yeah, because I've heard them a million times. Yes, I am a fan for sure.
Yeah, She's great.
Okay, So it sounds like you got into makeup pretty early on Yeah, like what age did you say? What age did you start wearing makeup?
Okay, when I was allowed to or when I started, because I think that's a really you know something about me, much to the chagrin of my parents, who had the painstaking task of raising me, is that if you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to want to
do it more So. I probably started playing around with my mom's lipstick when I was about five, and I think I was officially allowed to wear makeup when I was about thirteen, but I was definitely sneaking it on the bus on the way to school, even in elementary school and middle school.
So yeah, was were people like, oh my god, she's wearing makeup.
Yes, yeah, for sure. I even got teased at certain points. I remember one time I did this pretty intense purple look where I had a really purple eye, like a very intense purple eye, because I had read in one of these makeup books that it would help enhance the green in my eyes, okay, And I remember getting teased at school for this like very intense purple smoky eye. And then I went home and cried to my dad about it, and he's like, well, you know, just it is a bit.
Much, you know, did you like reel it in a little bit after that or no, you just kept doing purple?
No, I just kept playing around with it. I think
makeup is meant to be fun. And every time, you know, we we donate our makeup, and every time we do that, we love to host what's called giving events, and so we bring people all around the world into these different whether it's at a domestic violence home, or we host them at our office, or we go to a cancer center at a hospital, and we always start every giving event by saying, we are to give you tips and tools and tricks to really feel empowered when you're using
your makeup. But there are no rules, like the only rules to have fun. And so I think that you know whatever you feel like in that moment. Like I love this beautiful red that you have on right now on your lips. It's so pretty.
It's Thrive.
It is I wonder if that's the empower mat and Laura, is it empower Matt.
I might have worn my Thrive lip for you.
Oh my gosh, you're so sweet. I'm so flattered.
Wow, the big crayon one I think you're.
Wearing the one that I named after my friend Laura. And I'm going to tell you why this is a chismeic connection. Lara is friends with Laura Geller, who you and I both love. Laura Geller right right, And she's actually how I met Laura Geller as an entrepreneur. I met her when I was a makeup artist at SEFORA and I was selling Laura Geller products. This is so weird. Yeah, that's really cool. You're wearing Laura.
That's full So I can tell from like five minutes ago when we were talking.
Yeah, Laura Geller.
Yes, that's crazy. Yeah, I really love your lipsticks.
Oh, thank you very much.
I'm curious what is your take on as a as a beauty brand founder. We're seeing more and more these young young girls sharing stuff on TikTok talking about you know, their beauty brand. What's it called when you get a big hall?
Oh the hall.
Yeah, they're showing like their twelve step makeup routine, their skincare routine, they're anti aging routine.
Yeah.
What is your take on that about like, you know, young girls using products that are developed specifically for older women. Yeah, Like why do you think the young girls are doing this now?
I think it's so layered. Yeah, you know why they're doing it, And I think the why and the intention is where it becomes really important. Like when I don't know how old you are, when you started playing around.
With makeup about the same as you yet five.
I mean I think it's it should be fun. At that point, we're playing dress up, right, it's not necessary to change something about ourselves. And I think whether you're five years old or eighty five years old, that message rings true. So I think when I think about these younger girls with playing with makeup. I'm like, yeah, let's have fun with it. And the skill of these young kids is amazing, and so I'm really inspired by seeing
the way that they express their creativity that way. I think when you see them using some of these pretty aggressive ingredients like retinol or glycolic acid and lactic acid, which, by the way, I believe in those ingredients and I think they're super effective. But when they're not educated on hey, that's retinol or glycolic those are amazing things to use specifically on your acne, you know that you may be going excaring. Yeah, Like I think, you know, if a
thirteen year old is using those ingredients. Sometimes I see them putting them like all over their face and their body, and I'm like, well, maybe we don't necessarily need to go that far, but I think it goes down to the intent. Goes back to the intention, and then education on how to use it safely.
Yeah, I mean, I see it all because my youngest is eighteen. Yeah, and she really grew up in the whole making videos of herself putting on makeup or doing things or doing the holes and she you know, she's already said things to me like I want to get botox, I want to get a lip flip. Oh, and I'm just like, what Yeah, No, you're perfect the way you are.
And what a gift that you say that to her.
I wish she would listen to me.
I'll tell her. Okay, oh gosh, have you guys ever done beauty videos together? No?
We should do that that way, these would be adorable together, all the Generator or all the girls, all the girls. Yeah, they're twenty eight, twenty two, and eighteen.
Oh my gosh, Okay, I'm taking notes. We need to do this, Okay. Yeah, I think, you know, what a gift that you're reinforcing that she's beautiful the way that she is. And I think so much about you know, how you're reinforcing that within her, and also that she's you know, much bigger than her beauty, like she her brains will take her so much further. Like, that's an amazing gift for her to have you.
Yeah, I take it for granted. You know, my mom was always very encouraging, you know, and always telling me my reminding me of my worth, you know, and making sure I knew and I do that just inherently with my girls.
Yeah.
I guess just part of all of our conversations, and I think that's made them really strong and resilient and confident, you know, in themselves. Yeah, and I really take that for granted sometimes thinking some young girls just aren't getting that.
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's true. We see it a lot in the work that we do, and that's why I'm so grateful for there's there's people like you who are raising generations of strong, empowered, confident women. And there's also so many nonprofits that are also helping to show up. And there's this one organization called Self Esteem Rising that teaches classes for five year olds up to one hundred year olds about building confidence, and we work with them.
They're one of our giving partners. And I remember when I went through the first self esteem training with them, and I was just crying in the corner because this is the most beautiful thing to because really the message transcends whether we have an amazing mother like you or not. These organizations are also helping to mother all of us to feel like we're so much more than what we physically look like.
It so necessary, it's so necessary, and that's definitely one of the things I love about you. And Thrive Cosmetics. I'll come back to that. But when I talk to female founders, I always am interested in the journey. I'm always interested in the why and the how. Yeah, so what is your why?
Oh, that's such a great question. My why has grown so much from when I first started. So the business plan I wrote on my iPhone, which was just a few bullet points, was really the why, which was to create game changing products that would really help people feel confident, whether they were receiving them as a customer or they
were receiving them as a donation. So for me and for those of those listeners who don't know about our mission, which I would assume most don't, but are you know or that I've they've even that they've even heard of Thrive Cosmetics before I Thrive Cosmetics. Really, our mission is about giving back with every single purchase. So every single time somebody purchases, we donate, We donate products, and we also donate funds depending on what the nonprofit needs or
what what our community is asking us to do. So I'll give you an example of kind of the standard way that we give. We So you know, Jenny purchases on Thrivecosmetics dot com and then we record that purchase and then we go with our community and say okay. At the end of every month, we have a total of what we can give based on all of the purchases and our community, whether it's our customers or people who are just friends of the brand that we love dearly,
other giving partners, and our employees. We all vote on what nonprofits we're going to give to.
And that's so cool.
It's the coolest thing ever. Impact Committee. You should totally come to. It's so amazing. We get everybody together and these giving partners they submit videos as part of the application, and they're so creative and inventive, and really the prompt is like, how are you going to make these products
really purposeful with your nonprofit? And so we've been able to give to over six hundred nonprofits since I started the business, and I think it's important to underscore how small we were for so many years, but really how our community helped fuel that over the last day decade. And we wouldn't have been able to give to all of these nonprofits without people helping us. People nominating these
nonprofits also of course supporting us through their purchases. But I remember I shipped products out of my apartment for three years and we had one charity that we supported, and we supported one cause which was cancer. Now it's domestic abuse. We support foster youth. We have a whole education pillar where we have a scholarship. We're super excited to announce that we're going to be donating because of our community during the wildfires, we were able to raise
five hundred thousand dollars. Nice to be able to donate to those who were impacted by the wildfires that just happened here in our backyard in Los Angeles. And one hundred thousand dollars of that is going to be or has been allocated to provide ten scholarships of ten thousand dollars to high school students that were impacted by the wildfires.
So wonderful.
I mean, it's incredible what our community has fueled. Like I think our goal was one hundred thousand dollars, which is amazing, Right, that's a remarkable donation. The way that the community showed up in the US as well as Canada allowed us to raise five hundred thousand dollars in one day. And we're a small company. It's not like we're you know, like you know, I started this out of an apartment. So I think that's where I really want to underscore how important our community has been to
be able to donate at that scale. It's we've now donated over one hundred and fifty million dollars in both funds and products since I started. And that is millions of people showing up saying I'm going to vote with my dollars and I want to give back. It's amazing.
One hundred and fifty million, you guys, that's that's a big number. You should be so proud. I know I can tell that you are. This sounds like your why.
That's my why? Yeah, I think, yeah, Sorry, I didn't even answer your question super directly. I went on a whole tangent, but I got it. I tend to do that. What I will say, though, is, you know, I have the great privilege of working with over seventy people every single day to build this company. Our team is everything to me and I wouldn't be able to even be
here with you without a team. And so I think that's another important piece of my why to really underscore, because I'm motivated every single day to be the best version of myself as a leader and as a person because of the people that I get to work with on our team, and that's a I didn't have that as a part of my why when I first started,
because I couldn't afford employees. Yeh. And I was twenty four years old, so I didn't really know how to manage people or I didn't have a ton of experience doing that, And so I think that's another piece of my why is. You know, I've done this for over ten years and it always inspires me to work with our team as well.
You said your first I'm going to ask you about your how in a minute, but I wanted to make sure I covered this too. You said your first charitable fundraising was for camp Sir. Yeah, is there a specific reason?
Yeah? Yeah, I have this ring that I wear. I cry every time I talk about my friend Christy. I yeah, I started this business after losing my friend Christy to cancer and I was twenty three, she was twenty four. And I was so inspired by the way that she really dedicated her life to helping other people, Like while I was I'm going to be a product developer and I'm going to you know, I want to work in
a laboratory and make makeup and skincare. She was like, CHRISA, I'm going to go to Tanzania and I'm going to help empower young girls and teach them English. And she again coming back to education being such an important pillar for us as a company. That's what she was doing.
She was teaching over in Tanzania. And so for me, Christy is like the reason why I wear this ring in honor of her, and why I love to put sunflower seed oil in and all of our products, almost all of our products, is because that was really her symbol. She loved sunflowers, and after she passed away, we created this sunflower sticker that I keep with me in my wallet that we would put on like the Eiffel Tower, or when we would go on a hike, we would
like take a picture because she loved to travel. And so for me, it was, you know, losing her was that moment where I think a lot of people go through this when a tragedy happens, we kind of reevaluate our lives and what we're doing. And Christie's death taught me how finite life is and also that we should be waking up every day feeling like we're living our purpose. And I absolutely loved making makeup and putting makeup on people, and I loved skincare and all of that. It was
so fun. And then there was this element of like, God, I want to be like donating. I want to be donating this makeup and teaching people how to use this make up up. And so I never would have started a beauty brand, like I really really wouldn't have. I was very happy in a secure job situation. Entrepreneurship is not a secure job situation, and it's not easy. And I think that, you know, it's really Christie's passing that propelled me.
To that's so heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time that your brand is built around this loss.
Yeah, and friendship and the power of that. Yeah, I swear to God I know Christie better than when she was here ten years ago.
Okay, I talk about this sometimes. Oh, tell me when you lose someone, Yeah, your relationship expands with them?
Yes, yes, Okay, tell me your stories about this, because that's so cool.
Well, my my my thing is like life is busy. We're all busy, We're all doing all of our things, and friendships are there, but you know, we touch upon those bases here and there when we have time and when specifically my friend Luke died, I and my dad of course, but I as a friend, I felt when he passed, like after I was, you know, well into my grieving process, I felt him with me all the time, whereas before it was just here and there when we
would talk or when we would see each other. But now there's this like this feeling in me around me wherever I go, exactly, Harriet. Yeah, And there's just something so indescribable, indescribable about that feeling.
That I have chills because that's exactly how I feel. Yeah, especially in the tough times. Yeah, Like I I totally agree, And I'm so sorry that you lost your friend. Luke's thank you. Yeah, I'm so sorry. It's it's such a unavoidable tragedy of life. And I agree with you completely. I feel I feel Christie around me all the time. I see her in the eyes of the people that we're serving, and I feel her even here with us now, and I just it's it's almost like this guiding compass.
It's interesting, this is like the most la story. I don't even I don't really know. So again, not from LA. Grew up in a really small town, conservative Christian household. Okay, so the horoscopes were not a big part of my upbringing. And so then all of a sudden, when we moved the business to LA in twenty eighteen, people started talking to me about my signs all the time, and I like, I knew I was a cancer because I was born in July, but like, I didn't know the whole scope
of this. But the reason why I'm saying this is an LA story is that we have an annual party with our team and we the team, I was like, where's the photographer. I remember going to our this amazing people leader, Grace, and then one of our team members, Michelle, and I was like, why didn't we have a photographer? They're like, we ran out of budget and I was like, guys, we had hired a tarot card reader instead. But she was amazing. She was amazing.
Is that your first experience with that?
So yeah, I actually didn't get to sit with her, but she because the line was so long with our team and the team loved it. But I'm like, I want photos because I love printing photos of our team and then like framing them for them. But I the Tarot card reader pulled me aside and she said, I don't know your story, but I want to let you know that this company is blessed by divine energy and divine power. And I'm like, I just start crying because I was like, Yeah, it really is.
Ah, that's so incredible. How did you get out of your apartment into the marketplace?
Well, you unlock the door and I'm just.
Kidding, somebody let me out.
Yes. So when I started the business back in twenty thirteen twenty fourteen, e commerce businesses weren't really a thing at the time, and so I really I literally went like door to door trying to get different retailers to carry the products. And I don't know what it was, but they didn't really believe in the vision of what I was trying to create at the time. And I only had one product, which were our false slashes that were it was paired with our lash adhesive or lash glue.
That was your first product.
It was the first product. Yeah, and it's it was a really important product because I saw this firsthand working as a makeup artist with people who were going through cancer or my friend Christy that when you lose your lashes, which many people do when they go through chemotherapy, they aren't able to use traditional slashes.
Right because there's no lash to stick them on exactly.
Yeah, and so that was so what I created were these really incredible lashes. I created them in my kitchen, like handmade them with little fibers, and I will never let the team throw out the original fibers. We're about to move our office and I'm like, do not throw away the lash fibers. Yeah. I would use like eggs, like I would use an egg as my surface area because I was trying to mimic what it would be
like to have an eyelid without lashes. But what I found in the process was that they were really durable and long lasting, like people could wear them twenty or thirty times, and they were like everybody loved them. And so that was what I was pitching the retailers on and unfortunately, well it was actually fortunate for me in the long run and for the business. I had to build a direct to consumer business and I didn't know how to do that.
So because you never went to school for business, you never.
I kind of did wasn't the best student. I'm going to be honest. I went to community college, which I think is great. And so I went to Bellevue Community College, and yes I took chemistry classes, Yes I took business classes. But I was the kid that wanted to go to itt Tech so that I could work during the day, like I was getting d's in like classes like nutrition that only required participation because I wasn't showing up to class.
Because I got an opportunity Nordstrum. I had an internship at the time, and they were like, would you like to work this photo shoot tomorrow at eight am? And I was like, heck, yeah, I want to work that. And I definitely had a class at that time. And so I struggled in school, but not because the teachers weren't awesome. I just wanted to be working and I had so many cool internship opportunities. But I did graduate from University of Washington, not with a business degree, even
though I was in the business school. I dropped the business school so I could graduate early and then go work at Clarsona. That was what I So I did graduate, but barely. Like that was a long winded way of me saying I wasn't a good student. Don't be like me.
So you basically just on a wing and a prayer, like you figured this out as you went, Oh.
Yeah, yeah, I only knew the chemistry side and the artistry side, Like I only knew how to make the products and then how to make people feel amazing when they were using them. And so I've made a lot of mistakes. I joke that I have a PhD and what not to do. I've paid a lot in different fees of you know, fines, legal fees, all kinds of things because of all the mistakes that I've made. And I think every time, you know, I think it can be really lonely and depressing at times when you're making
so many mistakes, as I did. But I had to just flip it and be like, I'm just this is just adding to my degree and my PhD of what not to do, and I won't do it that way again. So I really like to think of it as failing forward.
Yes exactly. I was just thinking that.
Yeah, because otherwise it's like what are we going to do? You know, We're all going to make mistakes, whether you have a business degree from Harvard or like me, you went to community college. I think entrepreneurship is the school of hard knocks, Like you can't teach some of the things that you're going to go through. And I kind of think that's the magic of it, though, because if I would have known how hard it was, I probably wouldn't have done it. And I'm so glad I did,
and I'm so glad I didn't give up. I think like that was so to answer your question about getting out of the apartment, it was the power of our community. I will never, you know, not be grateful for every single customer, because there was a point in time where I was looking at every single order coming through on my phone and then personally shipping it myself out of the apartment. And you know, friends and family were helpful.
My boyfriend built the website and you know, did an amazing job, and you know, has really helped fuel the growth of the company. And I just think, you know, my parents helped with order fulfillment, Like I wouldn't be here without an amazing community of customers and people who've just said, hey, I believe in you, And you know, that's that's why I'm here, is how I got out of the apartment.
What Yeah, you said before. I think failure is just a part of growing. Yeah, we don't fail, We're not learning totally.
Yeah, I mean, and think about your career and what you've been able to build, and how many different things that you've you know, failed forward through. I can only imagine what it's like to be learning those lessons at sixteen, seventeen years old.
I know I'm thinking the same thing about you, because you're considerably younger than me, and you have found this magical space that you feel so supported in and you feel such a purpose. You know, finding that purpose at a young ages is a gift.
Yeah, how did you know that acting was your purpose? I mean, I know it's bigger now than.
I never knew acting was my purpose.
I just assumed.
Yeah know, I stumbled into it and I found myself just in the deep water, so I started swimming. Yeah, and along the way, I did grow to develop a great love for what I did, and I really enjoyed that. The acting, which is a very small part of what
you do every day as an actor. There's just a small amount of time when you're doing that scene, when you're on camera, when you're on your mark you're on the set, but there's so much waiting, there's so much you know, chatting, chatting all on the set, all those
things I wasn't a fan of. But yeah, once I started, also, like you said, meeting the community, hearing how important the show was to people, or the impact that my storylines that Kelly went through had on somebody else, That's when I started to go like, yeah, I'm doing this for a reason. Yeah, you talked before about the brand giving back to so many different charities, and I just love this part of what you're doing. And I know that you do too. I can tell it's the best. Yeah.
I saw some footage of you taking your products down to skid Row.
Yes, well, surely, and Beauty to the streets. Yeah, to the streets.
That's right.
Yes, you should come sometime. It's really such a transformational experience. I mean, or I mean, there's so many things we could do together. I know you're really big on women's empowerment, so there's so many different giving partners that we could we could work together with. And yeah, sorry, I totally cut you off because I got so excited about my friend Shirley.
Sorry, surely shout out to Shirley. Yes, yeah, but no, it's just that is such an important element I think to give you that purpose, you know, that drive to help others. And I saw the transformation on these women, these unhoused women are down on their luck. Yeah, and they you know, nobody's looking at them like seeing them.
Yeah.
And I think when you are standing right in front of them, close to them, and you're applying makeup to them and you're encouraging them through words and through touch, Wow, that's so powerful.
It's it's so powerful, and I think it's also powerful for us as people, Like anytime I'm bringing somebody on a giving trip, because these are you know, we're talking about skid roads. It's not a safe place, right we you know, we're going to some really intense areas of the world when we're serving people, not always you know, sometimes, but they're they're heavy situations. And what I always tell
people is I'm like, this is going to change your life. Like, yes, you're going to change lives, but you're really going to be changed from this. Like I didn't know how much internal healing I needed until I started working with some of these giving partners, like the Foster Community and these kids that I get to work with through you know, the work that we do. They have healed me in
ways that I can't even fully put into words. But you know, I think also to people who are going through cancer, like the being able to work with those those people, seeing that, you know, the incredible, really scary challenges that we go through don't define who we are, and being able to witness somebody else inspiring us in that way. Like I think about my friend Nali, who is one of our namesakes or Infinity water Proof yeliner namesakes. But my friend Nlly, she was my age and she
reminded me so much of my friend Christy. And we met when we were both twenty four and she was going through breast cancer the first time, and she was like the most inspirational, motivational speaker, Like if she she probably well spiritually she is sitting here with us, but she would be like she could just light up a room, whether it was five people or five thousand people, And until her last breath, she was inspiring people, whether she
would she would go speak at conferences that weren't even about cancer. It was just about really living your life to the fullest. And I think being able to witness people like that has helped me recognize that the things that I am struggling with don't necessarily define me or the mistakes that I've made. You know, I think we all go through different health challenges, which I have had in my life too, and I think it gives us certain appreciation for life. But also like, let's not put
ourselves in boxes. You know the world will already try to do that, so let's like keep our boxes as open as possible.
Absolutely, you said that working with the foster kids helped heal you. What are some of the things that you noticed healing?
Oh my gosh, I think you know, I was labeled pretty early on as being like a tough kid and a kid that was Now I embraced being called tough because I think that's awesome, you know. I see it as a as a you know, a badge of honor. But very early on in my life I was told that, you know, I talk too much, that I'm argumentative, that I need to kind of color within the lines, if you will, And I just wasn't a kid that was
meant to do that. I was meant to be running around, you know, on a dirt road on a farm, and I had a lot of energy, and I was really creative, and I appreciate that my parents really fostered that within me. And I think I also was challenging for them to raise and they they would say that if they were sitting here, but I think I know they loved me, but I think there was a lot of pressure to fit within a certain box. And so when I see these kids who have also been labeled as a problem,
I love them. I'm like immediately attracted to them. I think I'm perpetually meant to have a complicated, complicated and I'm saying, in air quotes, thirteen year old in my life, specifically a girl I want like a thirteen year old girl always in my life that's like angsty and like, you know, like and I don't even want to say like mad at the world, because I was always told that that's what I was, and it was really I
was hurting. I was sad, I was going through different challenges like we all do in life, and what I really just needed was a hug. And so being able to, you know, see a kid that is, you know, without revealing too much about their personal stories, like we see these you know kids that are really really struggling, and sometimes the foster system doesn't know what to do with them.
And I think when you're able to just hold their hand throughout you know, they might be swearing at you or throwing things at you, and you just hold their hand and say like, you're so like I love you so much, and you're so awesome, and you're so smart, and finding those things that we can celebrate within them while still keeping boundaries and saying like, please don't talk to me that way that hurts my feelings, but also
reminding them how loved they are. I find that to be such a healing experience because I think that's what we all need in life, and it's a being a parent, which I'm not, has to be one of the most challenging jobs that a person will ever have. You're a mom of.
Three, yes, ma'am, it is.
Is it the hardest job in the.
World, hands down, hands down, And so.
I have so much grace for parents, and my parents and most of my friends are moms, and so I just I love that I get to show up and love those kids with all my heart and hopefully help them feel seen and valued.
And it sounds like you're born to be a person that gives love unconditionally.
Oh I'm going to cry. That's so sweet, Thank you, I think so? Yeah?
Yeah? Do you want to have children someday?
Know? I am lucky. I went the first thing I spent money on when my business people are like, what did you spend money on when your business took off? Because I was really poor for a long time. I was like, really really struggling, not knowing how I was going to pay my rent for many years. And so when the business finally took off, the first thing I spent money on was freezing my eggs. Congratulation And so you have babies somewhere, yes, yes, So I would love
to be a mother someday. I would love to be a mother of a little girl. I think that'd be so fun. I want to name her l because I think the Elwoods character such a like she left such an indelible mark on so many young women, myself included. And you grew up in that era where it was kind of like the clueless era where it was like the girls. Did your character did you have to like play ditzy at times? Or were you always just a smart badass?
No?
She had to learn a lot of hard lessons.
Yeah. Yeah, And I think that the ell Woods character was so incredible for me, in particular because I got to see Alicia Silverstone go from Clueless, which but I wasn't allowed to watch that movie. I like, I like snuck it. I snuck Spice Girls. This is the funny thing. I was allowed to listen to Madonna The Immaculate Collection.
Okay, that doesn't make any sense.
It's because my mom liked it until I started listening to Like a Virgin. Didn't know what that was about, but really liked that.
Song, the lyrics, lack of virgin touch for there.
But I so I was not allowed to listen to Spice Girls or watch Clueless, but I was allowed to listen to Madonna. So again an empowering person. But yeah, we uh. I think the gift of growing up when I did in the in the late eighties and nineties was being able to witness characters like Elwood's And so I would love to name a little girl l and just like watch her be a badass. We'll probably watch her be a pain in the.
Ass like me. That keeps it fun.
Yes, totally, yeah, Like I mean, you have three different girls, right, is it? Three girls?
Three girls?
My gosh, what's that like?
It's amazing. Yeah, it's just it's all I'm in awe all the time of what came out of me, and that I've kept them alive this long. Yeah, and that they love me. Yeah, they'll love me for the rest of my life.
You know.
That's that's a feeling that's very comforting to me because I too, am a small town girl and I love love. But yeah, it's it's cool, but it's not for everyone. Yeah, And I have so much respect for women that choose not to have children.
Yeah.
I mean, that's what this whole podcast is about, is choosing what you need in your life, and so being able to define that is just part of the process.
Yeah. I love that you said that, and I love that you love your girls so much, And gosh, how fun to have a mom like you. And I love my mom so much, and I think that's it's such a special relationship daughters and mothers. And I love boys too, like I think it was. I love being auntie to all of my friend's kids and things like that too, So I love playing with little boys.
But you're a girly girl.
I am a girly earliet. Yeah yeah, And I just think, like, what an amazing time to be a woman, Like, oh yeah, I am so lucky to have started when I was twenty four in that time where it was it was encouraged to be an entrepreneur if you were a woman. And I think we are really really lucky. And I can't even imagine what these future generations like your daughters are going to do. I can't wait to work for them someday. It's gonna be awesome.
Because they'll hire us when we're older. That won't be a thing anymore.
Yeah, totally, Yes, we are Like the whole age thing is just a number at this point, Like it really is. I mean, we are beautiful at every single age.
This is true.
Work with the coolest nonprofit called the Glama Project. Glama, the Glama Project, it's the coolest. Yeah.
I love Grandma's and be I love glam So.
We need to hang out with the Glamas. If you any day need if you ever need a boost of confidence, you hang out with the Glamas. We go into nursing homes with the Glama Project and we do full glam on them, we take headshots.
Oh my god, they must love it.
And they're teaching us tips and tricks like that's I mean, I think that's like the fun is.
It's so reciprocal.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was really lucky. I was a you know, I had two really powerful grandmothers, like very very strong women. One of my grandmothers immigrated here from when when she was young, in from Germany and she was a total badass. My Grandma Ruth, and then my Grandma Jackie was amazing woman who went from you know, not graduating from college and you know, being an alcoholic and having a son who was a drug addict, and just a lot of really immense challenges to in her
fifties talk about like making a lasting impact. In her fifties, she decided to go to college and become a drug and alcohol counselor and she did that until she died. And she died in her sixties from lung cancer. And I just think, like, what an amazing example for me to grow up around. You know, That's why I don't do drugs like I could have. Like when I'm on skid row, I'm like, oh yeah, I very easily could
have wound up here, you know. And I think that having a grandmother like her to basically do the DARE program. Every time I would go over to her class, she had like those remember the posters that were like a R e yes, and she would like fry the egg and be like this is your brain on crack. And I'm like, okay, I'm not going to do crack. Grandma like, but you know, her dying wish was that I would
never do drugs or smoke. And I swear to God, you know, we're talking about Christy and Luke and everybody being spiritually around us. My Grandma Jackie is like sitting right here and she would throw a lightning bolt down from heaven if I did drugs. So I'm scared. I'm too scared to do drugs.
Good.
I'm fine with other people doing it, but I'm scared because Grandma Jackie will still.
Come for me. He'll strike you down.
Yes. But the Glama Project, Yes, it's such an amazing nonprofit. And I think what I would say about the Glama Project is like again it being a mutually beneficial relationship of we're helping them feel confident, they're also being Grandma's to us that you know, many people lose their grandparents very young and never know them, and so we have these like bonus grandmas all around us.
It's very cool, so cool. Yeah, I want to tell everybody about how your makeup is designed with immune compromise people.
Yeah, mind, yeah, Oh my gosh. It's so important to us. From the very beginning, I remember, because we wanted to give our products to cancer patients. I was calling on cologists and I was calling different cancer hospitals specific and they were saying, we don't want women who are going through cancer to wear makeup. And I said, respectfully.
That's bullshit, yeah, and not your choice.
Yeah yeah, And I said, you know, this is like we need to give women an option, Like, yeah, they should have an option. And so we worked really hard to develop formulas and we still do that are that are clean, which means that clean is kind of a buzz term in the industry, but clean is really about the thousands of thousands of ingredients we will never use, and we have a list that we're always building upon as we learn more from oncologists or from different scientists.
We have incredible chemists on our team who are always looking at how we can become more clean and really create products that are safe for people who are immune compromised.
So so good. Yeah, I mean, even if you gave me that list that you work off of of no, don't use these products or these ingredients, I would till feel overwhelmed and then therefore not do anything about it in my own like cupboards, you know what I mean. So it's so good to know that when you buy certain brands, you know you're buying clean and it's it just it changes everything about your decision making because wouldn't we all rather use clean ingredients on our skin, in
our mouths and our dummies. You know, these things are so important in this day and age, especially with the amount of chemicals that are being used, and just like you know, people are like, yeah, I know, but this's my favorite lotion or whatever. So it's so good to have options for people that are looking for that.
Yeah, And there are so many great brands that are doing clean beauty in amazing ways that I find incredibly inspiring and for us, like, it's just so amazing that we have access to so many great doctors through our cause you know, like those people, you know, I think about my friend doctor Elizabeth Coleman, who's a world renowned oncologist who is saving lives, preventing disease, helping cure disease.
She's an amazing person. And being able to talk to her and workshop different ingredients and you know, also work with.
Different amazing that you work with her.
Oh do you know her or do you know of her?
She's a foundation.
Oh my, doctor Elizabeth Coleman is incredible. Yeah, she's at NYU. Now she's you should. She wrote this book called All in Her Head, which is all about the female anatomy and really teaching women and empowering women to know their anatomy. Like, I don't know about you, but until I froze my eggs, I didn't know where my ovaries were. I was just talking about this with my friend the other day.
They didn't. They don't really, I mean cover that, and if they do cover that in school, nobody's listening.
I yeah, I mean all respect to the Standward school system. My dad worked in it, but I don't remember them teaching me totally, Like we're so embarrassed. Yeah, totally. I know. Everybody. You're like ten years old and you're sitting next to the boy you have a crush on and they're like, let's talk about sex. It's like, oh my.
Gosh, yeah, I'm so glad you learned where your ovaries are. Though. Who inspires you?
You inspire me? Oh, I think you are so incredible what you've built here and how you've used Oh gosh, oh, I mean, it's just you are such an inspiration to so many women. And when I told people I was going on your show, they were like, oh my gosh, Jenny Garth is amazing. What you've done with your career and how you've really used it to impact people is amazing. You inspire me.
Thank you.
I'm glad. Yeah, yeah, I mean it, And I love knowing you now better too, Like it's one thing to read about a person, but to feel your spirit and how warm you are, it's how I want to live my life. And when I think about other people who inspire me, I think so much about the people that we get to serve and oftentimes we name products after them. So I think about Raquel, who is herself is a breast cancer survivor and she went on to go work at self esteem rising and help empower so many women.
If that was the nonprofit. I was talking about five years old to one hundred years old and teaching these self esteem classes, and then she went on to go create her own nonprofit, and so like, that's an example of a woman who has experienced something that's really scary and that we hope never happens to people that we you know, anybody in the world, but inevitably, unfortunately, cancer is way too close to too many of us. And so I'm inspired by people like that who take their
pain and they put it into purpose. And so Raquel is always at the top of the list. I think of my friend Nolly. I think of our amazing employees as well, you know, just watching them overcome their challenges and still coming up with really creative solutions like building a business and being a part of a business is never easy, and so I think being a part of a team is really inspirational to say, Okay, well we're
in this together. We have three values that our company, and one of them is one team, one score, and it's that idea of togetherness and that we really are here to serve the collective and that it's not about me as an individual or you as an individual. It's really about coming together and supporting one another because we're supporting something that collectively is bigger than all of us, which is our cause. So I'm inspired by a lot of people.
That's great.
Yeah, I could go on for hours.
I mean no, that's just good to keep your eyes open because the inspiring people are everywhere you look.
Yeah, it's true, very true.
Okay, CHRISA. Bodner, I have a question for you. Yeah, what was your last I choose me moment?
I love this question because for me, I have to choose myself every day, and I think that it's like choosing to to wake up and walk on the treadmill instead of you know, sitting and doom scrolling for an hour and then feeling depressed. You know, I think I used to believe that there was this moment where we would arrive, meaning that we don't feel depressing thoughts, that
we don't feel anxious. And I feel like choosing myself is a daily practice that I come back to and that sometimes I go on a three week streak where I'm feeling awesome and I overcome a challenge, and then there are times where I'm really struggling. You know, every single day and every hour of every single day and saying I don't want to do this, you know, but I think being able to come back to the basics of like, okay, mood follows action. So I'm going to
go for a walk. I'm going to go for a five minute walk without my phone, even though I don't want to. All I want to do is be addicted to my phone and sit here and be pissed off about my life. But I'm actually gonna get up and I'm going to go for a walk, and inevitably I feel better after five minutes.
So those little choices, yeah, yeah, And once you start thinking and asking yourself, how do I choose myself, you'll start to notice all the little things that you do and then you'll be like, hey, I just had and I choose me moment.
I feel good about that.
I love that I choose me movement that you have created, and it's such a great reminder to be like, how are you choosing yourself today? This is every day we have to we have to. Yeah.
I really enjoyed our talk and I've enjoyed getting to know you. Oh, thank you, Joe, And I just have all the hopes for massive success and happiness in your life.
Oh, thank you so much, Jenny. This was so fun.
Thank you