Name: Katie elliott's review of Glossy by Marisa Meltzer
Item: Glossy
Rating: 3
Author: Katie elliott

Marisa Meltzer

The astonishing story of the billion-dollar makeup brand Glossier and its iconic millennial founder who transformed American retail—for fans of Super Pumped and Billion Dollar Loser. Called “one of the most disruptive brands in beauty” by Forbes, Glossier not only revolutionized the beauty industry with its sophisticated branding and unique approach to influencer marketing, it taught a generation of business leaders how to talk to their customers and build a cult following online. At the center of the story lies Emily Weiss, the elusive former Teen Vogue intern and reality TV star who had vision, guts, and searing ambition. At age twenty-nine, Weiss launched the now famous beauty blog Into the Gloss. At age thirty-seven, she would leave the helm of her billion-dollar company shortly after giving birth to her daughter. In Glossy, journalist and author Marisa Meltzer combines in-depth interviews with former Glossier employees, investors, and Weiss herself to bring you inside the walls of this fascinating and secretive company. From fundraising to product launches and unconventional hiring practices, Meltzer exposes the inner workings of Glossier’s culture both good and bad. She also tells the story of Weiss herself in this gripping and dazzling portrait of one of the most iconic business leaders of her generation.

Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier

Glossy

bellamy-hill

There is power in those kinds of connections. A gay teen could find a gay adult rep to ease him into buying glitter for the prom, or someone with rosacea might like hearing from someone else who deals with it on which products are the most soothing or the best at covering redness. 

"Anyone can buy customers, not everyone can earn them," Henry Davis said.

Blanks replied that it felt like the companies were making a concerted effort to be as inoffensive and congenial as they possibly could. "The adjectives I guess I'd use are very friendly, very soft colors, usually geometric sans serif faces in the Futura mold, but more contemporary." [...] But he also thought there was something malevolent in the branding. "Part of it is that it can't be divorced from the context of ho all these brands and tech companies are being exposed as just another side of capitalism. There's this sense of evil lurking behind them, so the friendliness and softness can feel like a lie and oppressive. Whereas there's an honesty to Helvetica. It's a corporation: They are who they are."

Katie elliott

i liked this book a lot because i’m very nosy but i get how it could be confusing and a little boring 

Stella

i'm aware of glossier's existence so took the opportunity to find out by reading this book. it follows the founders beginnings, her struggles as a ceo and how it clashes with herself as a creative, evolution of the brand over time, and covers its many (almost too many) obstacles from business objectives to human relations. 

i was starting to get fatigued by all the problems glossier encountered until i finally reached chapter 16 which was insightful and kinda made it worth it.

Krystal

i'm aware of glossier's existence so took the opportunity to find out by reading this book. it follows the founders beginnings, her struggles as a ceo and how it clashes with herself as a creative, evolution of the brand over time, and covers its many (almost too many) obstacles from business objectives to human relations. 

i was starting to get fatigued by all the problems glossier encountered until i finally reached chapter 16 which was insightful and kinda made it worth it.

I would not call this a “bombshell exposé.” The author felt very measured, if frustrated by a lack of transparency from Emily Weiss. If there was ever a true scandal at Glossier, this book didn’t cover it. There were certainly missteps, but you’ll learn nothing you didn’t already know from the ex-employee Instagram account in 2020. It's a book looking for a bombshell and finding mostly typical founder/startup dysfunction.

While it’s an interesting story, and Emily Weiss has obviously been very ambitious (and privileged) from her youth, I personally believe it’s making way too big of a deal of her selecting a new CEO at the end of the story. The book acknowledges that founders may not have the right skills to be ongoing leaders, while also seeming to think Emily Weiss somehow failed (the author’s personal hope) by not eternally being the CEO herself. If anything, this should be heralded as a sign she is, in fact, willing to make hard decisions, despite having the same wannabe tech company delusions as Adam Neumann of WeWork. Coming from the business world, this seemed like a very normal stepping stone decision, and the fact it seems to have felt like it wasn’t is itself a sign that the cult of founders is still a serious problem. Also, she’s still in leadership. As someone who considers a couple of Glossier products as mainstays in my daily routine, I WANT the company to be run by someone who understands operations, scale, and longevity in a practical, non-flighty way. Bringing in an experienced CEO is the right way to go.

It was difficult to follow a clear narrative arc in this book. There's history, it's well-written, and there's some excellent commentary on the detestable word "girlboss" and the double standard for women executives, but I'm not sure what the point of this book was, exactly. It originally started out as a book on the beauty industry and pivoted to became all about Glossier, and it definitely feels that way. Read it if you're a fan of Glossier, are interested in the vapidness of the fashion industry, want to see a high-level view of what creation and growing pains look like for a VC-backed DTC company, or want a decent look at their brilliant Instagram marketing and building a following around a brand (Glossier pioneered this concept in many ways). However, if you want more on women as founders (mostly in tech), read Brotopia, or if you want real founder drama go with Bad Blood.

"Weiss started out as a starry-eyed innovator, a girl for whom nothing had ever gone wrong. She wasn’t a Rockefeller, exactly, but to most Americans she might as well have been. She was pretty, connected, thin, tall. She dripped with privilege. But she was also smart. And, crucially, she was willing to put in the work. She had a solid idea—Into the Gloss—that came at exactly the right time. That was all hers. But Weiss sometimes fell into an internalized misogynist trap of not taking credit for her ideas, as if Glossier were a craft project, a manifestation of her vision boards. That’s because luck plays a huge role in Weiss’s trajectory. And luck can be scary to discuss because it can’t be bought or controlled. You can only set up all the right conditions for it, which can involve a lot of hard work, though not always. People don’t like talking about luck the way they don’t like talking about privilege: because it makes it seem like they haven’t “earned” everything. But I don’t think it has to be a luck or hard work thing, but rather an and." (Marisa Meltzer, Glossy)

Sarah Schumacher

I would not call this a “bombshell exposé.” The author felt very measured, if frustrated by a lack of transparency from Emily Weiss. If there was ever a true scandal at Glossier, this book didn’t cover it. There were certainly missteps, but you’ll learn nothing you didn’t already know from the ex-employee Instagram account in 2020. It's a book looking for a bombshell and finding mostly typical founder/startup dysfunction.

While it’s an interesting story, and Emily Weiss has obviously been very ambitious (and privileged) from her youth, I personally believe it’s making way too big of a deal of her selecting a new CEO at the end of the story. The book acknowledges that founders may not have the right skills to be ongoing leaders, while also seeming to think Emily Weiss somehow failed (the author’s personal hope) by not eternally being the CEO herself. If anything, this should be heralded as a sign she is, in fact, willing to make hard decisions, despite having the same wannabe tech company delusions as Adam Neumann of WeWork. Coming from the business world, this seemed like a very normal stepping stone decision, and the fact it seems to have felt like it wasn’t is itself a sign that the cult of founders is still a serious problem. Also, she’s still in leadership. As someone who considers a couple of Glossier products as mainstays in my daily routine, I WANT the company to be run by someone who understands operations, scale, and longevity in a practical, non-flighty way. Bringing in an experienced CEO is the right way to go.

It was difficult to follow a clear narrative arc in this book. There's history, it's well-written, and there's some excellent commentary on the detestable word "girlboss" and the double standard for women executives, but I'm not sure what the point of this book was, exactly. It originally started out as a book on the beauty industry and pivoted to became all about Glossier, and it definitely feels that way. Read it if you're a fan of Glossier, are interested in the vapidness of the fashion industry, want to see a high-level view of what creation and growing pains look like for a VC-backed DTC company, or want a decent look at their brilliant Instagram marketing and building a following around a brand (Glossier pioneered this concept in many ways). However, if you want more on women as founders (mostly in tech), read Brotopia, or if you want real founder drama go with Bad Blood.

---

"Weiss started out as a starry-eyed innovator, a girl for whom nothing had ever gone wrong. She wasn’t a Rockefeller, exactly, but to most Americans she might as well have been. She was pretty, connected, thin, tall. She dripped with privilege. But she was also smart. And, crucially, she was willing to put in the work. She had a solid idea—Into the Gloss—that came at exactly the right time. That was all hers. But Weiss sometimes fell into an internalized misogynist trap of not taking credit for her ideas, as if Glossier were a craft project, a manifestation of her vision boards. That’s because luck plays a huge role in Weiss’s trajectory. And luck can be scary to discuss because it can’t be bought or controlled. You can only set up all the right conditions for it, which can involve a lot of hard work, though not always. People don’t like talking about luck the way they don’t like talking about privilege: because it makes it seem like they haven’t “earned” everything. But I don’t think it has to be a luck or hard work thing, but rather an and." (Marisa Meltzer, Glossy)

On the whole, I really enjoyed it! The first 200 pages are an easy-to-read account of the rise of the company from Emily Weiss’ early work at Teen Vogue to founding Into the Gloss and then growing Glossier to unicorn status. The author raises some questions / judgments but mostly is just telling us what happened.

I thought Part 3 (pages 200-250) was the best though. That’s where she really leans into an analysis of the fall of the #girlboss and the media takedown of the 2010s women CEOs. 

If you like reading behind-the-scenes profiles of companies, I think it’s worth it to buy the book! Or if you just want more of the analysis, then I’d probably get it from the library and go right to that final section. 

Amelia Hruby

On the whole, I really enjoyed it! The first 200 pages are an easy-to-read account of the rise of the company from Emily Weiss’ early work at Teen Vogue to founding Into the Gloss and then growing Glossier to unicorn status. The author raises some questions / judgments but mostly is just telling us what happened.

I thought Part 3 (pages 200-250) was the best though. That’s where she really leans into an analysis of the fall of the #girlboss and the media takedown of the 2010s women CEOs. 

If you like reading behind-the-scenes profiles of companies, I think it’s worth it to buy the book! Or if you just want more of the analysis, then I’d probably get it from the library and go right to that final section. 

Katie elliott &
Glossy by Marisa Meltzer

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