Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier

By age 34, Emily Weiss had transformed a beauty blog, Into the Gloss, into a startup cosmetics company, Glossier, with a billion-dollar valuation. As journalist Meltzer (This Is Big) chronicles in this perceptive corporate history, Weiss herself was something of a rarity, a female CEO who received $100 million in Series D funding from Sequoia Capital (the venture capital firm behind Apple, Google, and Zoom) in 2019, a year when less than 2% of venture capital investment went to female founders. In 2010, while working as a Vogue style assistant, Weiss began blogging every morning from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., quickly building a large online following. Though Meltzer interviews former Glossier staff and associates, and describes the company’s transition from Weiss’s apartment to its corporate headquarters in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, readers will still find it hard to understand what inspired Sequoia Capital to bet millions on the company. Meltzer is on surer footing when conveying the allure of Glossier’s product line—such as the genius of launching Boy Brow (an eyebrow pomade) during the ascendance of model Cara Delevingne, who is known for her striking brows. Lean-in–style feminists and fashionistas alike will revel in the rise of this woman-led business. (Sept.)