Alyssa Space - CEO of ForHer Cosmetics & Founder of MySpace Laboratories
I met Alyssa last year and at a Posh and Popular event where we were both vendors. We started with small talk but when she began telling me about her business and her career I was immediately drawn in.
Alyssa is a trained chemist- she’s started in a field that has few women, and even fewer women of color. She not only started her own cruelty-free, vegan cosmetics line ForHerCosmetics but she also started a lab space MySpace Laboratory so that girls from different backgrounds could explore careers in STEM.
She has also integrated a mental health and anti-bullying portion into her program with My Space Laboratories. She believes in speaking out against the stigmas of seeking help and breaking societal norms.
I had the privilege to speak with Alyssa now only about how she’s grown her program and business so tremendously in the past two years but also about her experiences as a black woman in corporate America and what can be done to be more inclusive.
Read on to hear about Alyssa’s pathway into science, how she wants to encourage more girls to go into STEM, and why taking care of your mental health is a key factor in success.
Tell me about your childhood. What were you like as a kid and where did you grow up?
I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My mother and father raised me there along with my younger brother, Alex. We moved from Chicago to Detroit when I was in first grade though. The transition was a little hard... I grew up in Detroit. I went to a Catholic, private high school and then went to university at MSU.
When do you think your interest in science and specifically chemistry started?
I think my interest in science started around when I was about eight years old, because I can vividly remember when my mother would have all of these perfumes and these lotions in her bathroom and I would take them and I would start mixing them with sunscreen and tanning lotion and just all these different perfumes.
Essentially I was creating when I was just eight years old and I didn't even know what I was doing at that time. I just knew I liked what I was doing and I liked creating.
And then to actually, as I did get older, like into middle school, I loved doing science fairs. I would go beyond the class requirements. I would enter into like competitions through my school or our district for DPS students and would win prizes. I was also just really into STEM in general because I also played academic games when I was younger. So I literally played math games for fun.
That's so cool that you knew that from such a young age, that you really enjoyed it and like you not only enjoyed the classes, but you were able to do stuff outside of the classes as well.
My mom really pushed us to explore different things. My mother had us in everything, so I definitely got a taste of what I really enjoyed.
When do you think that your interest in science and chemistry kind of morphed into cosmetics?
I knew in high school that I wanted to have my own business because throughout my childhood into my young adulthood, I worked… So I always had a drive to have my own thing, but as far as like the chemistry part coming in with the cosmetics it stemmed from when I was younger and once again, like I was in dance and a lot of times with all the times, whenever we have to perform, you have to wear these really bright red lipsticks. And it just like, looks so bad on me.
My complexion just didn't go with what they were offering us. So I knew that I wanted to have my own brand one because I wanted cosmetics that actually complimented my skin because not too long ago a lot of colors were really bright and they didn't go with my undertones or my skin tone. I really wanted to start a line when I was in college.
I actually ended up meeting a lady who had her own brand and she ended up becoming my mentor and she essentially helped me with the process of starting. Once I got my degree, I began formulating after college.
I think it's awesome that you found a mentor at that age even if you have that drive to own your own business and you've had it for a while, there's always those doubts that linger in the back of your mind.
Whenever I've gone to an interview, I've always asked them ‘what is your community initiative?’ How do you really give back? Do you get involved with your community? Do you help children that are disadvantaged? I've never seen that in companies I worked for.
As a brand too, that's really important to me, like a brand that actually stands for something outside of just commission and money. It's about the initiative, who you're affecting, who you're impacting, et cetera.
Yeah, I definitely want to get into that because I completely agree. There are so many opportunities to give back and use those skills. I know you mentioned that part of the reason you wanted to start, this was like, because you noticed there weren’t shades that complimented your skin tone.
Statistically if you look at the beauty industry black women buy the most cosmetics. Our spending power is huge.
What do you think brands can do like a better job of doing in terms of being inclusive? How do you think companies can make more impactful changes?
Honestly, I think that because like the customer, the, you know, the quote customer is always right, do more customer discovery. Like I'm in a class, a cohort right now through TechTown and essentially we're learning about customer discovery, who do we market to what it's like, who is our target market, et cetera. And honestly, outside of that, like if you really talk to who your customer base is, like if you get feedback from women that outside of just having models or people on the board that are of color, but like actually going out into the communities and interviewing women…
Because you create something that you don't know what is lacking … So asking the questions, even if they are hard and just doing some really deep diving.
I know that ForHer cosmetics is vegan and cruelty free. And you're really good about using just like natural ingredients. Why was it important for you that ForHer cosmetics remain that way?
Yes. So when I started working as a teenager, actually my first job was in a holistic center. So I was molded and taught that natural is the best way… It was important to me because what you put in your body is essentially what you get from it, that’s how your body will treat you back.
And the FDA doesn't put a lot of regulations on the cosmetics that we use. So I want it to be a transparent brand. And then you're using these products every day and your skin is the biggest organ on your body. So it's literally absorbing everything that you expose it to; the sunlight, the wind, lotions, moisturizers, exfoliants...
It was a big deal for me to create a brand that was nontoxic but still delivered the same quality look for women.
Like one for someone who I obviously don't have a chemistry or science background, but especially after having lived in Europe for years, I feel like labels are much better regulated there.
And I really think that too has to do with the culture of how women are treated in America in general.I just feel like you don't hear these types of things about men's products or their shaving creams or what they use on their body. It's just because the FDA is typically, typically run by men.
I think that if we have more women in that sector, then we would have more strict regulations on what you can even label as natural because there's not even really guidelines on what you can label “organic” or “natural”.
I was looking at this exfoliator I have for my face and like it's marketed as a natural brand. It's in Target and it's in their natural section, but then I'm looking at the ingredients I'm wondering, is this natural or are these chemicals?
Literally most of my products use around five to six ingredients. Outside of preservatives, you shouldn't be having a thousand ingredients in your product.
I know that you do a lot of work to promote the STEM field for women and girls of color. What are some of the struggles that you've gone through in that field?
In school, it was hard because humans just in general, we attract people that look like us. So being one of the only black females and at Michigan State it was intimidating because I feel like I didn't fit in with a lot of my peers when I was in college. I didn't really relate. I did a lot of studying on my own when I was in school. So I did feel alone a lot of times.
Once I got into the chemistry, natural science college, they didn't have any support groups for students of color. And we need that. We need that extra support because a lot of people in my family, a lot of people that I know aren’t in this field. They can't help me with my homework or give me suggestions.
And then as I got into corporate America, I feel like it was actually worse. I had my first job in my field and it's kinda like you’re just thrown to the wolves in STEM. They expect you to know everything.
I don't know, it was intimidating. I would come home and cry like to my boyfriend at the time.I just went to school for five years and I feel incompetent. I'm not really getting any support from my coworkers.
It's been rewarding, but it's also been being kind of set up against women of color in STEM too. I would get picked last essentially for team projects and things like that. It was just kind of like passive behavior, but it was hard.
That's why I was really propelled to really push, to do my own brand and create a space where I felt comfortable and other people could feel comfortable working in science. And that's the name of my lab. It's called My Space Laboratories, which is a collaborative lab space for all to come and create.
Yeah, I think that's such an amazing brand message and it just makes me really sad that I hear that so much from women of color that they like as much as it's amazing that like you're creating your own brand and you have this really awesome company. It's sad that you had to do this to create your own space and that we’re not further along in 2020.
I mean, I think it really, it goes back to, to just like, like, even back when, like we couldn't even go to like the same colleges, like it kind of, I feel like has trickled down in just a different manner.
What do you think can be done to encourage more young girls to go into STEM, especially young girls of color?
I think especially like what I do with My Space Laboratories is allowing girls to have access to resources and knowing that there are options because I feel like a lot of times there's a stereotype that if I go into STEM, I either have to be an engineer, a doctor, or a nurse. There are just so many different routes that you can go.
I know we just talked about your experience in corporate America, but outside of just doing the token diversity programs and HR booklets, what do you think that companies can kind of do to have like more meaningful change so that hopefully in the future someone like you who's like educated and talented doesn't feel excluded and alienated?
Doing quarterly or annual surveys on how people are really feeling in their workplace. On if people feel their voice is being heard and they’re being included.
I think that getting to know how your actual employees feel and how they're affected at work and what their settings do to them mentally is important.
Also having hopefully more women of, especially women of color, at upper level positions and implementing. So essentially implementing them and then evaluating these implementations.
Tell me more about My Space Laboratory and why you decided to start it.
I started chemistry and cosmetics as a program that I ran through ForHer Cosmetics to essentially raise money like capital for my business. So I would teach children how to do these projects and then nonprofits like YMCA, NSBE, and the boxing youth program, they have budgets for these STEM experiments and experiences. I would use that money to like funnel back into my business to just continue to build it.
As my business began to grow more momentum, I didn't really need the chemistry and cosmetics program to fund my business. It was self sufficient.
So I was like, okay, maybe I can turn this into a nonprofit now…. How can I offer this program to underserved and underrepresented children in my community while still bringing the same impact, the same program and not going broke.
I started the nonprofit so that I could bring these courses to students to empower them to explore these careers in STEM through hands-on learning and alternative exploration. It's a full program where they learn how to start a business and they learn about self-esteem, anti-bullying, and suicide prevention.
After they go through learning how to start a business and being a better person... they learn about the raw materials that we're using, how they work, where they originated from their melting points, their boiling points, whatever it may be that they do in the actual formula. And they get to then go into the lab or the space that I would bring with me and they can make their own lip, balms, lipsticks, lip, glosses, et cetera. And it just went so well … and now COVID hits.
I actually sat down for the last four months and created a curriculum with the home developer for 12 or 13 experiments that will be subscription boxes. I've done it with schools to now, like I've already served over 2200 kids in the last year alone.
Why did you decide to add in that kind of mental health portion and anti-bullying into the program?
I just want girls and kids to know that you can be smart and it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing because at the end of the day, it's going to get you paid.
And then too, my brother has suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as well as my father. So I understand the importance of mental health and mental wealth. Especially in the black community, there's a stigma around mental health and going to therapy. So I just started going to therapy myself last year, September. I've actually been going for a year now and it has helped me so much.
And I just want kids to understand that it's okay to talk up, ask for help and understand that as a person you're going to go through an emotional roller coaster.
To tell them that dealing with their mental health and being an educated individual are the pillars of being a good person.
I have heard a lot about that, about how mental health still has a really big stigma in the black community.
So that it does tie to that as well, too… Even with my mother, she's not really a big mental health advocate, just because of the way that she grew up in her degeneration prior to her... so I'm trying to really break the “societal norms” and introduce what we really should be getting more into outside of STEM, mental health, self esteem, self love.
What is the best piece of advice you've ever received and from whom?
Instead of always trying to make sure everything is perfect before you present or go for something, just go for it. And along the way, tweak it to where you want it to be. Because when I first launched my business, like I literally had little lip balm tubes that I put my lipstick in. I had little stickers that I put on my packaging. My lip glosses were literally like beauty supply lip gloss tubes. And although it wasn't perfect, I perfected it along the way.
And I'm just happy that I was told and pushed to like really just pursue what I loved to do and what I wanted to put out there. And I was able to make mistakes and then still fix them and become better.
I've heard that advice so many times and because it is literally the best advice, it's partially a fear of failure. You show up and you put yourself out there. So I totally totally agree with that.
When I've had my first month of sales, like we launched in may of 2018. So it was like right around Mother's Day. And my first month of sales, I have $50 worth of sales. And then within a year, I've had months where I've had over $3,500 a month.
The effort you put into your business, what you want to get out of it matters. Consistency over talent every day, consistency, literally dedication.
And just like having that, that winning mindset because honestly we really can do like, we're amazing creatures. We can do anything we set our mind to do. The people who succeed are the ones who never gave up.
There are so many people that have started their own small businesses that are super talented, but fell back a little bit too much on that talent but you need to have a real product and you need to really work hard. I like what you said about like, listen, we started with $50 in the month of sales.
Bootstrapping. It has been honestly like it's been great, honestly. I would work the second shift at my last job. I would formulate from 11 pm until like four or five in the morning.
And now, I have like seven interns who helped me with production, web development, and social media coordination. It takes time… with our generation, we just want that immediate gratification, like, Oh, okay. I started a business yesterday. I should be famous... Great things take time.
What advice would you give for a woman in leadership who now has employees or interns to manage?
Definitely take your time with hiring. Hire slow, fire fast. I never understood that until I started hiring my own people.
You should take your time and do your due diligence to hire people that are going to do like the best and are in your corner.
Really stand behind what you believe in and what you say so that people respect it. Like your word is law in your space. And then also obviously respect your employees too, because they are people they deserve respect and learn to work with different people.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
The lady I look up to outside of my mother is Mae Jemison and she was the first female African American to space with NASA. I got to meet her when I graduated college. I have always been inspired by her resilience and determination to go to space and be at NASA.
What are your goals for this upcoming year?
For this year we plan and to essentially roll out our board of directors for my space laboratory so that we can begin implementing our programs into more public schools, as well as rolling out our subscription boxes before the end of the year,
As far as ForHer cosmetics goes we're in process of solidifying my ADA certification, like government contracting while also just getting everything in order to be on to be on shelves in stores by next year. We want to be in a major retail space next year
In the next year. So that would be so cool. I really like where I know you guys have a website, but are you in any boutiques as well?
ForHer Cosmetics is available on Detroit Is The New Black’s marketplace here in Detroit. We also sell our products through two online websites called Feloh, which is a black owned app and we’re also available on we buy black, which is one of the biggest platforms for black owned businesses.
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