2017 was an important year for Glossier, which meant it was a big year for me, who had no life outside of work. For three years at that point I regularly woke up to texts from my boss from a different time zone, wanting me to look into a new reference she discovered, or edit the Instagram I posted the evening before. I cast models between emails on the train to the office, took lunch meetings in order to eat lunch at all, went home to test new formulas while making photo selects with my ex who shot several campaigns (during and after our breakup—thrilling!), and fell asleep drafting the next Glossier-related Into The Gloss article. There was no escaping the millennial pink world I built all around me.
My job was one of those early-stage startup employee roles, where I got to do everything, while nobody really knew what I did. I was initially hired as an editor for the beauty blog that begot Glossier, Into The Gloss (ITG), thinking it would be great for my career as a Serious Writer once I graduated out of beauty (lol). I was casually told during the interview process that the company would be making products in the future, and I could help if I joined. A few weeks later, between editing a Top Shelf transcription and rushing to a fashion show, I was asked to edit the copy for packaging prototypes, and, by the way, “Who shot the photos for your last article?” Next thing I knew, my aforementioned ex was doing a test shoot for the first Glossier campaign, and much to my surprise, Emily (Weiss) then cast me in the first Glossier campaign. I remember her seeing me draw a storyboard for an ITG video, like the ones my dad used to draw for American Airlines and Long John Silver’s spots. From that moment on, I was doing the same for all of Glossier’s videos, and things continued to snowball from there.
Officially, I was VP of Brand Development, which I’ve since shortened to VP Brand, because I was told titles don’t matter anyway. “Brand storyteller” was a phrase used often to describe what people like me do, which is just a way of mystifying a well-thought marketing and creative strategy. I imagine that Rick Rubin probably shat it out from his meditation pillow while prophesying to some BlackRock consultants on a company retreat, before it made its way into the vernacular of startup MBAs circa 2014.
Marketing is equal parts hyping your product, knowing your audience, and taking the temperature of the room—it’s not rocket science, but it takes consideration and consistency that many startups lack. No brand exists in a vacuum. I owned the editorial calendar, which was the core strategy for how Glossier developed (damn, they got me on that title...). The “editorial” aspect was foundational to the business in the early days, even if it became difficult to maintain as the team evolved and the company divested from its ITG origins. In an effort to underscore this, employees were given “editor” titles no matter the nature of their roles. The intern who assisted with tracking performance and scheduling posts on social channels became the “social media editor,” the retail employees were “showroom editors,” the customer service team (already the “gTEAM”) became “gTEAM editors.” If we hadn’t used an outsourced cleaning company, I’m sure the janitor would have been the “sanitation editor.”
Besides our standing weeklies and all-hours texts, Emily and I would meet every couple of months to update the editorial calendar. We’d strategize the timing of new launches, other major campaigns, and store openings alongside everything else happening in the world (again, we don’t exist in a vacuum). Plans spanned five years out at most, with the near-term being more actionable, yet more prone to changes. Plans would shift for delays with physical product, or Hail Mary promotions to meet quarterly sales goals. Once something was calendarized, I had to then go make it happen.