The People's Gloss

How did a blogger named Emily Weiss build Glossier, a beauty brand so instantly beloved that its waiting list grew 10,000 people deep? By doing what her competitors wouldn’t: She listened. To everyone.

- Alyssa Giacobbe

ON A THURSDAY AFTERNOON in late spring, 32-yearold Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss rides the elevator to the penthouse level of her company’s downtown Manhattan headquarters. She’s a thoroughly millennial girlboss in jeans, sneakers, and a royal blue sweatshirt with weiss embroidered in small white script. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and for the founder of a beauty products company, she wears notably little makeup— just some mascara and possibly a swipe of Glossier Lip Gloss,a recent product release touted online as having a “fuzzy doefoot applicator.”

A former teen model, Weiss is beautiful but not intimidating, either by nature or by design (probably a little of both). After all, her company’s popularity is directly related to her ability to cultivate a feeling of friendship with and among her customers. Just enough relatability is key. 

In the elevator, a short woman in her 50s turns to chat her up. 

“Do you work here?” she asks.

“I do!” exclaims Weiss. 

“People really love it, I hear,” says the woman. “It’s my first visit.

I work around the corner. I’m Elizabeth.”