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

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The bombshell expos that revealsfor the first timeexactly what happened at Glossier, one of Americas hottest and most consequential startups, and dives deep into the enigmatic, visionary woman responsible for it all.

Called one of the most disruptive brands in beauty by Forbes, Glossier revolutionized the beauty industry with its sophisticated branding and unique approach to influencer marketing, almost-instantly making the company a juggernaut with rabid fans lining up for a chance to buy its coveted products. It also taught a generation of business leaders how to talk to Millennial and Gen Z customers and build a cult following online.

At the center of the story lies Emily Weiss, the elusive former Teen Vogue superintern on the reality show The Hills turned Into the Gloss beauty blogger who had the vision, guts, and searing ambition needed to launch Glossier. She cannily turned every experience, every meeting into an opportunity to fuel her own personal success. Together with her expensive, signature style and singular vision for the future of consumerism, she could not be stopped. Just how did a girl from suburban Connecticut with no real job experience work her way into the bathrooms and boudoirs of the most influential names in the world and build that access into a 1.9-billion-dollar business Is she solely responsible for its success And why, eight years later, at the height of Glossier mania, did she step down

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 Glossiers culture, culminating in the story of Weiss herself. The Devil Wears Prada for the Bad Blood generation, Glossy is a gripping portrait of not just one of the most important business leaders of her generation, but also a chronicle of an era.

Reviews

"[A] delicious character portrait of Glossier visionary Emily Weiss... The book bursts with expansive interviews, from ex-Glossier employees, fashion visionaries, and Weiss herself."
Bustle, 35 Best New Books of Fall 2023

"A piquant, deeply reported history of the brand."
Vanity Fair

"A bombshell expos and study of corporate feminism that reveals for the first time what exactly has gone down at Glossier under the leadership of Emily Weiss."
The Millions, Most Anticipated 2023

"Meltzer's reporting is fantastic... I devoured this."
Grace Atwood,The Stripe

A striking attempt to capture the founder as a human in all her complexity, operating within a system that leaves little room for failure and is quick to criticize.
Emily Singer,Chips + DipsSubstack

"Multi-tasks as highly readable brand memoir, founder manualand21st century history of the business of beauty."
Navaz Batliwalla,Disneyrollergirl

Delivering behind-the-scenes intel a beauty and fashion tell-all.
Booklist

"Lean-instyle feminists and fashionistas alike will revel in the rise of this woman-led business."
Publishers Weekly
"Meltzer's book is replete with the refreshing sparkle you'd expect to find in one of Glossier's moisturizers. This is the portrait of a female CEO we've been sorely lacking."
Tina Brown, New York Times bestselling author ofThe Palace Papers
"Marisa Meltzer knows the Glossier story better than any other journalist. This lively corporate tale illuminates the rise of a beauty business juggernaut and helps us understand an entire erawhen a bit of hype and chutzpah could turn a simple idea into a billion-dollar business."
Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser
"Marisa Meltzer crafts the delicious story of Glossier's extraordinary rise with the same rapid pace as its explosive growthboth as a company and a cultural force. Once you start this book, you will not be able to stop."
Amy Odell, New York Times bestselling author of Anna
A deeply reported, cinematic tale about an ambitious woman who navigated a treacherous business world to build a billion-dollar beauty empire. Marisa Meltzer has written this generationsDevil Wears Pradaonly its all true.
Jessica Pressler, journalist and author of the adapted features "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" and "The Hustlers at Scores" (New York Magazine)
"I was always thirsty for an insidery exegesis of the ever-elusive Emily Weiss and her proverbially 'cool-girl' Glossier empire. What atreat that this vivid, first-of-its-kindaccount now actually exists. Meltzer is a sharp, intimate narrator who has penned a devourable story of ambition,beauty, gender, and capitalismtold with all the juiciness and sparkling clarity of (dare I say it) the titular brand's Balm Dot Com."
Amanda Montell, bestselling author ofCultish
Praise for This Is Big

In this memoir-nonfiction hybrid, Meltzer skillfully blends her own extensive dieting history with the life story of Jean Nidetch, the Queens housewife who founded Weight Watchers in 1963 and helped to create diet culture as we know it today.
Vogue

"A triumphant chronicle... Meltzer has created singular companionate text for those who know the agony of frustration surrounding weight as an issue, both personal and political. Acerbic, culturally astute and genuine, [Meltzer] makes exquisite company in the struggle."
New York Times

"[This] brilliant book tells the story of thinness obsession through the lives of two women-Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers, and Meltzer herself."
Glamour

"Meltzer looks at her own pursuit of weight loss and uses it to illuminate our culture's relentless focus on thinness."
Washington Post

"This is Big...[finds] in Nidetch both a genuine pioneer - a woman who built a massive culture-defining business at a time when women couldn't even have their own credit cards - and a representative of many ideas about weight and health that are as destructive as they are enduring."
Vanity Fair

"Not a memoir of radical self-acceptance or saccharine inspiration, but a candid - at times dark - look at what it means to be an overweight woman in 2020."
Los Angeles Times

"Meltzer writes movingly of her own struggles with having a body, but her experiment isn't the exclusive focus of the book: It also chronicles the life of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch, whose vaudevillian comic timing, retrograde ideas about fat and happiness, and unconcealed desire for fame and connection make her a fascinating subject."
Vox

"If you've ever been critical of diets, diet companies, and diet culture in the past, you're going to love what Meltzer has to offer here."
Bustle

"This heartfelt, incisive book layers the story of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch with the author's own lifelong journey through various fad diets. What emerges is a surprising portrait of a remarkable but little-known life in business, as well as a thoughtful critique of America's obsession with thinness."
Esquire

Author Bio

Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in New York whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and more. She is the author of Glossy and three previous books. Find out more at MarisaMeltzer.com.