If you’ve been following cocokind for awhile, you know that promoting self acceptance and self “enoughness” has always been important to us. It’s a huge reason why I started this brand. Back in the day when I had severe acne, the state of my skin impacted me emotionally and psychologically way more than it impacted me physically. I remember canceling plans, feeling too upset to go outside, and unsuccessfully applying layers and layers of makeup to hide my skin. When I would buy expensive makeup and skincare to try to “fix” my skin, I would feel even worse. Every image I saw showed someone who seemed cooler than me with skin that I would never, ever have. The beauty industry symbolized the opposite of fun for me - it made me feel terrible.
So much so, that when I first started cocokind, I didn’t tell most people in my personal life about my plans. I was too embarrassed to say out loud that I was starting a skincare company, especially since I still had significant breakouts, textured skin, and deep acne scars. When I would do demos at Whole Foods, I wouldn’t tell most people that I was the actual founder! I thought that my skin would deter people from being interested in cocokind. To make matters worse, I have a deep memory of going to a “start up and investor meet up” and having a guy come in close to physically examine my skin after I told him I had a new skincare brand. After that, I decided that while I would keep trying to build this brand, I would only be behind the scenes.
What changed for me over the past almost decade? When Instagram stories first launched, we had a small following, and I would go on stories (which felt lower stakes), and show my real skin. Every time I did this, it was a personal challenge. However, I would get so many DMs from customers saying they appreciated me showing my actual breakouts and making them feel not alone. These DMs made it easier and easier for me to show up, as I was, in front of our customers. You gave me the confidence to show my real skin – I was still uncomfortable with it, but I had a really good reason now to be the image of real beauty that I, myself, had never seen.
I share with you this background to provide context on why this cause is so important to us. For the forseeable future, cocokind will be dedicating ourselves to improving the younger generation’s mental and physical health as it relates to skin and body positivity. I am desperate to advocate for this, especially in the age of social media.
At the worst time of my physical insecurities, social media didn’t really exist in the way that it does today. I cannot imagine how much worse I would have felt if it did. Whether it is subconsciously or consciously, we are taking in images every day that are telling us “what is beauty”. Social media leads to comparison; comparison prevents us from celebrating all that makes us unique and uniquely beautiful. When we surveyed our customers last year, out of 20,000 people who participated, 82% said they compare themselves to what they see on social media.
Furthermore, in a survey conducted by Parents Together, their research showed that:
-61% of teens said beauty filters make them feel worse about their appearance
-63% of teens said they use beauty filters to "look more beautiful"
-56% of teens said they use beauty filters to “hide the characteristics they don’t like”
-Teens who use beauty filters at least weekly are 2x as interested in cosmetic surgery than those who use filters less frequently.
The cocokind team believes that there is so much we can do to make the online space a safer place for the next generation, whether it’s getting people to not use filters, asking other beauty brands to not use photoshop on skin, or creating courses to educate on how to practice critical thinking before we absorb images from social media.
Fighting against this is core to who we are at cocokind, and I’m so excited for everything that we’ll do together.
For now, I’d like to introduce you to our non-profit partner this Giving Tuesday: The Body Positive. The Body Positive is a local Bay Area non-profit and an online education platform that trains people and educators with practical skills to support themselves with self-compassion, an attuned relationship to the body, sustainable self-care behaviors, and positive connection with others. For 28 years, they have taken on this health crisis, helping more than a million people worldwide reclaim their health, beauty, and confidence to live full, happy lives. Today, for Giving Tuesday, we’re donating all proceeds from our website to The Body Positive. Beyond today, we have many exciting things we’ll develop together with this incredible organization, and we are so thankful for your support of the impact we are determined to have.
Thank you for your support over the years!
-P