Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. This is a very, very special episode. We are going to be learning a lot today, and especially in the realm of sunscreen and understanding why things are not inclusive in the sunscreen space and how do we make them inclusive. So our guest today is a true expert in this field. She is an innovator. She is a trailblazer, and I am so honored to host her. So please welcome AJ O'Day, who's an award-winning cosmetic chemist and clinical researcher and now soon to be doctor today. So welcome, AJ. Oh my goodness. Thank you for that introduction. Like, I'm flattered. Oh, no, it doesn't do you justice, please. I was like really brief with that, you know, but I could, I could rave about you for hours. I mean, you're so impressive. I want you to tell your story, because I don't want to miss anything. I want you to tell us about what got you into science. Like, honestly, I really want to know. Like, where did you realize, when did you realize in your life? I want to do chemistry. I want to go into science. Walk us to

memory late. Okay. So I'm glad that your question is what got you into science and not necessarily

what got you into beauty because I've worked in cosmetic science labs where there's men, right? No one ever

asked them like, what got you into beauty, right? Like they see them as scientists. And that's kind of

the lens that I think I approach this. Love beauty, though.

I think I've always had ever since I was little, like, kind of a love-hate relationship with beauty,

where I liked the idea of, you know, cosmetics and everything like that. But I think it came from

a perspective of I'm a darker-skinned woman. I have very, like, kinky, coily hair. You know, there are these

things that you grow up with as a dark-skinned, you know, first-generation immigrant child that

just you don't feel like you're tapped in sometimes. And beauty is one, I think, area where a lot of

us kind of feel like we aren't immediately included or tapped in. So that's where my love,

hate relationship started. Even like honestly, to a point where when I was 11, I was writing

articles on, back when WikiHau was was a little early, I was writing articles on Wikihau about like

how to make a, you know, lip balm that complements two, a duotone lips and stuff like that. And those were

hundreds of thousands of views. They had no idea that an 11-year-old was writing. So I think where

the story really begins is, you know, we were just talking about our backgrounds. You're saying

that you grew up with your dad as a professor. My dad was also a professor, and still is. Yeah, he's, I mean, like, to be honest, like, dad, if you're listening, you already know this. So I'm going to say it anyway, it's like, I feel like I don't quite understand what field my dad's, but, you know, it was cool. I grew up close to the academy. And one expectation that my parents had for me was, you're going to go to school and you're going to be an MD. You're going to be a doctor. And that was just so not my vibe. And it still is not my vibe. You know, no offense to doctors, like, y'all are great. But I feel like it's just not my calling. That just wasn't where I felt called. And I'm the type of person where my heart has to be in it for me to show up every day. You know, I went, I still went to

college. I got a biology major. I honestly didn't like most of it. But I went to Northeastern University and like they have this thing called a co-op program where you have to take six months off at a time, you know, once or twice in your whole time

there, for you to go work a full-time job. And I was panicking because everyone around me was doing research and all these things. Meanwhile, I was more artistic. I was a writer. I wanted to be an English major. And I had actually written at the time in college, an article called Why the Beauty industry has failed darker women. And I didn't think anything was going to come of it, but when I

came time to do my co-op, I ended up. an article called Why the Beauty Industry has failed darker women. And I didn't think anything was

going to come of it. But when I came time to do my co-op, I ended up thinking, like, what is a way

for me to merge my biology major and like my artistic endeavors and just things that I'm interested

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