Glam, Los Angeles.

Hi, Kirby.

Hi, Sarah.

Welcome to Los Angeles.

In 2020, the beauty industry underwent a revolution of sorts. Black-owned brands became a much-needed, albeit long-overdue priority.

Movements like Pull Up for Change encouraged brands to share what percentage of their business,

employed black workers, and many brands whose focus was specifically on highlighting black skin

were launched, supported, and celebrated. However, in the last year, we have seen a wave of hurdles

coming for black-owned businesses and DEI initiatives. We're seeing it in other industries as well.

Top chief diversity officers at entertainment companies were said to be leaving their jobs, quote unquote, last year

in a Wall Street Journal story titled The Rise and Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer.

It was recently reported that 13 Loon, a retailer that highlights minority-owned brands,

owes thousands of dollars to brands under its umbrella and their partner, J.C. Penny,

was restructuring the partnership as a result.

And the Fearless Fund, the black women-owned venture capital firm backing early-stage businesses

owned by women of color, including the beauty and wellness brands like Brown Girl Jane,

live-tinted, bread beauty supply, and more, was indefinitely barred from deploying a program last year that doles out

$20,000 of grants to black female entrepreneurs. So what is happening and what can we do about it?

Today we have We the People founder Karen Young, who recently shared a video suggesting your

favorite black-owned beauty brands may shut down this year if things don't change.

Karen, we are so thrilled to have you on the podcast so that we can really dive into this topic.

But before we get into the meat of it, we want to know what is on your face or on your body or on

...