What a Mohs Surgeon Learned in the OR That Led Her to Build a Skincare Brand for Teens

On She Built It®, Dr. Angela Casey, double board-certified dermatologist, micrographic surgeon, residency program director, and founder of Bright Girl Skincare, shares why the patients she operates on every day inspired her to build a consumer brand for teens.

After years of treating skin cancers that could have been prevented with early habits, Dr. Casey created Bright Girl: a clinically tested, clean skincare line designed to build consistent daily routines in teens and tweens. She walks through the three-year R&D process, how she bootstrapped without outside capital, the challenges of marketing a brand she believed in, and how she balances being a surgeon, professor, mom of three daughters, and founder. 

This conversation is a masterclass in building with purpose, starting with proof, and leading a mission-driven business without a business degree.

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Bright Girl Website

Bright Girl LinkedIn

Bright Girl Instagram

Bright Girl YouTube

Dr. Angela Casey LinkedIn

Center for Surgical Dermatology

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Sun damage is accumulated over a lifetime, and the large majority of that starts in the childhood and teenage years. I can't call myself a health care provider if I don't care enough to get out there and make a difference. And that was the inspiration for Bright Girls Skincare and creating a brand that spoke to and was tailored towards our youth and teaches them those important and consistent daily habits while giving them ingredients and formulations that are appropriate for their skin and an elevated experience with using them.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I'm Melanie Barr. Welcome back to the Cheeble Tip Podcast, your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you create. I'm here to talk about everything from having the courage to make life and career leads to the details of how to lead effectively, create successful teams, implement strategies for growth, and infuse tech innovation. I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges. I live in the city now, but I grew up in a town of a thousand people. I've navigated major life leads, a senior-level corporate career, worked in professional sports, and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business, technology, family, and making meaningful connections with you and the She-Vilted community. I also love a good workout and dose of self-care. Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy. So turn up the audio, open your favorite notes app, grab your favorite drink, and here we go. Welcome to She-Vilted. I'm your host, Melanie Barr. Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Casey. It's my pleasure to be here, Melanie. Thank you so much for the invitation. You operate on skin cancer every day. What did you see in the OR that made you decide to build a consumer brand?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

It wasn't what I was seeing, but it was also what I was hearing from my patients on a daily basis. And that common refrain from them was, Dr. Casey, I wish I had known. I wish I could go back and get a do-over on my skincare from my teens and my childhood years, but we just didn't know any better. We just didn't have sunscreen. We just weren't educated. So every day I'm hearing this. And in my own life, I am raising three teen and tween daughters with my amazing husband. And I am seeing them struggle and the confusion on what skincare brands are appropriate for their skin, seeking brands that they connect with and they're excited about. So there was this gap and mismatch. All of the damage that I am treating in my office today did not start one or two years ago. It started when those patients were young, so many decades ago. And I know that sun damage is accumulated over a lifetime. And the large majority of that starts in the childhood and teenage years. I can't call myself a health care provider if I don't care enough to get out there and make a difference. And that was the inspiration for Bright Girls Skincare and creating a brand that spoke to and was tailored towards our youth and teaches them those important and consistent daily habits while giving them ingredients and formulations that are appropriate for their skin and an elevated experience with using them.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

I had a moment where I was seeing a dermatologist myself. My twins were three at the time. She said to me, I have to go tell a teenager that they have skin cancer. And that comment stuck with me. And I live in California. I have twins, they play soccer and baseball, no basketball where it's indoors or volleyball. So we're outside all the time. And so I'm always thinking about that. And it's good to know about products that are healthy to put on their skin.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

It's definitely a pain point for parents too, in that they go to beauty retailers and there are thousands of brands to choose from. They go on Amazon and then their children are watching social media and getting recommendations from influencers. We live in a day and age where we are bombarded with too many options. And when we can provide a solution as a brand for parents of products and formulations that are safe, that have been clinically tested in teenage skin that are proven effective, and that we can make that brand really fun and exciting and such a luxurious experience for teens because they are a super fickle audience. If you do not exceed their expectations, they're not going to come back. So you have to incorporate all of those things. But when you get them hooked on those good, healthy habits, it's such a win for us as parents. We were just on vacation down at the beach in North Carolina. And the number of sunburns that I saw on the beach in individuals of all ages is heartbreaking. I'm sure you see it in California as well. We're still in an era where there are lots of individuals who are not taking these practices to heart and they are not taking that extra moment to put on their sunscreen or use sun protected behaviors. So it is an opportunity to educate and do better for future generations.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

And I was about to put a message on the mirror of my kids' rooms that says, put on sunscreen because they're getting older. And so now they're going to practice by themselves on their bike. And I'm thinking about that right now, particularly, how do I instill that habit in them? And like you said, with a brand that that's fun that makes them want to put it on.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

You have to deliver formulations that feel so good on their skin, make their skin look so healthy that are easy to apply. And then you have to have it stack it. So you have to make it very available to them. Maybe that is putting the sunscreen next to their toothbrush, maybe it's putting it in their gym bag or their athletic bag, putting it by the door that they walk out of on their way out of the house every day. But when you make it very available and take a moment to talk about it with them, they never want to listen to what we tell them. But when we model that behavior ourselves, they're sponges. They take it in and they'll start to implement those behaviors. But we have to walk the walk also as parents and really make sure that we're carving out time for that quote unquote self-care, which is just implementing these healthy habits daily.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You are a surgeon, a residency director, a clinical professor, and now a founder. Tell us more about who you are and what Bright Girl is.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I am a double board certified dermatologist and micrographic dermatologic surgeon. And as you alluded to earlier, Melanie, what that means is that in my practice, I am treating skin cancers surgically every day through a procedure called MOS micrographic surgery. Patients come in the office with skin cancers, typically on the head and neck area, is where we're employing MOS because of its superior cure rate and ability to spare as much healthy skin as possible, which is very critical in areas like the nose, lips, eyelids, et cetera. I surgically remove the skin cancer. I bring that piece of skin that I've removed to our lab where it's processed so I can look at it under the microscope. That allows me to map out all the cancer cells. And it also gives me that perspective at looking at skin at the microscopic level every day, which is fascinating because it tells the story of that patient's life. What does the collagen look like? How much pigmentation is there, the elastic fibers, the blood vessels, all of these factors that present an appearance of our skin. Once the cancer is cleared, I then return to the patient and perform reconstructive surgery. And that's what I do in my practice every day. As part of that, I'm also teaching and training the next generation of dermatology residents through Ohio Health. And I love the privilege of being part of shaping the future of our specialty. And I learn so much from them. They definitely keep me on my toes. And I hope that they're learning a lot from me as well. And then, as you mentioned, my other roles are being a mom to our three teen and tween daughters and also running Bright Girl Skin Care. I could not do all of these things without a village of people because it truly takes a village. My husband, my nanny, a lot of other experts in the aspects that I am not good at. Everybody that I work with, my nurses, an admin team, et cetera. And that's what makes it possible to juggle all of these roles.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

I love seeing the passion behind what you do. Teen skincare is crowded and largely unregulated. How do you build trust with parents and teens in a market full of products that are not always backed by science?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

My role as a dermatologist and MOS surgeon certainly lends credibility. So that's the first point. Then my role as mom of three teen and tween daughters certainly gives me that mom perspective and allows other moms to connect with me on that level. And then it is a matter of getting validation in the marketplace at large. What we did with Bright Girl is we underwent three years of research and development before we even launched the brand. So that involved pulling white papers, clinical research, looking at ingredients, deep diving, really selecting benchmark products that are the best of the best that we use in dermatology and using those as our standards and incorporating all of that into creating this brand. Beyond that, then we need to assemble a team of the best cosmetic chemists and brand designers and packaging experts, marketing PR. After we launched the brand following three years of research and development, so this was in 2022, we initially went direct to consumer, which I would recommend for any of your audience members that are testing a concept, wanting to launch a consumer product, because that is going to give you the feedback and help shape the trajectory of your brand. After getting proof of concept and validation from that audience, we then went to the dermatologists themselves. And dermatologists are the most skeptical and discerning and pickiest audience when it comes to skincare. As one myself, I will tell you, we get pitched by skincare brands every week and we say no to most of them. But the dermatologists were really embracing this concept. They were loving the Bright Girl products. They were recommending them to their patients and to their own children. And they saw the difference in what we had created with these very elevated formulations, clean ingredient selection, so no parabens, sulfate, phthalates, none of the common allergens. And most importantly, they were seeing the adoption of this brand in the teen, tween, and college age patient population. And in dermatology, compliance is one of the biggest obstacles we face. Products do not work if you don't use them. And we struggle with compliance in our patients. When you give them a brand that they love to use every day, that's a win. And through those habits, they're going to reach their skin health goals. So expert validation that then led to us launching into retail. And now we're available at Nordstrom, Macy's, Beauty Space, which has put us into Walmart, Amazon, and TikTok shop, to name a few. But what has worked in launching this brand, getting that traction that was needed and setting us apart from so many others on the market.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Walk us through an early business decision that you made of how to build and fund Bright Girl and a challenge that you were able to overcome.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

There were many challenges. The first of which is the fact that I have no formal business training. I was a molecular biology and mathematics major at Vanderbilt University. I then went straight to medical school, straight to residency and fellowship and into practice. So at no point in my journey did I take anything other than the most basic accounting class that was required for graduation. I share that because if I can do it, anyone who's listening out there can do it. You do not need a business degree or formal business background to make something a go. In terms of funding, we actually bootstrapped this brand from the beginning. So we have not taken any outside capital. We've been self-funded. So that meant taking a portion of our savings and committing it to this passion project, as my husband and I like to call it, but with a real clarity of how we were going to allocate those funds, what that journey looked like. And the biggest challenge that we had that I didn't anticipate is that I always thought if we built a really beautiful brand and it was so far above and beyond others on the market that consumers would flock to us and want to buy this. And I went in very naively and with blind optimism, with that mentality of if we build it, they will come. And that was so far from the case. And you're nodding because I'm sure you've heard that many times. But I did not fully appreciate the amount of marketing, brand awareness, the social media, PR, all of those aspects that go into making a successful brand. I did not anticipate how costly that would be, and that the larger we became, and we've seen our sales continue to rise year over year, and we continue to see our expenses rise year over year as we're supporting this business. How did we overcome that with a lot of research, some trial and error, and failing fast with the aspects of building the brand that did not work? So it was like a quick, let's cut ties, let's not keep going for another six months or a year. And then latching on to those aspects that were successful, like going into more dermatology practices, door-to-door sales, connecting with aestheticians and skin health experts, connecting with moms, influencers. Those were the things that were working and not nearly as costly as running meta-ads or having a lot of PR opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yes. And you did the toughest work, which is building a product that you believe in and that you know will help people. And the marketing and the sales now can come after that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

And I can stand by that 100% because we ran full IRB-approved clinical trials. So it's not just a nice story of a cute product that looks pretty in a package. We can fall back on the data, which for us as physicians, as scientists, really propels us forward and legitimizes a brand. And you are so right, Melanie. For any founders, being so clear on the mission, to me, it's so obvious because in my practice, as I mentioned, I'm seeing damage that started decades ago. And I know that almost 90% of that damage could have been prevented with good habits from a young age. So to me, it's very obvious. The challenge is then educating the public at large that this is a problem we can solve and that we can have an impact on the skin cancer epidemic.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

You are a practicing surgeon, program director, professor, and founder. What systems and boundaries has made it possible for you to lead at that level?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

A lot of help, as I mentioned earlier. And I know you had Georgia on recently, who spoke about knowing our limits as founders and when to delegate. And it is definitely a flaw that most of us founders have that we feel like we need to do everything. But from an early point in launching this business, I realized where my expertise lay and where I was limited in my knowledge, ability, or bandwidth to complete certain tasks. So first and foremost is really being able to assemble the team that is going to lift all boats. So that rising tide that's going to lift all boats with the right people, with the right expertise, and having the humility as a founder to step back and say, I can't do it all. So that's first and foremost. Secondly, I've had to learn to say no to obligations that don't fulfill my purpose as a mom, as a surgeon, or as a founder, outsourcing a lot of that as much as I can. And that includes things like driving my kids to sports practice or picking them up for school, some of the household things, it does not fill my cup. And I would rather hire somebody to fulfill those tasks to free me up, to spend quality time with my family, to dedicate time to my patients and to work on Bright Girls. I'm a big believer in self-care. So I know you can relate with me on that and carving out time every day. I do it every day. I make time to work out or take a walk. I make time to read a book. Those are the things that really fill my cup and give me energy. And then time blocking. So I will schedule things like organize closets from 4 to 5 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon or pack for our upcoming trip from 1 to 2 p.m. on Sunday just to formalize it so it's there. And then when the time comes, it's, oh yeah, this is my time to get it done and not procrastinate.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I'm smiling because I can so relate to everything you just said. And it's amazing. If you time block for 20 minutes and you do it for a week, you'll accomplish it by the end of the week.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

One important lesson I've learned, you don't have to tackle the whole thing. If you organize one drawer and that's all you get done, you've done something. You don't have to go through the whole desk or the whole closet.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

It's so satisfying. One little space to accomplish that one space. And if you do one drawer a day, I'm constantly telling myself that as a busy mom and founder myself. Such good advice. Thank you for joining us today. Please share with us how and where we can find Bright Girl and connect with you.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Visit us on our website at brightgirl.com, B-R-I-G-H-T-G-I-R-L. On social media, you can follow us at Bright GirlBeauty.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Thank you for joining us today. I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me at hello at shebuilt it.com on our She Built It website or at She Built It on Social. Thank you to my editor, Rich Dreffolino, who always makes us sound good. Until next time, let nothing stop you from experiencing effectively business that you crave.