BONUS. Glinda Isn't Coming. The Power Was Always Ours.

Can beauty be a tool for feminism? It's the question Susannah Dellinger has been asking every guest, every LinkedIn essay, and even Gloria Steinem. In this bonus episode, recorded while traveling, she makes the case that it's completely the wrong question — and proposes the one we should actually be asking instead.

Want to go deeper? Read Susannah's full essay on what happened in that room — and what it means for the industry HERE.

In this episode:

• Why "can beauty be a tool for feminism" is the wrong question — and what we should be asking instead
• Why the beauty industry doesn't need outside validation to know it's a powerful force for good
• How the shadow side of beauty — the weaponization, the correction, the "fix yourself" marketing — doesn't define the industry, and never has
• Why beauty as identity is as old as humanity itself — from ancient Egypt to powdered wigs in European courts
• Why telling a 10-year-old girl who loves makeup that she should want to be president instead is its own form of erasure
• Why makeup is fine art — and dismissing beauty is dismissing art
• How a half-trillion dollar industry is already funding reforestation, neonatal centers, and female empowerment globally
• The Wizard of Oz moment: why Glinda isn't coming — and the power has been ours the entire time

Chapters:

00:49 Can Beauty Be a Tool for Feminism? I've Been Asking the Wrong Question. 

02:12 Stop Waiting for Permission to Say Beauty Matters 

03:31 Yes, the Beauty Industry Has a Shadow Side. Here's How We Hold Both. 

04:17 Beauty as Identity — From Ancient Egypt to Now 

05:59 It's Not About Equality. It's About Equity. 

06:26 Stop Telling Girls Who Love Beauty They Should Want to Be President Instead 

06:58 Makeup Is Fine Art. Ask Pat McGrath. Ask Laura Mercier. 

08:04 The Question We Should Actually Be Asking 

08:35 How a Half-Trillion Dollar Industry Is Already Changing the World 

09:27 We're Done Waiting for Outside Validation. The Power Was Always Ours. 

10:15 Glinda Isn't Coming. We Have the Power Within Us. 

11:38 How Do We Amplify What's Already Happening? 

12:05 A Personal Note — and a Rally Cry

Off the Shelf is a podcast about the people, brands, and behind-the-scenes forces shaping the beauty industry — money, relationships, risk, and what it really takes to scale.

CONNECT WITH SUSANNAH

Instagram: @brightbeautyconnect

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/susannah-dellinger

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

This is Off the Shelf, where we take the most iconic beauty brands, products, and people in the beauty industry off the shelf and examine the stories behind the story. It's where beauty is treated like the economic, cultural, and power-building force it really is. I'm Susanna Dellinger, and here we're going to talk about what really shapes the industry, who holds the power, how the decisions get made, and what it actually takes to build, scale, and quite frankly, survive in beauty. These are the conversations happening behind closed doors about money, relationships, risks, and cult moments. If you're building, breaking through, or trying to understand how beauty really works, or just love a really good story, you're in the right place. Can beauty be a tool for feminism? That's a question that I've been asking recently every guest on this podcast, that I have been addressing in LinkedIn essays, and that I even asked a feminist icon at a recent event. It is a selfish question, I suppose that I was asking, because I believe, as anybody who's listened to this podcast knows, that absolutely beauty can be a tool for what I consider to be feminist. I consider the ability to live the full expression of our existence as a woman to be the greatest feminist act we can be. I consider the fact that we would not have to choose something we love that brings joy and makes us feel great and is a form of expression against being a quote unquote good feminist. I consider not having to choose to be the most powerful freedom of all. I consider joy, laughter, art, and again, self-expression, identity to all be some of our greatest moments as a human that we can live. However, I've been asking the wrong question. Can beauty be a tool for feminism is completely irrelevant. Because who are we waiting on to say yes? As an industry and as individuals, we get to decide if we want to use something as a tool for something we believe in, if we want to use a half a trillion dollar industry to better the planet, to better the experience for those in it here on the earth. If we want to choose the beauty industry to mean something, to help people, we can and we are, and it's already happening. We do not have to seek validation from anybody else saying, yes, beauty is worthy, yes, beauty is meaningful, yes, beauty matters, yes, beauty is important. We don't need anybody's permission to decide that, yeah, we think beauty is great. Now I want to back up, and I want to make sure that I am addressing the very real fact that the beauty industry, of course, has been weaponized in many ways against women, against many people, not just women, um, over decades, if not centuries. It is something that can be used to make you feel less than, to be used to make you feel like you need to buy something to fix something about yourself. And we we we know the shadow side to this all too well. That is corporations weaponizing an industry for something in their gain. But that does not define the beauty industry, right? Beauty has been a form of expression and identity for as long as it has existed. It is the ancient Egyptians used coal eyeliners and all sorts of different earth materials to express themselves. Even if we look back in, you know, early centuries of European Parliament, even men or the powdered wigs and the powdered faces, and people in court in England, you know, men even had painted lips. It was a way to express identity, it was a way to express belonging. It always has been. I know that beauty for me in my life has been a tool of identity. Feminism is defined as the belief that women should have social, economic, and political equality to men. Beauty as a tool for feminism is nothing about equality to me. It's about equity. It's about an equitable experience on the planet. I I fundamentally reject the belief that we are all in search of an equal experience to the male experience. I don't, I don't, that doesn't, that's not how I view my expression here on this planet at this time. I want to live a fully expressed version of myself in what people would consider a feminine expression. I love being a woman, and I do not think it is anti-feminist to love being myself. I love everything about being a woman. I love the ability to express myself through beauty. I love beauty in nature. I love art for the sake of art. I want to have an experience on the planet where I have the same rights and the same abilities as anybody else. However, I do not think we should dismiss somebody who would love the beauty industry and doesn't want to be the president. To tell a bunch of 10-year-old girls when asking about beauty that it's not important, that instead they can be president invalidates a 10-year-old girl who does not want to be president, who does not find that interesting, who does not find that to be aligned with their unique skill sets and their expression of who they are. Maybe they love art, maybe they view makeup as an artistic medium, as so many of the great makeup artists of our time have. Makeup is a forum of fine art. Ask Laura Mercier, right? Ask Kevin O'Quan, ask so many of the world's best makeup artists, ask Pat McGrath. Makeup is a fine art. Makeup is an expression of art. To say makeup is not important, to say that the beauty industry is not important, to say that beauty, just period, beauty is unimportant. It is saying art is unimportant. Imagine going to a world-class art gallery or art museum and seeing works of art and saying, these have no point. Art does not have a point. Imagine seeing a beautiful blooming flower or a gorgeous peacock that has so many different colors and textures, and none of it has anything to do with the use of peacock. It's just gorgeous to be gorgeous. It's a beautiful expression. I say all of this because when I asked the question, I was asking the wrong question. The question is not, can beauty be a tool for feminism? That's not the right question. The question is: if we want to make the planet a better place and a better experience for everybody who walks in it, including women, can we use beauty and the industry as a tool to do that? And the answer is a resounding hell yes, we can, and we are waiting on no one for permission to do so. So many beauty companies already participate in amazing programs that help to give back to third world countries. There's buy one, give one programs, there's one percent, there's one tree planted. There are so many different international organizations that the billions and billions of dollars that move through the beauty industry have done reforestation. They have helped to support different communities in third world countries. I personally have used revenue of my own agency in beauty to fund the first ever Neonatal Center in Uganda, partially. I was very, very proud to be able to do that in 2024. There are so many things that we can do with the money in beauty that help social, economic, and political advancements for equity for women. We are no longer needing to wait for somebody to say that this is worthy. We are no longer waiting for somebody to say that beauty is serious. I'm done asking the question. And I think we, as the beauty industry, need to be done waiting for outside validation that our industry is powerful. We already know our industry is a powerful force. I have done plenty of my own podcasts about that. There are plenty of other resources out there. Our industry generates almost a half a trillion dollars a year. That money makes a difference in the world. Sometimes not a great difference. However, my question has been how can we all come together within the industry to make sure we can make as much change for good with what we have? That's my question. Let's talk about it. Um, is because it is because I myself was waiting for validation. I myself was asking the question. I myself was waiting to have this moment where people outside the industry said, yes, this matters. Yes, this is important, and to have that be the catalyst for the world of beauty to get it together and realize what a powerful force we are. It's very much like Wizard of Oz. I was waiting for Glinda to come tell us. Dorothy, you've had the power within you the entire time. Glinda's not coming. We need to realize and wake up. We have had the power within us the entire time. It is up to us what we want to do with this industry. And I am so excited for the many women and even the fans that I've had conversations with and met along this journey who have such incredible things planned, who are already doing amazing things. Even the largest company in beauty, L'Oreal, has amazing initiatives for female founders. Some of the biggest retailers out there have initiatives for female founded brands. Some of the biggest investment firms in beauty have their own commitments for what they're wanting to do with female-founded and BIPOC brands. The conversations are happening. It's already happening. I hope now that we can switch, and I'm switching to the question of what can I do to help amplify it even more? What can we do to make this the best version of our industry we possibly can? Those are the conversations I'm excited to continue to have. And believe me, now that we know the powers within us and we're not waiting on an external source of validation, ooh, this is gonna be fun, honey. I know I, for one, walked out of a living room, a completely different person. A person who is now so excited to meet herself. I am so excited on a personal note that what has happened has taught me that I've held it within me the entire time. I don't need anybody else to tell me it's a good idea to use the beauty industry for good. It's a freaking fantastic idea. And I was not the first one to have it, but I am the person who continuously is going to annoy everybody and keep on bringing it up and bringing the conversation back around to it and being that annoying cheerleader in the back of your corner, going, you can do this. Let's go. Let's go. These conversations matter because who gets to speak shapes who gets to win. If this episode challenged how you see beauty, business, or the power behind the industry, share it with someone who needs to hear it. To connect or explore more, check the show notes. I'm Susanna Dellinger, and this has been off the show.