Empathy, Vulnerability and Social Responsibility: Jenn Harper’s Journey to Cheekbone Beauty
In 2014, Jenn Harper woke up suddenly from a dream in which young, Indigenous girls were wearing brightly coloured lip-gloss. This vision may seem insignificant to some, but for Jenn it was undeniable; this was the beginning of Cheekbone Beauty—Canada’s only sustainable, vegan cosmetics brand dedicated to making sure every Indigenous youth sees themselves and their value in the world.
Jenn’s personal journey to what would become Cheekbone is as inspiring as it is heartbreaking. An Ojibwe Canadian raised by a white mother and often absent father, Jenn struggled with her identity for decades, and was constantly aware of a deep pain she couldn’t quite place. As she would come to explain to audiences around the nation,
“Trans-generational trauma happens when one generation (my grandparents) are not equipped to deal with a pain (the residential school system) which is then passed onto the next generation (my father), and ultimately passed on to today’s generation (me).”
Although Jenn herself did not attend a residential school, her grandmother suffered extreme physical and mental abuse at the hand of that system—never fully healing, and passing on her pain to her children and grandchildren. As Jenn explains, this is the unfortunate reality for multiple Indigenous families across Canada (and the United States), as trans-generational trauma results in epidemics of broken homes, identity crisis, and addiction.
After finally learning about the residential school system and the long history of abuse to Indigenous peoples in Canada, Jenn began her own journey of healing in her 30s. In 2014 she beat her addiction to alcohol—representing just 5% of addicts who recover—and reconnected with her father and her siblings. Later, in 2015 she spoke to her brother, BJ, about her plans for a socially responsible, sustainable beauty brand. He said:
“Jenn, our people need hope. Especially the children. And what you’re doing is going to be great.” – BJ
Sadly, in 2016 tragedy struck Jenn’s life once more, when BJ suddenly took his own life. In Jenn’s words: “The pain of losing my brother is a constant companion and daily reminder of why I need to work so hard. At Cheekbone Beauty our goal is that every Indigenous kid on the planet sees their enormous value in the world.”
For years, Jenn kept her personal story, and the drive behind her business to herself. However, after sharing with a few close friends, Jenn saw the enormous value in connecting with others through vulnerability and story-telling. She says:
“It’s a personal story, and it’s painful. It’s not an easy story to tell. But one of the first times I told it publicly, a student at the end came to me crying. She had this long blonde beautiful hair and big blue eyes and she said, ‘I’m Métis, and my family never told anyone because of the shame you were talking about.’ In that moment I realised—if this has affected one person—then I’m doing a good job. Vulnerability is really powerful because it’s healing. I’ve never had deeper connections with other humans since I’ve started telling this story.”
Last month we were honoured to host Jenn as a guest on The51 Presents. We are moved by her story and grateful for her time in answering many of our audience’s questions. Here is Jenn, in her own words, responding to a few of the questions posed during the webinar:
Bring us to current day. What’s going on with Cheekbone right now?
Oh my goodness. A lot. It’s insane! We just had our second official board meeting; we didn’t have a board until the end of last year. It’s been an incredible experience because as many solo-preneurs know, when you’re running a business you do everything on your own. But now, hearing the input of other people who can help is incredible. Today we’re focused on strategy—the business itself is growing really, really quickly.
Where is your product being manufactured?
We use two manufacturing facilities in Toronto. One completely shut down during COVID and has just reopened, the other is still going, but at a much smaller scale. To give you an idea of the impact COVID has had, I’ll give you an example: Doritos. Whoever makes Doritos usually makes lots of different flavours. But, because of COVID, for the last few months they could only make the three top-selling flavours. And lots of Dorito-lovers were wondering, “where are the Cool Ranch Doritos?” It just shows the capacity of manufacturing facilities. As a small brand, Cheekbone Beauty is not on the main priority list for many of our suppliers and manufacturers, however, we are proud of our great relationships.
I would love to learn more about your Pink Feather Campaign.
Early on I really wanted to find some way to say “thank you” to our customers with a gift from us. With the pink feather, I loved that we could create a symbol of love and gratitude; it’s literally a symbol to us to anyone who purchases our products. Our brand is all about giving back, and early on I remembered when people were going into our online store (and I didn’t know them, it wasn’t my mom or her friends) I was blown away and so grateful. So, we want people to spread the gratitude to someone else.
Why did you pick beauty? It’s so competitive!
I worked a full-time job for three years with Cheekbone as a side thing before going full time --so it was exhausting. I knew I had to pick something that I really loved, and I have always loved beauty products; I was always one of those consumers who was touching and sampling the products.
Can you share anything about the technology you’re using for your next product?
I can’t go into too many details because we’re not going to do a patent, but we’re working with a Canadian partner who is transforming agricultural waste into a usable ingredient—something like a vegetable-based oil. That’s the newest ingredient in our foundation/contour stick.
I’m excited, because this represents a big part of where we want to take the brand. The first few years of our business were about sustaining our people and our community—starting with empowering Indigenous youth. Year two, we started working with cosmetic scientists and sustainability experts to figure out (through lots of misinformation, especially in the beauty world) how to do this the right way. We want to be very transparent about raw ingredients—how they’re sourced, etc., and become more sustainable in terms of environmental impacts.
Our goal as a brand is total sustainability. So, first layer was people, second is the planet. We take this really seriously—especially being an Indigenous owned and operated company. We have to do the work to make sure we leave less of an impact on the planet, and think about what’s happening to the next generations.
Did you know you needed help to overcome hardships, and sought out mentors and education when young? Or did you dig in and climb out on your own?
I wish it was when I was young. I really do. But it wasn’t. I was 38.
I had made a lot of mistakes up until then, but I said to someone—I’m not going to be ashamed of my past—but there will be times where I’m OK with feeling guilty. I think that’s important. Lots of things happen during a time when you’re struggling and suffering with a massive issue such as addiction, and I’m just grateful that I got well. I have a lot of friends in healthcare who tell me that the percent rate of people recovering that stay in recovery is 5%, which is heartbreaking. It’s funny, because I look at overcoming that—after coming out of that I truly believed that I could do anything. I could climb a mountain—because that’s what overcoming an addiction feels like. So maybe I’m crazy (laughs) but I thought, “SURE I can start this big company and make it really successful because I’ve already climbed this mountain!”
As a business owner what does reconciliation look like for you? Does it differ from the calls to action in the TRC report, or perhaps it’s more specific?
Yeah. I mean, that’s a big question. I got sober in 2014, had this dream about Cheekbone Beauty in 2015, and then read the TRC when the federal report was released in 2015. After I read that, I was in shock because I had NO idea. I grew up into this 38-year-old woman who was coming to terms with her identity and her entire life not knowing about a residential school. That blows my mind—that I lived here, and no one taught me about that! Learning about that earlier would have explained everything at a much younger age, and maybe I would have healed a lot sooner. But, I believe timing is everything; I also wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have two careers (one in hospitality and one in sales and marketing), both of the things I needed to build Cheekbone to what I’m doing today. So, it’s so hard to say, because, then, too without tragedy—and I say this a lot and it sounds crazy, but – I’m grateful for it. Because I wouldn’t be here doing what I am without it—it wouldn’t have worked out this way. Something else would have happened, but it wouldn’t be what it is right now.
Not to put the whole weight of this question on your shoulders, but for those of us trying to support marginalized communities as much as possible, what do you think are the most impactful things we can do as consumers and as investors?
I firmly believe there’s more power in a checkout decision right now, than a lot of the other big decisions. Where we shop, the brands we’re supporting—with so many indie brands becoming available across all industries—in some cases you are truly, truly supporting a woman and her family which in turn supports her community. And so, even globally it’s such a big deal when we think about where we’re making purchases.
Have you taken advantage of grants/opportunities for Indigenous people from the government? If so, are they doing an OK job in providing that? Is there a website or a resource you would recommend?
I am really proud of how I built Cheekbone: I did it with all of my own money. We started very scrappy—that whole “bootstrap” concept—and then in 2019 we took on the relationship with Raven Capital which was an incredible investment experience. Raven is an Indigenous social impact fund. Their business model and Cheekbone Beauty share the same view of how we want to operate, which is why I think our partnership works so well. They came to me with this incredible offer of basically “here’s some seed money, plus we have another million and a half for you waiting when we’re ready to do an equity deal.” It’s just been the most amazing experience. I didn’t even know anything like that could exist. Since August 2019 they’ve literally been there if I needed support—and said, “go build, let’s see what you can build.” It’s given us the power to be where we are right now.
You used your own money to build out that foundation and DNA so Cheekbone is not compromised by other investors! Can you build on that?
Yeah! That relates to the Dragon’s Den experience. When Netflix launched the Dragon’s Den show I started seeing a lot of activity on our Twitter. Someone said, “How dare Michelle and Arlene say that about your business—that it’s ‘too early.’ You deserve the money and this proves there’s racism in investing.” But, I really had to be honest with that person. I had to say, “Arlene and Michelle were trying to tell me the truth. I was way too early for an equity deal.” The more you understand investment as an entrepreneur—and early on, you don’t get it right away—I was way too early. And this gave me more time to figure out the business. Grow into your purpose and your “why.” I think businesses think they know the “why” right away, but it takes time to carve that on correctly—you wouldn’t want to give that away in equity too early, because then someone else will be dictating the “why.” Then it’s not yours anymore.
What is your vision for growth over the next 3-5 years? What products are you focusing on?
We just launched one of the first products in that new part of our vision about sustainability with regards to environments, ecosystems and waterways: our sustain lipstick. We finally had a product bring to market and launch in March, and then COVID hit. But, gratefully, we were set up to sell online so we softly launched. We intend to grow that lipstick line to 24 shades.
In the meantime, we are working hard right now in research and development (R&D). R&D is always a big part of a business especially cosmetics—building a relationship with them early on is really important. We’ll have funding that comes from Canada to help us in terms of our innovation. Along with our sustain lipsticks we have a sustainable brow product coming and we have that sustain foundation/contour stick. We’ve done all the initial testing with it, we sent it off to a sustainability lab that is doing sustainability tests for us—because we changed out not just raw ingredients—but every step of the product. From where everything is sourced and made and how, to how it’s going to end up at the end of that product’s life. The lipstick containers can literally be composted—they’re biodegradable.
Is there specific support you’re looking for in your business?
That list always feels massive (laughs). We will be putting out a job listing shortly—we’re looking for an Operations Manager. Someone who can come on full-time and support us operationally, but with a lot of experience. We’re also always looking to be connecting with anyone who’s innovating. I love having meetings with incredible innovative young people. There’s a gentleman who’s experimenting with algae right now as dye, so we’re working out a project with that. We’re changing the postcards we send out to a seed paper so you can plant it outside – just trying to incorporate different ways to be sustainable.
Can you talk more about the social mission of Cheekbone? How do you choose charities to partner with?
We chose to partner with the First Nations Family and Child Caring Society. Originally, I wanted to start a foundation and create a scholarship in my grandmother’s name, but as my business advisory board pointed out, that would have been like creating a business on top of a business. They suggested finding an organization we could support—and as I learned more about Cindy Blackstock and all the work she does, met her several times and discovered that she is the epitome of Indigenous values and principles—it became clear that we wanted to support them. We also have a seasonal giftbox we just started this spring; we just supported a family with clean drinking water and solar power on the Navajo reservation (about 40% of our business is done in the USA). We’re grateful with a project like the gift box that we can work with and highlight other Indigenous businesses. We will be launching the summer gift box closer to the end of July.
I’m delighted to see you’re focusing on eliminating packaging waste for cosmetics. What have been the key steps in eliminating single-use packaging?
This is so hard in the cosmetic space. Something like a lipstick for example needs this “unit,” it needs to be housed in something. And the beauty industry is notoriously focused on the look, the aesthetic of the packaging. It’s probably the biggest challenge we face. We’re taking it step by step—biting small chunks at a time.
The more we work with our sustainability experts, the more we learn as both sellers and consumers. Certain things that say they’re recyclable, and technically they may be, but only if your region recycles them. For example, black plastic—which a lot of our products were housed in–might not get recycled, even if you put it in the recycling bin. Which is just a sad truth. For us, transitioning anything that was in black plastic, moving that to a paper, biodegradable package was one of the first steps. And like I say, this is a journey—might also not be the best solution—we know how much energy is involved in harvesting trees for paper—so there’s no perfect answer. Glass—very heavy to ship and transport. And when you do that the carbon footprint is even bigger. It’s about picking a problem and trying to solve it with the best solution at the time, with the hopes that when you source better options, you’ll be able to make those transitions in the future.
What is the first thing that you outsource in order to grow, and how much time did it take you to work on getting investments on and in your business?
I think you are asking, “where did you go for help first?” For me, that was the operations portion. The first people we hired were the ones who would do day-to-day operations. Shipping, packaging, labeling, getting stuff out the door. So now when I think of the role that we need to fill, it’s someone who understands inventory and inventory systems—all of those operating systems it takes to make company that’s involved in manufacturing, flow. Which I am not good at (laughs). I am a great marketer.
From tragedy and adversity, to building a successful business, Jenn’s story is filled with emotion, perseverance and inspiration. Her belief that timing is everything and understanding that embracing vulnerabilities helps enhance our connections, are both valuable takeaways for all of us—entrepreneurs, investors, aspiring entrepreneurs, financial feminists—everyone.
We’re sending a big thank you to Jenn for sharing her story with us and our community. We hope you’ll have the opportunity to give Cheekbone Beauty a try soon!
Oh, and if for some reason you still weren't sold on trying Cheekbone Beauty, use code THE51 at checkout for 15% off!
- The51