Danessa Myricks Used Her Entrepreneurial Spirit to Create a Successful Beauty Brand

As a child, Danessa Myricks didn’t have much materially, but her parents showered her with love, support, and outlets for creativity. The difficulties young Danessa faced growing up, however, often took place outside of the home.

“One of the challenges that I had was that I never really saw anyone who looked like me outside of my family,” the Queens, New York native said. “I would see someone and want to change myself so that I could fit in.”

One day in school, Danessa recalls being in the lunchroom with her friends trying to decide who would be the leader of the crew. It was this moment Danessa remembers experiencing piercing colorism. ‘They were like okay, everybody put their fist in and the fairest [skinned] person was able to be the leader of the crew.”

It was moments like this that watered a seed of belonging inside of Danessa. The desire to be included and include others would later become a corner stone of her career.

As she got older and began developing her personal style, Danessa also fell in love with makeup, but noticed there weren’t as many options for dark-skinned Black girls. This unfortunate reality is what helped propel her to begin her brand.

“When I started the brand, I said to myself “I want to be the change that I want to see in the world.” Watch the video above to learn about Danessa’s long and steady road to becoming a successful and inclusive beauty brand owner.