“Being raised the way that I was raised, I wasn’t taught to seek a partnership, or a spouse, or a husband. In fact, I was taught the opposite: you don’t need anyone, and you know, I am grateful for my mother and my grandmother and their journeys, but now with my own experience, plus years of advancement, I actually feel very different from that. But that’s what I was taught, so that’s what I leaned into. I’ve had long-term relationships, I’ve had someone special in my life for years, and I honestly didn’t lean into it the way I should have because my habit was to lean into work, but I also speak very publicly about the decision to freeze eggs. The reality is that you’re going to yield wherever you invest. Now, I’m unlearning those behaviors and working with intention to unlearn those in order to apply different. So, I’m on the path to that now. Do I wish I’d gotten enlightened sooner? Perhaps. But the eggs are on ice.”
Tai Beauchamp on Being Too Self-Reliant to be Loved
In this episode of THE IDEALISTS. (formerly Grit & Grace), host and entrepreneur Melissa Kiguwa interviews Tai Beauchamp, co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brown Girl Jane, a disruptive, plant-based wellness and beauty collection named by Refinery 29 as Beauty Innovator of the Year and winner of Best in Beauty Awards by Instyle, Allure, and Popsugar. Formerly a top editor for Harper’s Bazaar, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Seventeen magazines, Tai uses her vast platform to empower, educate, and entertain women of all ages.
In this episode, Tai shares what it means to grow up with the gifts of strength and self-reliance as well as what it means to unlearn old habits to forge the kind of partnerships that make a company like Brown Girl Jane possible. Most of all, her audacious goal to impact ten million women will leave you inspired and enlightened.
in the episode:
Tai starts off the episode by describing why self-reliance is so historically ingrained in women’s ideals and belief systems and why she believes it's so important women realize they don’t have to go it alone—not in business and not in their personal lives.
She shares her journey of being raised by a single mother and grandmother, going to an all-girls high school, and then on to Spelman College to become the youngest magazine editor at Seventeen—all under the messaging of: “You’re going to achieve this all on your own. And keep going!”
Tai then recounts the story of how she reconnected with her Spelman sisters to co-found their groundbreaking beauty innovator startup Brown Girl Jane and how that partnership led to some of the crucial unlearning that’s set her on her path now.
At the end of the episode, Tai shares her audacious vision for impacting the lives of 10 million women and how much the ripple effect matters even with our smallest actions.