With the prospect of a woman President in the White House, there’s never been a better time to shine a light on women's stories and their impact on transforming our lives today.

The U.S. election campaign has been divisive and illustrated long-standing biases about how women behave, think, look and dress in ways that are being challenged. When Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance called Kamala Harris a “childless cat lady,” the world spoke out, from young girls to older women to a megastar millennial Taylor Swift.

For the last 10 years, I’ve hosted an annual TEDxGreekStWomen event to spotlight women and their ideas, in a world that doesn’t always give them a wide enough platform to do so. This year, three amazing speakers from fashion, beauty and literature stepped up to the mic in a warm candlelit venue under railway arches near the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, to share what it takes to disrupt and where the motivation comes from.

The rise of anti-perfection

Annabelle Baker, Former Global Brand Director of Lush, recounted a story of her early experiences starting with Lush 26 years ago. As a sales assistant at its King’s Road branch in the 90’s, a customer tried to get her fired because she had acne and therefore didn’t look suitable to sell cosmetics. Later on, Baker rose to become a pivotal member of Lush’s global leadership team, but only recently she overheard someone imply she had succeeded because of her looks. “So I went from having acne to being pretty yet untalented,” she observed wryly.

With over two decades of experience at Lush before leaving to work in the world of startups, Baker explained how the beauty industry has transformed over her career. From a place where ‘the definition of beauty was gatekept by a few’ to an era in which ‘beauty, rather than being isolating, becomes an empowering shared experience.’ 

From women proudly wearing pimple patches, to plus size influencers like Lizzo and the no-makeup trend championed by Alicia Keys and Pamela Anderson, “we’re seeing the rise of the anti-perfection movement,” she said.

In addition to Lush, which has pioneered new environmental standards and made the bold move to come off social media in 2017, she pointed to brands that are disrupting the sector to better serve customer needs. Fenty Beauty for example has moved the world beyond six shades of foundation to over 40 and forever changed the landscape, while more specific brands such as ShakeUp Cosmetics in male grooming or Made for More with its menopause-focused skincare approach have flourished.

She reflected on the importance of passing on this changing culture to the next generation, sharing that when her young daughter recently watched her putting on makeup and commented that she also wanted to use it to ‘look pretty’, she realised that ‘you don’t have to be an influencer to influence; if you have someone in your life you are probably already influencing them.’

Changing the narrative

How we can influence culture for good was also a central theme for Caroline Donahue, our second speaker. An Author, Writing Coach and the Host of the podcast, The Secret Library. Donahue asserted that, while some people question whether it is ‘self-indulgent’ to write books, what we read about between the covers is hugely important in connecting us to culture. To illustrate this, she outlined some of the changes that have taken place in one particular literary genre: the romance novel.

Donahue recalled, aged twelve, finding romance novels with a friend in a bookshop and trying to read them in secret. Their mothers immediately busted them, but having checked the books, allowed them to be read as there was nothing “shocking” inside. However, she reflected, while not sexually explicit, these 1980s “bodice-rippers” actually influenced culture in a more insidious way: they featured men in positions of power who “ravished” the women they encountered. “There was no assumption that these women had any idea what they liked or what they wanted before these men brought their agenda and their interest,” she observed. “When a woman has grown up in a culture where this narrative is not surprising, shocking or controversial, how do you think she responds when a man steps over the line?”

Donahue explained how authors like Piper Huguley, who writes Black historical romance, and queer romance authors like KJ Charles and Alexis Hall are transforming the literary landscape. Other romance authors like Freya Marske have written novels where consent features heavily ‘and with all this coming together, you have something that looks like the MeToo movement.’ 

Caroline’s parting invitation was for all of us to let the book inside us to escape as a wider variety of voices. Stories helps us all to participate in building a richer, more diverse culture. For those who don’t want to write, she encourages crossing into a different genre or type of author for a different lens and perspective on the world.

Leaving an impact

Our final speaker, Scamp & Dude Founder and CEO, Jo Tutchener-Sharp had some powerful thoughts on the idea of legacy and the personal power we have to change the culture.

Jo was inspired to start her company after an unexpected and life-changing experience of illness; a brain haemorrhage requiring 10 hours of serious brain surgery, 22 staples to put her back together and two weeks away from your children aged just one and three to convalesce alone, as her appearance was too much for them to handle.

On the brink of surgery, looking back at her life, she worried that ‘I hadn’t done enough good. I hadn’t helped enough people or had enough of an impact.’ Recovering, she felt she had a second chance at life. Desperately missing her kids, she was inspired to create snuggly ‘Superhero Sleep Buddies’ for children who were apart from their mothers and then expanded the business into a clothing line where each item carries a signature superhero power button, including its ‘Super Scarves’ where, for each sold, one is donated to a woman with cancer.

Having never worked in fashion, let alone run a business, her story demonstrates that anything is possible. Her call to action was crystal clear: “Don’t wait until you are at the pearly gates – ask yourself now how you feel about your legacy and what it will be.”

Women like Jo, Annabelle and Caroline have all helped to make an impact on the world using their own experiences to understand and then shape the culture we live in. Whether it’s creating change for good or transforming social expectations, there are still hurdles to overcome – for example, Baker pointed to the influence of social media as well as weight loss drugs like Ozempic on beauty.

Their stories were a powerful illustration that there are always new ways to challenge the status quo and question accepted wisdom – with the invitation for all of us to each find our own way to disrupt, connect and create positive change. I can’t think of a more fitting message with which to celebrate ten years of spotlighting women, change and their stories

Image left to right: Sairah Ashman, Global CEO of Wolff Olins; Annabelle Baker, Former Global Brand Director of Lush; Jo Tutchener-Sharp, Founder and CEO, Scamp & Dude ; Caroline Donahue, Author, Writing Coach and the Host of The Secret Library podcast.