Kylie Cosmetics is advocating for equal opportunity and diversity in the beauty industry by taking part in the Pull Up for Change challenge.
When Sharon Chuter, the black female founder of Uoma Beauty, called for organizations to disclose the number of Black employees they have at a corporate level, dozens of beauty brands like L'Oréal Paris, Milk Makeup, Ulta Beauty, Proctor & Gamble and more disclosed employee diversity profiles. Pull Up for Change reports that only 8% of people employed in white collar professions are Black, so to continue to bring the issue to the forefront of conversation, Kylie Jenner's Kylie Cosmetics released a transparent breakdown of the diversity within her company.
"Kylie Cosmetics is here for Pull Up for Change, for our team, and for the Black community. We are proud of the diversity within our company, with a team of Black, White, Asian, Native American, Hispanic and Middle Eastern women," the brand said in a statement shared on Instagram
In the breakdown, Kylie Cosmetics disclosed that currently 13 percent of the team are Black, 47 percent of the team are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), 53 percent of the team are white and 100 percent of the team are women-identifying.
"The numbers you see above represent the people at our Kylie Cosmetics/Kylie Skin HQ," the brand said, noting that the leadership team only consists of Kylie and Kris Jenner.
Kylie Cosmetics acknowledged that it can do even better and plans on recruiting more diverse employees in the future. "As our team grows we commit to a continued focus on ethnic diversity in the workplace and the recruitment of black employees," the brand said.
Fans were happy to see Kylie Cosmetics' transparency and encouraged the brand to feature more POC modeling the makeup products on its Instagram feed. "Thank you! Please continue to support more black content creators 💕," one person commented.
Another Instagram commenter said, "Yes this is great! Definitely would love to see more POC as your influencers💕."
Jenner's company also shared other ways it is helping fight for inclusivity and stand in solidarity with the Black community in a letter shared on Instagram.
"As a beauty brand built around community, we always have, and always will stand for inclusivity, and have set to empower our customers, followers and team members. Our team has signed petitions, texted, sent emails, made calls, and come together in solidarity over this last week, but these are not one time actions and this is not a momentary commitment," the statement read.
"We will continue to educate ourselves and our followers on how we can come together to fight against racism and will celebrate, uplift and empower the black community through our channels," Jenner's statement said.
The star committed to donating to five organizations to support the fight against racism: Youth Justice Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero, NAACP and Equal Justice Initiative.
Jenner concluded the statement by saying: "Change does not happen overnight. This is an ongoing dialogue, and we hope you all will continue to be vocal about what you want to see, not only from us, but from the beauty community, and from each other. We're in this together."
To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations:
- Campaign Zero (joincampaignzero.org) which works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies.
- ColorofChange.org works to make government more responsive to racial disparities.
- National Cares Mentoring Movement (caresmentoring.org) provides social and academic support to help black youth succeed in college and beyond.