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A new Gen Alpha beauty brand is entering the market: Yes Day, co-created by 13-year-old Coco Granderson with BeautyStat founder and Rhode formulator Ron Robinson.
The brand debuts today on pre-sale with four products: the Float Foam Cleanser ($24), Whip Dream Moisturizer ($32), Inner Beam Hydration Mist ($19) and Lip Sweetie Lip Mask ($15). It will officially launch on October 1.
The timing underscores the growing momentum of tween and teen skin care. Less than two weeks ago, Glossy exclusively reported on the launch of mega-influencer Salish Matter’s Sincerely Yours, which sold out at Sephora within a day after drawing 80,000 fans to a pop-up at New Jersey’s American Dream mall. More Gen Alpha-focused brands are set to follow at Sephora in the coming months.
But while Sincerely Yours has nearly $7 million in funding from investors including Strand Equity, Coefficient Capital and Habitat Partners, and launched directly into Sephora, Yes Day was entirely self-funded and will launch as a direct-to-consumer brand.
Los Angeles-based Coco Granderson and Danielle Granderson, Coco’s mother, have been working on Yes Day since Coco was 11 years old, when she first told her mother and a close family friend about wanting to start a skin-care brand while on a flight to Dubai. “She said, ‘There’s nothing for me. My friends love to go to Sephora, but we can’t find anything that is right for our skin and also has cool packaging,'” the elder Granderson recalled, adding that her initial response was to say no.
But as the two continued to shop for skin care, Danielle would ask sales associates if there were any brands where every product would be safe for Coco to use. Time and time again, she said, they would cherry-pick the items that were age-appropriate. Then, her younger daughter became interested in skin care, too, and she realized this was no passing trend. “Finally, about a year after Coco first brought it up, I was like, ‘You know what? I think this is a great idea. I have no idea how I’m going to do it. But I’ll figure it out.'”
Then came an introduction, through mutual friends, to Robinson.
Coco said she’d started playing with skin care when she was 8 years old: “It was more for fun — not because, like, I needed it.”
“I want to launch a brand because I was like, ‘No one’s making skin care for kids, and if they are, it doesn’t tick the box, because either it’s not cute or it doesn’t actually help. And then I was like, ‘If no one’s going to make it for us, I have to make it myself,'” Coco said. Prior to creating her own formulas, she admitted to using products she was too young for, including “retinol, anti-aging products.”
Yes Day has made significant investments for a self-funded brand launched by a teenager, including custom-tooled packaging and clinical testing. Such packaging is known industry-wide to be a significant investment. “We wanted the packaging to be really eye-catching, because the reason I was buying the bad stuff is that the packaging was really cute. We wanted it to be cute so people would see it and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s that?'” Coco said.
As for the formulations themselves, Robinson focused on giving young skin a healthy glow and reinforcing its barrier. A proprietary Yes Magic complex includes probiotics, centella asiatica and antioxidants. “I wanted to help these young consumers build a healthy routine around maintaining their barrier, hydrating, protecting their skin and giving them that glow,” Robinson said.
“I basically could not recommend a BeautyStat product [for this demographic]. It’s not for their skin. … We’re for millennial and Gen-X consumers. … Rhode and Hailey have another positioning. This was a new consumer that none of the brands I work on were addressing. And so that’s what made me feel really compelled to partner up with Coco to create this brand,” said Robinson, who has an equity stake in the brand.
Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom, which has been Danielle’s main occupation for the past nine years, she worked in clinical research. Granderson’s husband, an entertainment lawyer, has also helped launch the brand, though he is not involved in its day-to-day operations. So, appreciating the value of testing, the brand invested in clinical trials for all four of its products, even finding a lab that could conduct such trials on teen testers.
“Clinical testing is expensive. Clinical testing on a younger population, which is typically not used in a clinical setting, is even more expensive. So we definitely invested in this,” Robinson said. Among its findings were that 93% of users said Lip Sweetie made their lips feel hydrated after application, and 97% of users said Float Foam Cleanser rinsed thoroughly.
“Since I’m new to the beauty space, I didn’t realize that with safety testing, they really just swatch either [someone’s] forearm or their back to show that it doesn’t [cause irritation]. … I just said, ‘No, I need more than that,'” Danielle said.
Danielle’s sister is a beauty copywriter who works with the packaging agency Bartlett Brands, which the Grandersons tapped to work on Yes Day. She wrote the copy and helped develop the brand’s voice.
Danielle Granderson and Robinson both remarked on Coco’s clear vision, each stating on separate calls that the teenager knew exactly what she wanted — even if she had to be convinced of certain things. For example, Danielle insisted on a lighter moisturizer, while Coco wanted a rich cream. “[My mom] was like, ‘No, it needs to be really thin, because your skin’s gonna get clogged,'” Coco said.
The tween skin-care space presents a burgeoning opportunity.
In March 2025, Nielsen IQ attributed 49% of the mass skin-care category’s growth to Gen Alpha.
The aforementioned Sincerely Yours has been met with mixed opinions, with some critical of the Matter family’s social media content itself, as well as Salish Matter’s extremely young audience being targeted as skin care customers.
There are also mixed opinions about younger girls even getting into skin care and about skin-care brands designed for younger demographics. However, experts interviewed over the past two years agree that it is better for young children and teens to use gentle products designed for them than harsh ingredients their skin isn’t ready for.
In 2023, Dr. Amy Wechsler, who is both a dermatologist and a psychiatrist, called out a positive side of young girls experimenting with skin care. She told Glossy Pop, “Routines are healthy. Routines get us into the habit of things and make us feel like we’re in control of our day.”
Regardless of popular opinion, the space continues to grow. While Bubble looks to grow with its once-younger audience — it just announced 39-year-old Leighton Meester as its new global ambassador — brands like Erly, Rile and Evereden, to name a few, seem content to take up the mantle when it comes to providing solely for younger audiences.
For now, Danielle said, Yes Day will focus its marketing efforts on social media — specifically TikTok and Snapchat. She has been informed by Coco that Instagram is for old people.
The brand will also sell products at Coco’s volleyball tournaments — some of which are attended by 15,000 teenagers — where Coco will interface directly with her peers. While Coco would love to eventually enter Sephora, “the reality is, it’s expensive to be in Sephora,” Danielle said — “This is our family brand.”
“Really, I made this collection for me, for my family, for their friends,” Danielle said. “If we didn’t love it, I wouldn’t put it out there. It’s still a business, but at the end of the day, we did teach our daughter that if you love something, you’re fortunate enough to have money to put in and you really work hard, you can see it come to fruition.”
Pop-up of the week: LoveShackFancy and Tinder partner for Secret Crush fragrance
Open through Saturday, New Yorkers can visit the West Village bar Dante Aperitivo to celebrate the latest addition to LoveShackFancy’s growing fragrance collection, dubbed Secret Crush. The fashion brand partnered with Tinder on a pop-up café and exclusive merch drop, where guests can get vanilla-infused bites, referencing the note in the fragrance, as well as signature cocktails and, of course, content. The café was designed to inspire connection, whether with friends, a new crush or one’s partner.
In July 2024, the Glossy Pop Newsletter reported on dating apps as a new avenue for beauty brand marketing. An IRL pop-up brings the trend to new heights.
“We love love — and for us, fragrance has always been about creating a feeling,” said Rebecca Hessel Cohen, founder and creative director of LoveShackFancy. “When we began dreaming up how to celebrate Secret Crush, we thought about the excitement of first dates, of flirting, of that butterfly feeling. The idea of working with Tinder — an app that’s all about possibilities — came up, and when they approached us, it felt serendipitous. They’ve been the most incredible partner.”
Collabs of the week:
Caddis x Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown is having a big month: Her new memoir releases on September 23. Her second hit brand, Jones Road, just debuted a new lipstick, The Classic Lip, in 12 shades. And she has launched signature eyeglass frames with Caddis, makers of her favorite frames. Named the “BB Queen,” it’s a limited-edition offering. The top of the frame reads “Not bossy” on one side, and “The boss” on the other.
“Spend five minutes with Bobbi and you see it: She lives her life with unapologetic authenticity,” said Tim Parr, founder of Caddis. “She doesn’t just talk about her vision, she embodies it. The world needs more of her story, and we see ourselves as a platform for storytelling, growth and creativity.”
For Brown’s part, she told Glossy, “I’ve been wearing Caddis frames since they launched, and we’ve worked together on a couple of fun collaborations — but I’m especially proud of these BB Queen frames. They are completely me, made for small faces and big dreams.”
Tower 28 x Poppi
It may not even be the end of September, but holiday-themed collabs are upon us. To that end, makeup brand Tower28 has teamed with soda brand Poppi on a soda-themed blush-and-gloss gloss duo. The $26 set is now available at Sephora.
“At the heart of both Tower 28 and Poppi is a commitment to good, clean fun,” said Amy Liu, Tower 28’s founder and CEO. “And Allison [Ellsworth, CEO and chief brand office of Poppi] has eczema, like me — so, like all Tower 28 products, this collaboration follows the National Eczema Association’s ingredient guidelines to ensure it is gentle and safe for sensitive skin.”
She added: “It was exciting to merge something festive and seasonal with the intentional, skin-friendly formulas we’re known for. I’m always crossing my fingers for Poppi’s Cranberry Fizz to make a comeback during the holidays — it’s a staple in my fridge. Translating that iconic flavor into a [warm-red] blush and gloss was the perfect way to connect our worlds.”
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