Lindsay Dahl is no stranger in finding creative ways to get her message across. The clean beauty advocate spent years as a D.C. lobbyist before joining Beautycounter as head of mission and later the supplements company Ritual as chief impact officer. In August, she added another line to her resume: published author.
“It was early days of the pandemic, and I saw what I now would call the kind of culture wars or wellness wars online,” said Dahl, whose debut book, “Cleaning House: The Fight to Rid Our Homes of Toxic Chemicals,” was published by HarperCollins this summer. “[I thought]: ‘Engaging the algorithm more is not going to be the solution. I need to go analog, and I need to write a book.’”
Dahl spent five years getting her non-fiction investigation into the safety of consumer products from idea to print. But she is not the only beauty and wellness executive to see the value of the printed word to share her message.
In July, Beekman 1802 founders Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell published “G.O.A.T. Wisdom: How to Build a Truly Great Business” with the Harvard Business Review. In June, Megababe founder Katie Sturino published her first novel, “Sunny Side Up,” with Celadon Books. Bobbi Brown, founder of the legendary namesake beauty brand she sold to The Estée Lauder Companies in 1995, is slated to publish her first memoir in late September.
“This is just an extension of the work I do. It’s just in a different format,” said Katie Sturino, founder of the body-care brand Megababe. She published her first book, “Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life,” in 2021 and worked with a ghostwriter to publish the romance novel “Sunny Side Up” in 2025. “My novel is a way to give this same messaging that your body really is not the problem. It’s all about the way you talk to yourself and see yourself, and I was able to deliver that message through a character instead of just through myself.”
For Beekman 1802 co-founder Dr. Brent Ridge, there’s a legitimacy to information in a physical book that made it an appealing medium to convey his company’s story.
“There’s just something permanent about [books], and there’s something special about that in the world that is so impermanent,” he said.
And books’ separation from the fast-paced digital world can also make them a useful billboard to convert new customers.
“Eyeballs are hard to come by. And wherever you can try to find an eyeball, a new audience, why not go for it?” said Dr. Ridge. “We’re getting to talk to so many different groups of people that maybe weren’t even familiar with our brand.”
But unlike in the beauty industry, where sales have largely boomed since 2020, the audience for books has been on a steady downturn in recent years. Research from the University of Florida and University College London found that the amount of Americans who read for pleasure fell 40% between 2003 and 2023.
Still, even as many are turning to digital mediums like social media to consume information, the appeal of a physical book still holds strong. Acclaimed authors like Zadie Smith and Ottessa Moshfegh, though far from megawatt celebrities, have appeared in fashion campaigns for the likes of Bottega Veneta and Prada in recent years.
“We’re sucked into this digital vortex we feel like we can’t get out of. And therefore, the idea and romanticism of writing a book, and authors in general, feels like something we want to elevate,” said Dahl. “My book is about environmental health, but it’s actually much bigger than that. It’s about us putting down our phones and actually starting to talk to each other like humans again. And books provide that space and connection.”
But the romantic idea of writing a book doesn’t always line up with the reality; Dahl said she went through six full revisions alone, from the galley version of “Cleaning House,” which is the version sent to early reviewers, to the final text, as she updated the book to reflect the incoming Trump administration in the final rounds of edits.
Some of those rounds of edits can take their toll. Sturino cautioned any beauty founders thinking of taking on the book world to be prepared for how emotionally taxing the process can be.
“This is a new medium for me, and I was surprised at how emotional it was. If we change something at Megababe, like we have to discontinue this certain deodorant, I don’t feel that attached to that specific SKU,” said Sturino. “Every book in the world is a miracle. It’s crazy that so many books get written, because it’s just really difficult to do.”
