Opportunity In Beauty

Elle.com:

Akilah Jefferson, 32, of Suitland, Maryland, is not what comes to mind when you think “Mary Kay Lady.”

A former research scientist, she has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, where she studied molecular genetics and neuroscience and spent her workdays in a lab, studying the effects of stress on fruit flies. But when her first daughter was born, she decided to take some time off. In the meantime, the economy tanked and returning to work wasn’t as easy as Jefferson had once anticipated.

“I was saying ‘Woe is me: I have degrees—plural—and I can’t find a job,” she says. That’s when a friend who worked for Mary Kay decided to recruit her. Jefferson’s first reaction was an unequivocal no. “I can’t do sales,” was her response to the offer.

Not easily dissuaded, the friend came over, gave Jefferson a facial, and repositioned employment with Mary Kay as a “business opportunity.” That’s when Jefferson started to see the job in a slightly different light—as a career that could offer more flexibility and certainly more fun.

“Even though I’m a people person, it used to be just me and a pipette, hovering over a lab dish all day,” she says.

Of course, not everyone took it in stride when she finally signed on: “A lot of my friends were saying, ‘What? You’re selling lipstick? Don’t you know you went to this institution and got this degree?’ They’re much more supportive now that they see I’m serious.”

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