Jessica Alba by Sebastian Kim for Net-A-Porter’s The Edit and Why She Started The Honest Company, Finding the Right Business Partner, Dealing with Criticism, and More!

Jessica Alba by Sebastian Kim for Net-A-Porter’s The Edit.
On Hollywood’s thoughts of her business at the beginning:
“Certainly people in Hollywood underestimated me. They absolutely, 100 percent thought I was nuts. In Hollywood they don’t really build businesses, so they don’t really understand what I’m doing. It’s hard for people to take you seriously when you’re known for entertaining, because there are preconceived ideas of what it is to be an entertainer. But you have to have a lot of heart [to be an actor], a lot of drive. You face a lot of rejection, too, and it takes a certain kind of person to withstand that. I don’t think people knew what I was capable of – I didn’t know what I was capable of – until I actually did it.”
On why she started The Honest Company:
“I had a very pure mission – there was such a social injustice, that for people to access healthier products, to live a healthy life, they had to be in a certain tax bracket. I think that’s why we have been successful – it comes from a genuine place.”
On finding the right business partner:
“Finding the right partner opened the doors for me. I walked into meetings with a business partner who had created two successful e-commerce businesses. A lot of investors wanted to invest in anything that he was going to start, so I was fortunate.”
On dealing with criticism:
“It p***** me off! But as a woman, as an actress, I’ve dealt with that before. I’ve dealt with people undermining me; I’ve dealt with people thinking that I would do anything to get ahead and be successful. I was never that girl. I never dated people to be successful, I never compromised myself, or my beliefs, or my values to get ahead. And you know, in a weird way, I liked it when they didn’t believe in me. It fueled me.”
On her family:
“My girls ask why I work, but I think it’s more of a rhetorical question at this point; they just want to spend time with me. Kids don’t want to be understanding. And they shouldn’t be at this age! When they are 18 they will have perspective, but at four and seven they are just living in their own little world, and it’s all immediate gratification. Sometimes I do a better job at turning off, but right now I have just launched Honest Beauty, with 87 products, and I’m not doing a great job at managing my time. I’m traveling too much, I’m staying at the office too late, and I don’t know how to shut off completely when I go home. But it’s challenging to be a working parent, whether you are a woman or a man.”
On optimism and humor:
“Optimism and humor are so important. Like when we launched Honest – it took us six weeks to realize we weren’t charging credit cards. At the time we were just like, the site hasn’t crashed yet, thank God! We didn’t even notice people hadn’t paid!”
Source: Net-A-Porter