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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was early days of the pandemic, and I saw what I now would call the kind of culture wars or wellness wars online,\u201d said Dahl, whose debut book, \u201cCleaning House: The Fight to Rid Our Homes of Toxic Chemicals,\u201d was published by HarperCollins this summer. \u201c[I thought]: \u2018Engaging the algorithm more is not going to be the solution. I need to go analog, and I need to write a book.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In July, Beekman 1802 founders Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell published \u201cG.O.A.T. Wisdom: How to Build a Truly Great Business\u201d with the Harvard Business Review. In June, Megababe founder Katie Sturino published her first novel, \u201cSunny Side Up,\u201d with Celadon Books. Bobbi Brown, founder of the legendary namesake beauty brand she sold to The Est\u00e9e Lauder Companies in 1995, is slated to publish her first memoir in late September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just an extension of the work I do. It\u2019s just in a different format,\u201d said Katie Sturino, founder of the body-care brand Megababe. She published her first book, \u201cBody Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life,\u201d in 2021 and worked with a ghostwriter to publish the romance novel \u201cSunny Side Up\u201d in 2025. \u201cMy novel is a way to give this same messaging that your body really is not the problem. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Beekman 1802 co-founder Dr. Brent Ridge, there\u2019s a legitimacy to information in a physical book that made it an appealing medium to convey his company\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just something permanent about [books], and there\u2019s something special about that in the world that is so impermanent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And books\u2019 separation from the fast-paced digital world can also make them a useful billboard to convert new customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEyeballs are hard to come by. And wherever you can try to find an eyeball, a new audience, why not go for it?\u201d said Dr. Ridge. \u201cWe\u2019re getting to talk to so many different groups of people that maybe weren\u2019t even familiar with our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> fell 40% between 2003 and 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n