Every issue, GRAZIA USA highlights 17 Game Changers, who inspire, educate, and celebrate individuality, beauty, and style. Meet Sharon Chuter, who’s redefining what it means to be inclusive and diverse through her brand, UOMA Beauty.
To be an entrepreneur, you either have to be running away from something or running towards something so passionately that you’re willing to jump off a cliff. I worked my way up in the beauty industry: from the sales floor all the way to the C-suite, most recently at Benefit Cosmetics. But in 2017, I decided I was done with corporate. I felt strong enough that I didn’t care what I lost. I thought the journey was going to be worth it, so I walked out and never looked back.
At that time, I started to really care about values and realized I couldn’t be working for a company that makes concealers in three shades. The more I went on that journey of understanding the impact of non-inclusivity, the more I started to understand that there was such a thing as culpability by complacency.
If I’m sitting back knowing that what my company is doing is not morally right, but I work for them every day, I’m just as equally culpable as the people who make the decisions. I no longer wanted to be a part of the problem and turning a blind eye to it; I wanted to be part of the solution. That was how my journey with UOMA Beauty started. UOMA Beauty is a place where people can really come and be themselves. We don’t go around saying we don’t see color. We absolutely see color, because we need to. Color is so beautiful!
I founded the brand in January 2018 and brought it to the market in April 2019. But talk about the trials for a new business to launch amid the pandemic! It really required us to be more disciplined operationally on the back end. The supply chain is crazy, and we couldn’t get products to market as fast as we used to — which, for a start-up, is a real big hit. Getting used to being a bit slower than we normally operate has been a huge adjustment for us. Such are the times that we live in.
But we were lucky in other ways. When we first launched, people thought we were being divisive because of the blunt and honest messaging that we had. There was a huge subset of the market that was uncomfortable because I came out and said, “I’m here to have a conversation.” But the world sort of caught up post-June 2020. It was a mass education of the public to understand that No, this is not being divisive; this is what we should all be doing.
I think the positive thing that came out of the past two years is the pressure on companies now to be more purpose-led. You can’t have profit as your only objective. You must contribute as a company. UOMA Beauty alone cannot change the world; it’s going to take everybody moving in the same direction to see a positive impact.
But if I could change anything, it would be to pour some tolerance and acceptance into the world and make everybody understand that there is beauty in diversity. What makes the world beautiful is the fact that we all have different roles to play, and it should absolutely make no difference how we look. I’m not just talking about race; I’m talking about everything: from women’s rights to LGBTQ+ rights. If everybody just understood that if it doesn’t affect them and they don’t like something, then don’t do it, we’d be good.
At the end of the day, what gives me hope is humanity — and that ultimately the will of the good will always prevail. Good will always come before evil. But if anyone needs to stay hopeful in these trying times, I say look to the past. Hang onto something good from the past and then manifest it and make it reality, because the past always gives you hope for the future.
— As told to Colleen Kratofil
To read more Game Changers, pick up GRAZIA USA’s March 2022 issue on newsstands and email [email protected] to subscribe.
