Gwen Jimmere is the CEO and Founder of NATURALICIOUS, a natural hair care company that refers to themselves as a “beauty innovation company”, according to the company’s website. After what started out as a passion project, Ms. Jimmere has grown her company exponentially, with her products now on the shelves of major retailers such as Whole Foods Markets throughout the U.S., Trinidad, Indonesia, and she’s looking to have distribution in South Africa. If that wasn’t enough, she owns the patent on her collection of products.

With a background in marketing and communications, she wanted to create something that “to ensure ownership, as well as a legacy for my company” she said in a recent interview that she had with Black Enterprise. In addition to being the CEO of her own company, she also co-owns Pitch Proof, a program where she coaches coaches and trains small business owners on how to prepare for, enter and win business pitch competitions, as well as how to successfully attract equity investment opportunities. She also she consults entrepreneurs on business strategy, marketing, advertising and distribution.

Gwen Jimmere has taken her destiny into her own hands by taking the initiative to pursue ownership of a collection of products that she has created.

B. Clark

Earlier this week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agreed to stop profiling Black women because of the diverse hairstyles that Black women are known to wear, particularly those hairstyles of the natural persuasion. Complaints surfaced from Northern California, when Novella Coleman–a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)–filed one in 2012, after reported cases of searches executed on her by TSA agents.

Coleman stated that she was being searched by the TSA due to them being required to check passengers with hair that appeared to have “extensions” or “abnormalities”. Another woman by the name of Malaika Singleton experienced the same caliber of harassment from TSA agents. Singleton, a Sacramento, CA based neuroscientist, was in the process of departing for a business trip in London, England at the time she experienced the same harassment as Coleman.

As a result of the inconveniences the women experiences, the TSA is making claims that it will implement “anti-discrimination training” for its employees to follow to prevent this from happening again.

Here  is an older video clip of Black women giving commentary on how they were violated at the airports by TSA agents because of their hair.

by B. Clark