Jessica Alba admits her Hollywood peers thought she was ‘nuts’ when she founded The Honest Company in 2012.
And the 34-year-old actress has revealed she has struggled to be taken seriously as both a businesswoman and an actress in an insightful new interview with NET-A-PORTER.com’s The EDIT, touching upon her experience of sexism.
Discussing the perils of being a female CEO, Jessica – whose company deals in non-toxic, ethical home products – explained: ‘You feel like a lone wolf surrounded by men who have done it all before.’
The entrepreneur revealed that she encountered a lot of negativity from the showbiz world when she first set up the company, which had $170 million in 2014 sales and was valued at $1.7 billion as of August 2015.
However, Jessica was undeterred by her critics and used their doubts to fuel her drive and make her business a success.
She said: ‘Certainly people in Hollywood underestimated me. They absolutely, 100 percent thought I was nuts. 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.’
Jessica – who raises daughters Honour, age 7, and Haven, age 4, with her husband Cash Warren – also revealed that it’s important for her to set an example for her children, even though they might not understand her dedication to her work.
Confessing that she struggles to strike a healthy work/life balance, she added: ‘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! 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.’