Women business owners of color open up about the trials and rewards of the past year in the pandemic.

Elizabeth Birkett, Bephies Beauty Supply&nbsp;
As a Black woman who’s paved her way in the male-dominated streetwear industry, launching a brand that focused on women of color and people from marginalized communities was something that Elizabeth Birkett aspired to for years.&nbsp;
Birkett quietly launched her first fashion brand, Bephie, in 2017, but between working as a costume designer on film sets, co-running the streetwear store Union with her husband and raising two teenage boys, she didn’t have the time to solely focus on the emerging brand.&nbsp;
That all changed in March 2020 when the world slowed down and Birkett finally had time to reevaluate what she wanted her brand to represent.&nbsp;
She relaunched Bephie, now known as <a href="https://bephiesbeautysupply.com/">Bephies Beauty Supply</a>, as a marketplace for beauty products, apparel, accessories and home goods that support the work of Black women and marginalized people. Inspired by the spiritual experience she describes each time she walks into a beauty supply store, she strove to redefine what beauty and fashion look &nbsp;like.&nbsp;
She and her team worked to “create a space that feels community-based &nbsp;but is also elevating things that you can get in a beauty supply store.”&nbsp;
Birkett has since collaborated with POC-led brands including <a href="https://www.lenchanteur.co/lenchanteur">L’Enchanteur</a>, <a href="https://www.brianadanyele.com/">Briana Danyele</a> and <a href="https://www.ceylonskincare.com/">Ceylon</a>. Bephies Beauty Supply was also a part of Nordstrom’s Concept 012: <a href="https://www.nordstrom.com/brands/bephies-beauty-supply--22646">Black_Space</a> project that highlighted Black creatives. Birkett plans to open a brick-and-mortar shop in the future to continue helping entrepreneurs of color and says that launching Bephies Beauty Supply was the beginning of her own self-care journey. “Being a mother and a wife and having a business and trying to find yourself is really hard,” Birkett says. “It is a privilege that I now have to be able to focus really on myself.”&nbsp;

Sandra Mejia, The Plant Chica&nbsp;
The Plant Chica wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the birth of Sandra Mejia’s son, Alem.&nbsp;
Mejia, a South LA native, loved her job working as a medical assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she’d been for a decade. But when she became a mother in 2017, the 12-hour shifts started to weigh on her.&nbsp;
“I would miss my son the whole day and these were like big moments where he was doing new things,” Mejia &nbsp;says. “I was like, ‘This isn’t really living.’”&nbsp;
As a hobby, Mejia, who inherited her Salvadoran mother’s green thumb, started selling unique plants that are normally only found in warm climates and not easily found at stores on street corners throughout LA &nbsp;under the name The Plant Chica. Shortly after, she moved her operations <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/Theplantchica">online</a> and to her parent’s backyard where customers could shop for plants inside the greenhouse that she and her family built. By 2019, she decided to leave her medical assistant job to focus on The Plant Chica full-time, which she’s been running with her husband ever since.&nbsp;
But when the pandemic hit in early 2020, Mejia felt a sense of guilt about not working at the hospital during such a crucial time. Meanwhile, with Angelenos in their homes 24/7, the demand for plants grew and The Plant Chica became busier than ever. Mejia soon realized that providing plants to people during lockdown was an important service all its own. However, she still faced challenges trying to keep up with the demand.&nbsp;
Mejia persisted and the trials she faced in 2020 helped her realize the significance of her new brick-and-mortar &nbsp;shop, which opened on March 7 in West Adams in LA with a marketplace featuring several LA-based women entrepreneurs of color.&nbsp;
“I don’t want to just be a plant shop,” she says of the space. “We’re here for our community and the people who live in this neighborhood.”

Mandy Kolahi, POT&nbsp;
As a rebellious teen, what first drew Mandy Kolahi to pottery was the fact that it was one of the few classes at her West LA high school where she could express herself freely.&nbsp;
One of the first finished pieces she presented in class, where she learned how to handbuild, was what she called a “double candle holder”—“really just a bong,” she jokes. But to Kolahi’s surprise, her teacher celebrated her creativity.&nbsp;
“I could make anything, and that was mind-blowing &nbsp;to me,” Kolahi says. “I don’t have to be censored and I don’t have to make, like, just a cup.’”&nbsp;
Post-graduation, Kolahi, a first-generation Iranian American, searched for that same freedom in pottery studios throughout LA, but struggled to find it in the predominantly white spaces. She was often the only person of color there.&nbsp;
After years of frustration, Kolahi decided to open her own full-service pottery studio, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/pot_la/">POT</a>, in 2017. She holds classes to make pipes, dildos and other playful objects that might be considered taboo in more traditional ceramics spaces. The Echo Park-based studio quickly became a staple of the community, known as the first pottery space owned, operated and intended for Black and brown people in the country, she says.&nbsp;
But in February 2020, just as Kolahi signed a lease for a second location—POT Gardens in West Adams—the lockdown happened. She was forced to cut her capacity down by 80% and turn the Echo Park location into a membership-only studio. She started offering online workshops as well.&nbsp;
“The pandemic definitely broke me in so many ways because it showed me what my limit was,” she says, working nonstop to be able to continue paying her staff and keep the studio open.
Despite the struggles, Kolahi said it’s the people around her that have kept her going.&nbsp;
“I would not have gotten through the pandemic without the pottery community because they reminded me why I’m doing this.”&nbsp;

Jazzi McGilbert, Reparations Club
When Jazzi McGilbert was developing her concept shop and creative space, <a href="https://rep.club/">Reparations Club</a>, in 2019, her mother, Joyce “Neicie” McGilbert, had passed away nine months prior. McGilbert poured her energy and some of the money her mother left behind into funding Reparations Club in South LA. The space sells books, apparel, home goods and accessories by predominantly Black creatives.
“She talked about wanting to open some kind of space,” McGilbert said of her mother who wasn’t able to explore her creative ambitions while she was alive. The opening of the shop also fell on her mother’s birthday. “I really feel like this is something that she would’ve done and been really proud of.”&nbsp;
With events like a book club by rapper Noname, yoga classes, book readings and even a Saturday morning cartoon viewing party in partnership with a Black-owned cereal company, Reparations Club became a go-to spot for LA creatives.&nbsp;
Over the summer of 2020, when consumers started making a conscious effort to shop at Black-owned businesses following Black Lives Matter protests, Reparations Club grew in popularity. Books were flying off the shelves, and McGilbert had to seek help from family and friends to meet the demand.&nbsp;
Though grateful that her business was thriving at the time, McGilbert had mixed feelings.&nbsp;
“It is bittersweet,” she says, “really more bitter than sweet that this is what it took to get here. Us doing well doesn’t fix the problem [of racism in America].”&nbsp;
Through it all, McGilbert says that her mission has remained consistent: uplifting Black and brown people, and also providing entrepreneurial opportunities for emerging talent.&nbsp;
In March, she opened the new location for Reparations Club, also in South LA.&nbsp;
“We just saw firsthand the power of the community and what we can do when we come together,” she says. “A lot of people threw support behind us and a lot of other Black-owned businesses, and it made a massive difference in us being able to have this new space.”&nbsp;

Alex Floro, Under New Mgmt&nbsp;
Since Alex Floro launched Under New Mgmt, a floral design studio that’s become known for its over-the-top floral arrangements, her mission has always been to make a statement.&nbsp;
After working as a freelance events coordinator for years, Floro was laid off in mid-2019 and wanted to start her company to bring awareness to the issues she was noticing in the industry.&nbsp;
“I just had really bad experiences as far as labor practices and everything like that, so I wanted to help move the industry in a different direction,” Floro says.&nbsp;
She launched Under New Mgmt that same year and began making bold floral arrangements that stem from her and her team’s experiences as people of color, immigrants, women and members of the LGBTQI+ community.&nbsp;
But when events came to a halt last spring, she sprung into action.&nbsp;
In addition to starting a home delivery service known as “No Contact, All Love,” Floro also launched a mutual aid fund called ROSIE in March 2020 to raise money for freelancers who were struggling financially during the pandemic. When anti-racist protests began around the globe, the mission evolved into <a href="https://www.undernewmgmt.co/info-1">People’s Bodega</a>, where Floro and volunteers supplied water bottles, snacks and first aid kits to protestors; there’s also a chapter in New York.
“I had a lot of time to contemplate what my role really is in this community. If I’m going to talk about it, I’m going to have to walk [the talk],” she says. The People’s Bodega LA &nbsp;chapter also holds monthly community events and maintains a community fridge in LA. &nbsp;
Whether designing elaborate floral arrangements adorned with tulle, fruit and rhinestones, or standing in solidarity with unhoused residents, at the core of Floro’s work is her mission of supporting marginalized communities.&nbsp;

Writer: Kailyn Brown
Photographs: Courtesy

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