Seventeen-year-old Autumn Newberry’s journey to entrepreneurship is a tale filled with “Black girl magic” and “women’s empowerment.”
As most young girls, Newberry says she was fascinated with fashion growing up. “As a little girl, I would always play dress-up. Oddly enough, I was allergic to most lip glosses and was only able to wear vaseline or certain hypoallergenic products,” she says.
In August 2019, Newberry was inspired to create her own line of products, and by December, she launched Autumn Doll Cosmetics. The line includes a variety of lip glosses, which are all handmade. Newberry personally handles the entire production process. She mixes the colors, maintains the website, and does her own packaging and shipping.
“I was motivated to start my business because of a personal situation I saw my mom go through,” she says. She witnessed her mother question her worth.
“This prompted me to do something that would empower women of all ages. Women go through many situations in life, and some have harsh experiences. I noticed that one of the first things we ask ourselves is ‘What did I do?’ or ‘Am I good enough?’ I want to inspire women to have confidence and to be independent. I want my cosmetics to make women feel beautiful on the outside and feel powerful on the inside. I believe that if you look good, you feel good.”
While being an entrepreneur this past school year, Newberry also had to make sure her homework got done. “I tried to handle everything I needed to do for my business when I first got home from school until around 7 p.m.,” she says. Then, she’d focus on studying until about 10 p.m.
Newberry says she takes care of most of her shipping and preparing orders on Saturdays. “I try to stay active on my business social media accounts, but it could be challenging when I had a big test or papers to write,” she says.
Newberry graduated this year from Bartlett High school with a 4.1 GPA. She received offers from a variety of universities but decided to attend Tennessee State University in the fall, on a full scholarship. Her plan is to major in finance or marketing. “I’m hoping to gain more knowledge about business practices that I can use to continue to grow Autumn Doll Cosmetics,” Newberry says.
She’s already taking steps to continue that growth. “I have a spring lip gloss line, Breezy, that was released at the end of March. I also have begun researching lip scrubs and moisturizers, and eventually I plan to supply lip pencils and eye shadow.” Newberry says her ultimate goal is to own a manufacturing company.
“I want little girls to feel good about themselves and to know the sky’s the limit,” Newberry says. Her advice for young girls interested in becoming entrepreneurs is to find their passion. “Find out what you like to do that does not feel like work,” she says.
A vision board and research helped her. “I also used the money I made from interning to invest in my business, which showed my parents that I was serious. And they pitched in a little to get me started. My dad paid for me to become an LLC, and my mom helped me to design my logo and take pictures for the website.”
Newberry says she wants women in general to accomplish their goals, and she reminds them that “a little bit of glitz goes a long way” toward feeling beautiful and empowered.
Visit autumndollcosmetics.com to learn more.