Ask Jessica Alba who she thinks is daring and she answers quickly and unexpectedly: "Eleanor Roosevelt." It turns out that Alba credits the former first lady for the origins of the Honest Company, the actress's rapidly growing empire of eco-friendly home-cleaning and baby products. When Alba, 33, first developed the concept for Honest,
it didn't immediately resonate with investors. Despite her profile as an actress, she came up against the same problems that most start-up companies face: Early business plans fell apart, prospective partners came and went, and funding was elusive. "But I was reading Robin Gerber's Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way, and I saw how she kept hitting dead ends but kept pushing on," Alba recalls. "She didn't give up—she tried again. That's what I did until it finally made it."
Albert Watson
"Made it" is an understatement. Less than three years after Alba and Healthy Child Healthy World author Christopher Gavigan teamed up with entrepreneur Brian Lee to launch the brand, Honest's valuation is approaching the billion-dollar mark, and the company now employs some 300 people at its Santa Monica headquarters. (Alba's desk sits in a row in the middle of the floor, loaded with new products and photos of her daughters, Honor, six, and Haven, three. ) "The most daring thing I ever did was take a step back from my acting career and start this company," she says. Roosevelt "taught me that one person can make real change, that an individual has limitless power, and that if you have a will there's a way." She smiles. "I know, I know. How corny does that sound?"
Starting a company was not the first time that Alba thinks she was daring, however. "Being an 11-year-old kid and telling your mom that you want to be an actress and that you know you're going to make it? I think that's pretty daring too," she says. She got her big break in 2000, when she was cast in James Cameron's TV series DarkAngel, which led to starring roles in films like Honey andFantastic Four. In 2008, though, Alba put her acting career on hold following the birth of Honor; sister Haven followed in 2011. "Even becoming a mother was risky," she remembers. "It meant cooling off from this business, which was all I had known my entire life. I had to peace-out at 28, completely shift my priorities, and not be apologetic and not care about the consequences."
Of course, Alba is perhaps the only woman who can run a thriving lifestyle business while also appearing on a billboard to promote her most recent movie, this past summer's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which is fitting, given that she always looks killer on the red carpet. "I've tried to push the envelope," she says with a laugh, "but I don't know if it always works." Indeed, Alba's greatest hits have been when she mixes her sex appeal with more classic silhouettes. Who could forget when she presented at the Oscars in a gilded Versace gown? Or the coral-colored mermaid-shaped Oscar de la Renta dress she wore to last year's Golden Globes?
Albert Watson
Fashion aside, there's nothing like hard work. "I want to be daring. I want to be innovative. I want to disrupt the marketplace," Alba enthuses. "I want to show that there's a better, cleaner way to live our lives." She's most proud of Honest's eco-friendly cleaning products, which don't give off noxious-smelling fumes; biodegradable, hypoallergenic laundry detergent; and chlorine-free, cutely patterned diapers. "We're changing people's lives and giving them the solutions they want," she adds. The company is also branching out into cosmetics; producing shampoos, body washes, and soaps as well as prenatal supplements, and it has an in-house charitable program that, to date, has donated more than half a million products, plus some 1,200 hours of employee time, to various nonprofits.
"After I turned 30, I became more daring as a woman," Alba says. "Having a successful company had a hand in that. I've set my priorities in a different place, with my children and my family. I dared to look at projects outside of Hollywood, and I'm so happy that I did."
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