For decades, the traditional beauty industry has relied on a profitable but harmful idea: convincing women that their natural skin is a flaw.

Things like visible pores, cellulitis, tone, body hair, fine lines, and natural texture are treated like problems that need fixing. Why? Because creating self-doubt is the fastest way for companies to sell another product.

“This cycle places an ‘insecurity tax’ on women… Another person’s pain should never serve as a profit margin.”

This cycle places an “insecurity tax” on women. Men are allowed to age naturally and go about their daily lives without feeling the need to hide their skin. Women, on the other hand, face constant pressure to look filter-perfect every time they step outside or open an app on their phone. The result is a growing wave of anxiety and body dissatisfaction among younger generations who feel they can never live up to these unrealistic standards. At its worst, more and more people get body dysmorphic disorder(BDD).

As chief executive officer of a major beauty brand, I refuse to accept that company growth must depend on making people feel bad about themselves. The beauty industry needs a reset, and fixing it starts at the top: in the boardroom.

Despite women representing the overwhelming majority of cosmetics consumers, they remain vastly underrepresented in executive suites and corporate boardrooms across Corporate America. When business decisions are made by leaders who do not share the lived experiences of their customers, out-of-touch and toxic marketing becomes the norm. You cannot fix broken beauty standards if company leadership does not reflect the real world.

At e.l.f. Beauty, we are working to change that. Through our “Change the Board Game” initiative, we actively advocate for equal representation and diversity in corporate governance. We also lead by example: e.l.f. Beauty is one of the few U.S. public companies where women and diverse members make up more than 70% of the board of directors.

When you put women and diverse voices in charge, priorities change. Beauty stops being a tool to cover up so-called flaws and becomes what it always should have been: a fun, accessible form of self-expression.

Real corporate leadership means taking responsibility for how our marketing affects people’s mental health. It is not enough to run a campaign about self-love while maintaining executive teams that ignore diversity. It is time for beauty executives across the industry to step up, diversify their boardrooms, and stop turning natural human skin into a business profit margin.