“I really like problem,” Love, Lexxi founder Meg Smith tells Entrepreneur. “I’ve all the time been that method. So if there’s one thing that feels so out of attain, it makes me much more decided to discover a solution to get it executed.”
Smith’s Zoom background gives a glimpse into one the largest challenges she’s tackled thus far. Behind her, a trio of lacy bras hangs beneath a floral bouquet; on her left, a big stitching machine sits on a shelf. It’s a triumphant tableau that captures the spirit of her founder’s journey — one which inadvertently started again in 2016.
That was the yr Smith determined to get breast implants.
Rising up, like many women and younger girls of her era, Smith was bombarded with photos of the “excellent” lady: on tv, in magazines. As they’d because the daybreak of promoting, manufacturers have been shamelessly zeroing in on girls’s insecurities within the identify of revenue. In fact, they nonetheless do, although typically with subtler ways for the sake of PR.
Smith got here of age in an period when massive breasts have been thought of the epitome of femininity.
“I used to be a small-breasted athlete, so I by no means felt tremendous female in my pores and skin,” Smith says. “Society put quite a lot of stress on the conditions to be stunning, horny, female. In order that took a toll. It was an inside wrestle. Quick ahead to having two infants; my physique reworked much more — [my breasts] principally deflated to nothing.”
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Smith believed breast implants have been the way in which to resolve her body-image struggles, and the numerous docs she consulted with previous to the process agreed. However issues took an surprising and terrifying flip after the surgical procedure. About three months post-op, Smith started to expertise a bunch of debilitating signs: imaginative and prescient points, slurred speech, mind fog, and, over the course of 4 years, Graves Illness, thyroid points and locked joints. Docs couldn’t work out what was flawed.
Ultimately, Smith would find out about breast implant sickness, a problem that was little-known or understood again then, and it clicked — her new physique was the reason for her struggling. “I actually felt like I used to be dying,” Smith says. “That’s after I realized what was most necessary in my life — I used to be taking a look at my two daughters — dwelling and loving.”
So, within the fall of 2020, Smith had the implants eliminated, and she or he started her seek for a bra that may make her really feel snug and stunning. However the course of wasn’t as simple as she’d hoped. She encountered the identical difficulty throughout numerous manufacturers: If a bra was snug, it wasn’t fairly or inspiring a lot physique confidence.
Then, in the midst of the night time, Smith awakened with an epiphany: She was going to create what was lacking — a beautiful bra for sizes AA-C that felt as superb because it regarded.
“Each little bit of latest information stored fueling me”
Smith was ranging from sq. one. Though she’d owned a advertising and branding company for six years, she had zero expertise constructing a trend model from the bottom up. Fortunately, that advertising experience and love for problem have been all she wanted to get began.
“My advertising background clearly performed a job as a result of I used to be in a position to dive into intensive market analysis,” Smith says. “I performed focus teams. I am part of quite a lot of non-public communities of over 500,000 girls, who’re basically the goal demographic for what I’ve created. And it was simply validation after validation.”
Smith was additionally on a mission to be taught as a lot as she may in regards to the enterprise. “I simply spent infinite hours studying,” she says, “self-teaching — whether or not it was by podcasts, books, webinars. I simply couldn’t presumably eat sufficient, and even nonetheless as we speak, I believe that is an necessary factor. It gave me the boldness to proceed to maintain going, as a result of daily, each little bit of latest information stored fueling me. Data is energy.”
However Smith was breaking right into a notoriously powerful trade. Not solely did she should discover a manufacturing facility keen to work together with her and world-class technical designers, however she additionally needed to learn to pitch herself. Fortuitously, she started to make these important connections, and her enterprise continued to achieve momentum. “When you get into that bubble, [the network] simply type of passes the torch alongside,” Smith says. “The trail was type of paved; everybody’s been believing in what we’re constructing.”
The overwhelming assist has helped Love, Lexxi discover success, however the product-development journey nonetheless threw Smith a number of curveballs alongside the way in which. “Working by prototypes and getting these on match fashions to actually, actually engineer one thing that is fixing an issue was extremely difficult,” Smith says. Smith figured it might take two or three prototypes to get the product proper, but it surely really took 5 or 6.
However, two years later, the design is strictly the place Smith had envisioned it might be on that night time in 2020.
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Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Love, Lexxi
“Plenty of companies thrive off of us having insecurities”
When Smith underwent breast-implant surgical procedure in 2016, social media was going as robust because it ever had, with Fb, Instagram, Snapchat and extra on the scene. Not solely did the platforms maintain the pure human inclination to match oneself to a different, however in addition they more and more started to function main arenas for some manufacturers to faucet into these insecurities and pump up gross sales.
“If we have been all assured with ourselves and all of us felt good in our pores and skin, quite a lot of companies would not exist as we speak,” Smith says. “They thrive off of us having these insecurities — that is how they earn a living. They’re honing in on these insecurities and intensifying them to make you are feeling like they will remedy them or make you are feeling higher.”
A few years later, video-centric platform TikTok would additionally change into out there worldwide, finally skyrocketing in recognition throughout pandemic-induced lockdowns — and bringing with it a bunch of latest promoting alternatives, particularly within the type of influencers. Naturally, a few of that very same comparative toxicity stays, and has continued to evolve.
“There are nonetheless so many points with social media,” Smith says, citing filters that enable customers to change their picture in images and movies. However the bottom line is discovering the social media accounts that serve you, Smith says. Basically, observe those who assist you be ok with your self and unfollow those who don’t. “It sounds quite simple,” she admits, “but it surely’s, fairly frankly, about being very aware of what you’re exposing your self to on social.”
Smith has additionally observed some constructive adjustments taking root throughout the panorama of social media advertising. “I believe we have come a good distance,” she says. “So social media is nice within the sense that there are quite a lot of unimaginable constructive influencers on the market which are talking to physique confidence, all sizes are stunning. And I believe there’s such a chance there. And with out these platforms to amplify that, it might be more durable to have entry to these sorts of constructive messages.”
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However Smith is hyper-aware of the truth that, for some firms, touting physique positivity is simply one other hole advertising ploy. “Particularly as we speak, there’s simply quite a lot of advertising and quite a lot of promoting that is taking quite a lot of these buzzwords — whether or not it is ’empowerment’ or ‘physique confidence’ — and attempting to stay them into their messaging, simply to be related,” she says.
For Smith, making a model that basically embodies these values is paramount. “With Love, Lexxi, it’s so actually ingrained within the core of the whole lot that we do,” Smith says. “Sure, we have been in a position to engineer and design and assemble bras which are really fixing an issue and are stunning and comfy, in order that’s one factor — however the root of what we’re doing is inspiring physique confidence. I wish to affect the lives of ladies past our assortment.”
To that finish, Love, Lexxi is making its group a precedence — the corporate considers it an arm of the crew and believes that ought to include voting rights that assist the model make choices because it expands its assortment. Moreover, Love, Lexxi has partnered with body-positive public audio system and influencers who proceed to advertise physique confidence by way of digital occasions. Smith is aware of from expertise simply how necessary constant body-positive messaging is — and desires to close down a few of the false assumptions about what it means to be assured in a single’s pores and skin.
“[Body confidence] is a kind of issues that’s very aspirational — folks assume which you could simply get it and preserve it and have it,” Smith explains. “Nevertheless it’s one thing that is ongoing work. It is one thing I evaluate to a relationship: You do not essentially really feel the butterflies daily.”
Love, Lexxi’s model identify and image, a collection of intertwined hearts, function further reminders of the corporate’s values. “Butterflies symbolize confidence, magnificence and love,” Smith says. “And the most important, arguably most stunning, butterfly on the earth is the Queen Alexandra.” Taking the nickname “Lexxi” from that royal title, the corporate indicators off with “Love” as a result of its undergarments are supposed to be simply that — love letters to girls’s our bodies.
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Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Love, Lexxi
“I’m left with nothing however scars, however I really like my physique”
As Smith seems to Love, Lexxi’s future, she hopes the model continues to be one which prospects can belief and depend on to offer consolation and confidence to the AA-C group. “I actually need there to be model consciousness,” she says. “And I actually need girls to say Love, Lexxi has modified my life. Love, Lexxi makes me really feel good, not simply after I’m carrying it, however on an on a regular basis foundation. To have that type of suggestions for me is success — to know that I am impacting the lives of ladies. That, to me, is all that basically issues.”
Proper now, the Love, Lexxi group extends past the U.S. into Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and Smith hopes to proceed increasing the model’s worldwide presence to assist girls all around the world entry the type of intimate attire that makes them really feel snug and assured.
It may be tough for a startup to drag off international growth, Smith readily admits, however she’s full of optimism — and credit Spanx founder Sara Blakely, partly, for exhibiting girls entrepreneurs what’s doable after they’re not afraid to take a threat. “She’s given us hope,” Smith says. “I bear in mind tales of her together with her purple backpack — she’d go into Nordstrom’s or a kind of huge department shops and put advertising materials on the register cabinets. Seeing how she’s been in a position to construct her enterprise has been inspiring to me and made me really feel like if she will be able to do it, I can do it.”
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Smith additionally cites her close-knit household as a supply of inspiration. “They’re such an enormous a part of this,” she says. “Reminding me to imagine in myself — it is one thing that I’d pursue regardless, however to know I’ve that unimaginable assist, that is simply priceless.”
Smith stresses how necessary it’s for all aspiring girls founders to imagine in themselves — whether or not they have that assist proper off the bat or not. “Don’t let anybody inform you which you could’t obtain your wildest goals, before everything,” she says. “And be snug with getting no for a solution, however preserve going.”
It’s a mindset that’s already gotten the founder farther than she may need imagined only a few years in the past, as she’s grown a brand new appreciation for her physique alongside a model that helps different girls do the identical — elevating confidence over insecurity.
“I am left with nothing however scars, actually,” Smith says. “However I really like my physique.”
Supply: Entrepreneur