Anita Roddick - A Spirited Woman Role Model

As I write this I am sitting on the Eurostar on my way to London. In case you have missed this fact in a few of my previous blogs, I love the Eurostar and I adore London. I am very fortunate that my work allows me to come to this place that feels like home, a number of times a year. The first time I came to London was in 1985. I was a university student who had decided to take a semester off and back pack around Europe. It was an amazing adventure that I believe changed me in more ways than even I saw at the time. It was on this trip that I discovered a marvelous store called The Body Shop. A beauty store unlike any I had ever seen, their products and messages were groundbreaking. This was also my introduction to The Body Shop's amazing founder Anita Roddick. Anita was the epitome of a Spirited Woman: gutsy, outrageous, philanthropic, entrepreneurial and above all caring.

A little over two years ago, I was walking in a local shopping center and as I passed The Body Shop, I stopped in shock. There behind the cash register was a big sign memorializing the store's great founder: Anita Roddick. The sadness that flooded over me was quite extreme when you consider the fact that I had never even met the woman, but I had always believed that one day I would meet her as she represented so much of what I aspired and continue to aspire to. The world felt a little less light that day and I knew that we had lost a great crusader and a woman with incredible heart. Fortunately, there are others who continue Anita's work so though she has passed, her message lives on.

Anita began The Body Shop in a tiny English village in 1976. She needed a way to support her two daughters while her husband was away traveling through South America. Somehow she came up with the idea to create natural beauty products. She packaged them in simple jars and then encouraged people to come back and re-fill the same jars to save money on packaging. It had not been her intention at the start to be one of the first companies to promote recycling but that is indeed what she did. She also used recipes for her creams that she had learned in her travels, incorporating simple, non-animal tested, non-toxic ingredients. Again, the original reasoning was to keep the production economical but the elements for much of what Anita stood for were natural bi-products of her simple solutions.

As The Body Shop began to grow, Anita put more and more of herself and her ideals into the brand. She sought out trade with poor and developing countries to use local labor and to pay fairly, changing entire villages' lives with the money they were able to earn. She also brought natural ingredients that were prominently used in remote areas to the attention of the Western World. Through her work and promotions within her stores she strove to create awareness and action against disease, illiteracy, human rights abuse and many other important matters. No issue was too controversial to touch, if change needed to happen, Anita was there to do her part.

In her book Body and Soul (published in 1991), Anita made me realize that one day I too wanted to create a business that would help bring about change for the better. In her book she states that her goal was "to see with truth rather than hype"; how refreshing and how ground-breaking. Anita walked her talk and though she may have ruffled a few big businessman's feathers with her outspoken manner and strong convictions, she nearly single -handedly started the ripples that have today become waves: environmentalism, recycling, human rights, sustainable development and fair trade. She is one incredible Spirited Woman if I have ever seen one!

How about you?  Do you have a role model that has helped shape who you are or who you are becoming?  Tell us about her (or him) what greatness did she inspire in you? Your sharing just may inspire another Spirited Woman to follow her calling too, so come on speak up...Anita would be proud!

To your Spirited Style,

- Dawn Z Bournand  www.fabulouslysuccessful.com
Click here to read more of Dawn's posts.

Comments

[TheSpiritedWoman.com]

Lara, thank you for bringing these lovely ladies to The Spirited Woman readers attention. the article you have referrenced is a wonderful tribute and I highly encourage our readers to have a read and if they live nearone of the Body Time shops to absolutely make a viist.

[Lara Dale]

What I really wish is that you would credit the original founders of Body Shop, Peggy Short and Jane Saunders, whose beautiful, incredibly well run series of shops in Berkeley and the Bay Area are what Anita copied when she went back to London, after traveling to CA.
Anita never credited the two women, and finally had to buy the name out in order to branch out into the US, so their sweet perfect stores are now called Body Time, and make exquisite customized lotions and potions for a very discerning clientele in the Bay Area.
Here is another in-depth article about their story, and Anita's role in it. Important women do need to be recognized, but let's make sure they are the right ones.

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2004-02-03/article/18201?headline=Made-In-Berkeley-Berkeley-s-Body-Time-the-Original-Body-Shop

[Lara Dale]

There is much more to Anita Roddick's story. She was a powerful, intelligent person, but she was not an innovator, and her company suffered due to some very questionable actions on her part. For an in depth article on this topic I suggest you follow this link:

http://www.jonentine.com/articles/bodyflop.htm