6 minutes read
In ELLE’s monthly series “Office Hours,” we ask people in powerful positions to tell us about their first jobs, their worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we spoke to Molly Sims, a woman who truly does it all. After starting her career as a Sports Illustrated model and MTV VJ, she went on to become an actress, podcaster, author, social media personality, mother, and founder of Something Happy Productions. What has been her most challenging role to date? Building her skincare brand, YSE Beauty. The brand recently closed a $15 million Series A funding round and has begun launching buzzy new products soon. Wide Awake is an eye cream that she calls an elixir for dark circles, puffiness, and fine lines. “My life is all about getting people to take me seriously,” Sims says of her latest venture. “There’s always that girl inside me thinking, do they really believe I can do that?” Here’s how she proved the naysayers wrong.
my first job
I worked at a small fashion boutique in Mayfield, Kentucky. I was 15 years old and a salesperson. At first they thought I was crazy because I would say, “Take it off, she can’t buy it.” I was their best salesman ever. I loved it. He was very good at it. I thought, “Even if I don’t have money, I can still get this.” I think I made $6 or $7 an hour.
my worst job
What I wanted to be in life: Worked at a law firm called Haverstock. I was a receptionist. I became a notary public. We all had coffee. I mostly just sat at my desk.
How I was discovered
During my freshman and sophomore years at Vanderbilt University, I worked on the Hill because I wanted to go into political law at the time. I had planned to study abroad at the London School of Economics during the first semester of my third year, but the summer before that I had the opportunity to go to New York. A girl I went to school with asked me to be a model, so I took a test photo. The photos were sent to New York and I toured them. I went to Elite. I moved on. I went to Ford with my mom and never expected to go for more than a week, but we ended up staying 4 weeks. Then I was asked to take a semester off to model in Europe. So I ended up going to Germany, then London, then Paris, where I spent the next six years[working as a model].
What modeling has taught me the hard way
The hardest part was transitioning from a sorority where I had a lot of friends and didn’t really care about how I looked, and then the next day they thought I was overweight and they said, “Let’s check your size and get some jeans.” I went from one extreme to another. It’s business. You are making money using someone’s face, body, look, image, and likeness. At the end of the day, that business has been great for me, but for a 21-year-old girl thrown into it, it’s still very difficult. It rocked my world, rocked my confidence, rocked my being. I’ve been using my nose for 20 years and never once thought it was distorted. I never thought I had a bad arm. I have never thought that my calves are too big. I can tell you some great things that have been given to me as a founder. You can pivot, you can problem solve, and you can work 15 hours a day in two countries. But the mental side was definitely very difficult. You strolled over, trying not to look at you if someone opened a book. I can count on two hands the number of people who said yes. Still, please say yes. Keep saying “yes”. you never know.
How I went from model to MTV VJ to actress
The previous four or five years were very important for me in preparing for that. You think, “Oh my god, I could walk down the runway.” Or maybe you’re not just a catalog girl and all of a sudden you meet Diane Smith at Sports Illustrated and she says, “I like you.” I thought of Colin Day, Heroin Chic, and Kate Moss, but that wasn’t it. I didn’t weigh 80 pounds. I was born with black hair. People said I would never work as a blonde. Then along came MTV’s House of Style. They were thinking of trying to figure things out with Amber (Barretta) and Shalom (Harlow), but that didn’t work out, so they were wondering if they could take back what Cindy (Crawford) did. And Old Navy was like, “Oh my god, she can talk!” That turned into a five-year contract with CoverGirl. But I never thought (that this was what I wanted to do). I can’t help but talk about it. I can’t help but have an opinion. I always knew there was something else out there.
What feels most energizing to me right now
It’s a full circle with YSE. (Before) I was always the girl who had it last. I’ve never been involved in anything from an idea. The ideas that came out of the problem felt like the perfect blank space for my life, and at the same time the perfect fit for what I wanted to leave behind as a legacy. I love acting. I didn’t want to leave the house. Nothing has been more difficult than creating this brand. I didn’t go to Harvard Business School, I didn’t go to operations school, I didn’t go to marketing school…I had to learn and listen and do PD, which is a lot of fun. I’m on a roller coaster, I’m on a plane, I’m wearing my seatbelt, I’m wearing my oxygen mask, and I’m starting a startup because it makes me sick to my stomach and I feel dizzy. You have to have that much passion and a strong point of view. Sometimes things don’t work out.
Which career choice taught me the biggest lessons?
The jump from model to actor was tough because you were always trying to pretend. You were so afraid that someone would say, “Well, she’s just a model.” My life is just trying to get people to take me seriously. It’s always weird where this comes from because so much of my career has been about looks. That girl in my mind is always thinking, do they really believe I can do this?
How I got into beauty
When I started my podcast, Lipstick on the Rim, four and a half years ago, it was a strategy to get people to take me seriously in an industry where beauty and health are very serious categories. I felt that YSE was two sides of the same coin. Yes, that’s my product. It all makes me look good. But on the other side of the coin, no matter how you look at it, you can look at different pictures and say, “I didn’t like myself there.” It’s how you feel about yourself. And at that time, no one in my industry was willing to tell the truth about anything. they will cover it up. they will lie. It bothered me because they were such gatekeepers. I am transparent with my community, the girls. That’s why I wanted to start YSE.
Essential beauty products for travel
wide awake. When developing it, I asked, “What do you want from me? What am I missing?” And everyone wanted eye cream. I want to apply eye cream, but I can’t. So I tried blurring it out. The applicator is like a cold plunge. There is a color corrector. Corrects fine lines and wrinkles. It moisturizes…the goal is to keep the area from looking dry, aged, or wrinkled. Think of it as a daytime concealer. It gives you that moisture underneath. Because this area is going to get worse.
YSE Beauty Wide Awake
The key to building a strong personal brand
If I work for a company, you come to me for a reason. If I don’t feel like I can be creative, I don’t do it, no matter how much. Because it’s not real. I think the most difficult thing is working with young people and explaining things. The complexity of trying to show reality on social, yeah, you can look great, but I think what my community loves is saying, yeah, I’m not a mom to my kids anymore. I think the most difficult thing is to make it a reality. The balance between “Oh my god, I look amazing” and “I hate my kids.”
My best parenting advice
I mother really hard, play hard, and work hard. Listening to children at their level is important, but you also really need structure. I make them very real and realistic. My children don’t have phones. It’s not easy, but I’m running the ship well.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
