017. Give Women Their Names Back: The Beauty Industry's Name Trap Nobody Is Talking About

Send me a text 💌When you sell your beauty brand, you might also be selling your name — forever. In this episode, Susannah Dellinger breaks down the Jo Malone lawsuit, the contracts that stripped female founders of the right to use their own names, and why the beauty industry's name trap is yet another system quietly designed to keep women from building twice.In this episode:What happened when Estée Lauder sued Jo Malone in 2026 — and why printing your own name as a founder on a bottle was enough to trigger itWhy naming your brand after yourself is one of the riskiest business decisions a founder can make — and why nobody told them that in the 90sHow Bobbi Brown ended up driving down a street called Jones Road — and what that story really says about what she lost when she soldWhy the founders who built the first wave of celebrity beauty brands couldn't have predicted what signing away their names would cost them decades laterThe name trap — why some female founders are staying in companies they want to leave because they know they can never use their name again if they goWhy this pattern is hitting women in beauty almost exclusively — and what it has in common with every other system stacked against female foundersFemale founder funding at an all-time low of 1.3% — and why the name trap is one more barrier on top of an already impossible climbWhy Estée Lauder has a golden opportunity right now to rip up those contracts publicly — and why doing it on TikTok would be worth more than any campaign they could buy01:24 She Sold Her Brand. They Kept Her Name. 02:18 Why Naming Your Brand After Yourself Is a Trap 03:14 How Bobbi Brown Ended Up on Jones Road 04:16 Jo Malone, Zara, and the Lawsuit Nobody Saw Coming 06:15 How Signing Away Your Name Became Standard Practice 07:38 Why This Keeps Happening to Women — and Not Men 09:49 Rip Up the Contracts. Give the Names Back. 10:46 The Brand Confusion Argument — and Why It Doesn't Hold 13:54 These Conversations MatterOff the Shelf is a podcast about the people, brands, and behind-the-scenes forces shaping the beauty industry — money, relationships, risk, and what it really takes to scale.CONNECT WITH SUSANNAHInstagram: @brightbeautyconnectLinkedIn: linkedin.com/susannah-dellinger