Emily Weiss was born on March 22, 1985, in Wilton, Connecticut. She is an American entrepreneur best known for founding Glossier, one of the most talked-about beauty brands of the past decade.
From a beauty blog written in the early hours of the morning to a company valued at $1.8 billion, her story is one of the most compelling in modern business.
Who is Emily Weiss?
Emily Weiss is the founder of Glossier and the creator of the beauty blog Into the Gloss.
She built a direct-to-consumer beauty brand from scratch, using customer conversations as her product guide.
Weiss worked as a fashion assistant at Vogue before launching her blog in 2010.
That blog grew into a community of millions, which she then used as the foundation for Glossier in 2014.
She served as CEO of Glossier for eight years, growing it into a unicorn company with a peak valuation of $1.8 billion.
In May 2022, she stepped down as CEO and moved into the role of executive chairwoman.
Her path from fashion intern to beauty founder has been covered by Forbes, Time, Fortune, and countless other major outlets.
Few entrepreneurs in the beauty space have had the same cultural impact.
Early Life of Emily Weiss
Emily Weiss grew up in Wilton, Connecticut, which she once described to Vanity Fair as the land of “lacrosse players and manicured lawns.”
Her upbringing was stable and grounded, but her ambitions pointed far beyond her hometown.
She showed a passion for fashion from a very young age. In seventh grade, she wrote a letter to Vogue magazine about a fashion spread featuring model Trish Goff, and Vogue published it.
Her confidence and drive were clear early on. As a teenager, she babysat for a neighbor who worked at Ralph Lauren, and she used that connection to score an internship at just 15 years old.
She interned at Ralph Lauren for two summers in high school and also briefly tried modeling.
Emily Weiss Age
Emily Weiss is 41 years old as of 2026, born on March 22, 1985. She remains active in the beauty and entrepreneurship world as the founder and executive chairwoman of Glossier.
Emily Weiss Ethnicity and Nationality
Emily Weiss is American. She was born and raised in Connecticut and has lived and worked in New York City for most of her adult life.
Emily Weiss Parents
Emily Weiss’s father worked as an executive at Pitney Bowes, a large business services company.
Her mother was a stay-at-home parent who dedicated herself to raising the family.
Weiss has spoken publicly about the influence her father had on her work ethic.
As she explained in an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, her father “didn’t graduate college, printed his own business cards, worked his way up from door-to-door salesman.”
She credited both parents with teaching her the value of hard work.
That lesson clearly stuck. Before Glossier ever launched, Weiss was waking up at 4 a.m. to write for Into the Gloss before heading to her day job at Vogue.
Emily Weiss Education
Weiss attended New York University, where she studied studio art. She graduated from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 2007.
While still a student, she landed an internship at Teen Vogue. That experience gave her an early look at how fashion and beauty media operated at the highest level.
During her time at Teen Vogue, she also appeared in a three-episode arc on the MTV reality show The Hills, alongside Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port.
She played the character known on the show as “Emily: New York Intern” and quickly earned a reputation as the super intern.
Emily Weiss Career
After graduating from NYU, Weiss began her professional career in fashion media.
She worked as a fashion assistant at W Magazine and then moved to Vogue, where she served as an on-set styling assistant.
Into the Gloss
In September 2010, Weiss launched Into the Gloss while still working full-time at Vogue.
She wrote posts between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. each morning before heading to her day job.
The blog featured in-depth interviews with women about their beauty routines and favorite products.
Its most popular series, called Top Shelf, invited subjects into their bathrooms to show what was actually on their shelves. Early guests included Karlie Kloss and Jenna Lyons.
By early 2012, Into the Gloss had grown to over 200,000 monthly visitors. By 2015, it was drawing over one million unique readers per month.
Founding Glossier
The blog’s rapid growth showed Weiss that her audience wanted more than content. They wanted products.
In 2014, she left Vogue to focus entirely on turning her blog into a business. She pitched Glossier to 12 investment firms.
Eleven said no. Venture capitalist Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures said yes, providing $2 million in seed funding.
Weiss used that investment to hire a small team and build Glossier.com. In October 2014, she introduced Glossier’s first four products on Into the Gloss and launched the site. The response was immediate and enthusiastic.
Growth and Valuation
Glossier grew at a remarkable pace. The brand focused on a direct-to-consumer model and relied on word of mouth.
Roughly 80% of customers reportedly came through referrals from other customers.
By 2018, Glossier had crossed $100 million in annual revenue. In February 2018, Weiss raised $52 million in a Series C funding round.
In March 2019, Glossier raised $100 million in a Series D round, pushing its valuation to $1.2 billion.
That made Weiss one of the rare female founders to lead a unicorn company.
In July 2021, Glossier closed a Series E round and reached its peak valuation of $1.8 billion.
Stepping Down as CEO
In May 2022, Weiss stepped down as CEO of Glossier after eight years leading the company.
Kyle Leahy, the company’s chief commercial officer, took over as CEO. Weiss remained on the board as executive chairwoman.
She continues to hold that title as of 2026. Colin Walsh became Glossier’s CEO in October 2025 as the company went through a strategic reset under new leadership.
Emily Weiss Business Achievements
Weiss built one of the most influential beauty brands of the digital age without relying on celebrity endorsements or traditional advertising.
Glossier’s entire marketing strategy was built on community and social media. She raised over $260 million in venture capital funding across multiple rounds.
Under her leadership, Glossier opened flagship stores in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
She also pioneered the idea that a blog audience could become a beauty brand’s customer base.
Her approach changed how the beauty industry thought about marketing and product development.
Fortune’s Polina Marinova wrote that Weiss “quietly turned Glossier into one of the most disruptive brands in beauty.”
Emily Weiss Awards and Recognition
Weiss has earned recognition from some of the most respected publications in business and media.
- Forbes 30 Under 30 (2015)
- Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business (2015)
- AdWeek Top 20 Content Creators (2016)
- Time magazine’s Next 100 (2019)
- Forbes 30 Under 30 Alumni Hall of Fame (2022)
She was also featured in the 2023 book Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier by journalist Marisa Meltzer.
Emily Weiss Husband
Emily Weiss is engaged to Will Gaybrick, a senior executive at Stripe. Gaybrick serves as President of Product and Business at the financial technology company. He was promoted to that role in 2023.
The couple made their relationship public in January 2019 when Weiss posted a photo of them together on Instagram.
In March 2020, she announced their engagement with a selfie showing off a classic emerald-cut diamond ring set on a platinum band.
Before her relationship with Gaybrick, Weiss was married to photographer Diego Dueñas.
The two wed in the Bahamas in 2016, but the marriage was short-lived and ended in divorce.
Emily Weiss Children
Emily Weiss and Will Gaybrick welcomed their first child, a daughter named Clara Lion Weissbrick, on June 29, 2022.
Weiss announced the birth on her Instagram page. Weiss has spoken about trying to keep her family life mostly private.
She and Gaybrick have kept details about their personal lives out of the public eye since their daughter was born.
That approach reflects how both she and Gaybrick have handled their relationship throughout.
Despite Weiss’s public profile, the couple has remained notably private about their home life.
Emily Weiss Net Worth
Emily Weiss’s estimated net worth is $100 million as of 2026. Her wealth comes primarily from her ownership stake in Glossier, which she built from a $2 million seed investment into a company valued at $1.8 billion at its peak.
Glossier Equity
As the founder of Glossier, Weiss holds a significant equity stake in the company.
The company raised over $260 million in venture capital, and Weiss’s personal stake grew in value with each funding round.
Glossier’s valuation has declined from its 2021 peak as the company went through leadership changes and operational restructuring.
As of 2026, the company was reportedly seeking new funding at a valuation below $1 billion.
Speaking Engagements
Weiss is an in-demand speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship, beauty, and brand building.
She has spoken at events organized by Goldman Sachs, NPR, and major business conferences. Speaking fees add to her income beyond her Glossier equity.
Emily Weiss Social Media
Weiss is most active on Instagram, where she has over 652,000 followers as of 2026. Her account mixes personal moments with glimpses of her professional work.
She uses her Instagram presence to reflect the same values she built Into the Gloss and Glossier on: authenticity, simplicity, and real moments over polished perfection. Her posts rarely feel like advertising.
Weiss also maintains a presence through Glossier’s official channels, which have millions of followers across platforms. Her personal voice helped shape how the brand communicates online.
The Bottom Line
Emily Weiss turned a beauty blog written before dawn into a billion-dollar company, and that alone sets her apart from nearly every entrepreneur of her generation.
Her influence on direct-to-consumer beauty and community-driven brand building continues to shape the industry years after she stepped back from day-to-day leadership.
