Sofia Rizzo is the 10-year-old founder of Glitter Girl, an international cruelty-free makeup brand that sells vegan, biodegradable, and hypo-allergenic glitter.
A native of Australia’s Gold Coast, Sofia told a Beach City reporter that she came up with the concept of Glitter Girl while on vacation in Hawaii. When asked by her mother what type of business she would want to own, Sofia responded that the idea of selling glitter had been on her mind for quite some time. According to the website, Glitter Girl was created “for people all around the world who loved all things Makeup, Glitter & Unicorns.”
Once the idea was locked in, Sofia’s mother Megan told The Gold Coast Bulletin that her daughter sold the idea to classmates, “took all the orders and made it up, put everyone’s name on it and took it all into school. You had 30 kids all using this glitter.”
Though Sofia’s salesmanship led to some trouble with the teacher (after all, glitter does stick to everything), it didn’t deter her parents from supporting her business ambitions. Nearly six months after Glitter Girl’s launch in October 2017, The Daily Mail reports that both of her parents have cut back on full-time work to better support their daughter’s booming business. In fact, the company has hired full-time staff in order to keep up with demand.
All glitter sold by Glitter Girl is vegan, hypo-allergenic, and biodegradable. Traditional glitter, the company notes, “is not so glitzy for Mother Earth.” Glitter is typically made from a plastic polymer called “Mylar” and since it is roughly a millimeter in diameter, it is considered a microplastic. Microplastics like glitter make up 92.4 percent of floating ocean plastic pollution, causing harm to seabirds, ocean dwellers (particularly fish, who mistake plastic particles for food), and the environment. Dr. Trisia Farrelly, an environmental anthropologist at Massey University, told The Independent, “I think all glitter should be banned, because it’s microplastic.”
Rather than use plastic, Glitter Girl glitter is made up of “a biodegradable film made from trees, primarily eucalyptus, sourced from responsibly managed plantations” and is “certified compostable.”
Not only is Glitter Girl glitter good to the planet, it is popular with customers. The brand currently has beauty ambassadors in both the US and UK, while music festival Splendour in the Grass is interested in collaborating with Glitter Girl (vegan festival makeup, anyone?). Further, according to Hit, the glitter is receiving rave reviews from drag artists in Sydney who tote its quality and staying power.
Image Credit: Glitter Girl
