Brand founder Carly Sophia has slammed the disappointing response from men after revealing how she turned her skincare business into a huge success without any outside financial backing.
The 36-year-old Sydney resident launched Aeon Skin early last year, and her line of high quality skincare has already developed a cult following.
The business routinely turns over $100,000 a month and is expected to reach $1 million in revenue in its first financial year.
When news.com.au reported on the brand’s success last month, Ms Sophia began reading the online comments and was alarmed.
The assumptions (mostly by men) varied slightly, but the overall theme was the same: people wanted to undermine or discredit her success and sexualise her.
“Do they treat all new business owners with the same assumption that they have no clue what they’re doing, or just the female ones?” she asked news.com.au.
“Apart from the OnlyFans s**t, which is pretty low-hanging fruit, it is also worth mentioning that the number of men who attempted to mansplain capital gains tax to me.”
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Aeon Skin is fully funded by Ms Sophia, with no other outside investors, and has built a strong customer base within 12 months.
Starting her own business has meant Ms Sophia has given up her day job as a writer and is now focusing on her skincare brand full-time.
You might think this kind of self-made success story would be warmly received, but you would be wrong.
Instead, people started conspiracy theories that she was doing OnlyFans and ignorantly ignored the real story.
OnlyFans is an online subscription platform where people subscribe to access exclusive content from creators, but it is best known for its X-rated content.
“Has she just discovered OnlyFans?” one asked.
“Those OnlyFans returns,” another claimed.
Others accused Ms Sophia of drug dealing, and claimed her skincare brand was a clever ruse for the “real product”, while some just assumed she was a sex worker.
When not being sexualised, people decided she was clueless.
Other commenters focused on Ms Sophia’s tax plan. They inquired whether she knew she had to pay tax, questioned whether she understood what capital gains tax is, and even went so far as to accuse her of not paying tax.
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Ms Sophia addressed people’s assumptions on social media and pointed out that these comments are predictable and ignorant.
“People had assumptions and questions. Mainly, whether my success could be attributed to drug dealing, tax evasion, or OnlyFans,” she wrote.
The skincare founder admitted she wasn’t shocked by the comments (she’s a woman who exists on the internet, after all), but she was completely fed up with them.
“What’s surprising isn’t that these comments exist. I mean, of course, some of their male reader’s think that all women are sex workers,” she said.
“It’s that these comments appear so predictably anytime a woman publicly succeeds at something.
“It reveals a disappointing truth about the way some men still view women’s achievements: Sheer luck, deception or sexuality.”.
Ms Sophia said people would rather make up insulting reasons for her success than just accept that she might be a clever businesswoman.
She said online trolls will “literally” make up any theory rather than just think women are “competent”.
“The reality, for me, is much less exciting. No cartel. No offshore accounts. No OnlyFans. Just passion, hard work and outstanding creations,” she said.
Ms Sophia concluded that men would rather make wild assumptions than accept that a woman without any help can run and launch a successful business.
