A Letter to the Birchbox Community

August 4, 2020

The Birchbox team is thrilled to join the Black in Fashion Council and unite efforts to advance the Black community.

July 9, 2020

Several weeks ago, the Birchbox team promised to come back with updates on our progress and plans of action in support of racial justice. To start, we're sharing our immediate and long term plans for hiring and recruitment, which includes our response to #pulluporshutup. This is the first plan of many that our team is working on (more to come on merchandising, marketing, operations, and internal programs). We are energized and motivated by the progress, and remain committed to the work ahead.

You can find our plan of action for hiring here.

We'd love for you to be part of this conversation. Please email us at change@birchbox.com with questions, feedback, and thoughts.

With gratitude,
The Birchbox Team

June 26, 2020

See here for a note to the Birchbox community regarding our participation in the #StopHateForProfit campaign, which will affect our advertising efforts on Facebook in the month of July.

June 13, 2020

Birchbox response to the recent actions of Lisa Alexander, founder and CEO of LAFACE

Thank you to the Birchbox community for speaking up and speaking out, and bringing the racist actions of Lisa Alexander to our attention. There is absolutely no space at Birchbox for racism, and we condemn Lisa Alexander's actions. We have not sampled the LAFACE brand in boxes in several years and, as a result of the CEO's actions today, have cut ties with them. We've removed their products from our online shop and will not be working with them again in the future.

Thank you,
The Birchbox Team

June 1, 2020

To the Birchbox community,

We are without all of the right words. We are sad and angry that systemic racism is part of our reality. We stand with everyone who is hurting, we stand with the families who have lost loved ones, we stand for anti-racism, and we stand for a wakeup call. We need to have this conversation everywhere until violence and loss of life are no longer needed to protect the basic rights of Black Americans. We also know that we need to be a platform that advocates for change, is an ally, and is a voice of solidarity.

While we remain committed, we also recognize that part of this process is owning our failures. We unequivocally own the fact that we have not done enough to be an ally to the Black community. We havent delivered in the way we should have in the representation of the products we carry, the brands we work with, and within our own team... weve certainly taken steps forward, but also taken steps back. We have been comfortable, and havent taken our full responsibility in being an ally as seriously as we should have been - that stops now.

Our entire company is currently working on a plan that is about creating meaningful and importantly, lasting change. While we will focus on our product itself and how it serves and delights the Black community, theres much more we can and will do. We are looking at investment as a whole - every place we put our money is an opportunity to invest in the Black community, dismantle systemic racism, and shift the paradigm.

In the immediate, we have created a committee within the company to be champions of ongoing plans across our teams who will help make this part of everything that we do. The first step of our commitment is to reassess and develop plans to impact the following areas:
- Our leadership principles to ensure that they reflect our commitments set forth here
- Hiring and the interview process
- Our beauty partner and sampling selection within boxes and our online shop
- Education and training for our team
- Agencies and other vendors that we work with
- Logistics and manufacturing partners that we work with
- Partnerships
- Donations and sponsorships (monetary and volunteer time)

Our team is also in the process of developing a 3 year plan, and we will continue to set annual plans beyond that to continue the work and to hold ourselves accountable. This week and next, our entire company is coming together to discuss and develop more tactical plans and commitments. Next week, we will update you on our progress on the development of our immediate and ongoing plans of action. In the meantime, please see below for a list of places Birchbox has donated to (and encourage you to donate to), resources we are encouraging our community to read and engage with, and steps you can take to support the Black community. Listening and learning and understanding the history is essential to activism.

This does not stop when the momentum on social media quells - we will continue, always, to do our part moving forward. We are looking ahead, more determined than ever, to be an advocate for change. But dont judge us on our words - judge us on our actions.

From,
The Birchbox Team

Birchbox has made donations to:
- Black Lives Matter
- The George Floyd Memorial Fund
- Brooklyn Bail Fund
- Reclaim The Block
- Black Visions Collective

Birchbox also matched employee donations during the month of June.

Additional Organizations to Donate To:
- The Loveland Foundation: Loveland Foundation is committed to showing up for communities of color in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls. Our resources and initiatives are collaborative and they prioritize opportunity, access, validation, and healing. We are becoming the ones weve been waiting for.
- Campaign Zero: working to end police violence in America.
- Color of Change: we design campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward. Until justice is real.
- Know Your Rights: advances the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.

People & Accounts To Follow (and monetarily support their work, if you can):
- Rachel Cargle
- Angela Davis
- Jen Jean-Pierre Maull
- Tamika Mallory
- Ava Duvernay
- The Great Unlearn
- Layla F. Saad
- Trever Noah of The Daily Show
- No White Saviors
- The Mirror
- Follow the #BlackTransLivesMatter movement
- Black Trans Activists to follow

Resources Outside of Social Media:
- Listen to 1619 Podcast
- Listen to About Race Podcast
- A comprehensive list of books by Black activists
- Read up on Black history - here is a comprehensive list of resources
- Read So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Read up on ways you can support Black Trans Lives

Support Black-Owned Businesses:
- Here's a comprehensive list of black-owned beauty and wellness brands put together by Stephanie Saltzman of Fashionista.com
- Check out the brands we have available in the Birchbox shop here

Have a resource you want to share that more people should know about it that we should add to this? Is there a black owned brand you want us to share? Send us a DM on Instagram or email us at change@birchbox.com