When Selena Gomez launched Rare Beauty back in 2020, the message was simple: break down previous notions that everyone must be perfect, and shine a light on mental health issues.
While this may have broken every budding makeup brand’s dream, brands like Fenty Beauty shared similar, groundbreaking mission statements: bolster inclusivity in the makeup industry and force all brands to do the same in the process.
Inspired by her 2020 album, Rare, Rare Beauty began with the basics: 48 foundation shades, lip balms and matte lip creams, eyebrow definers, and the icon, liquid blush. Four years later, it’s hard to imagine a more viral, innovative celebrity makeup brand that remains in stride with Fenty.
Quickly, the Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush became TikTok’s go-to staple product. And no one can deny there is no blush on the market that is as pigmented, easily blendable, and long-lasting as this one. Selena Gomez has proven herself a bonafide content creator with her charismatic social media posts for fun Rare Beauty launches like an under-eye brightener, an SPF-laden tinted moisturizer, and lip combos.
Not only is Rare Beauty inclusive in shade range, but the spherical shape of the top of their products is disability-friendly.
As of 2024, Rare Beauty is a $2 billion company. But what sets this company apart is their attention to detail and true dedication to bettering the world. The same year that Rare Beauty was founded, the Rare Impact Fund was also created.
What Is The Rare Impact Fund?
In a statement by Gomez on the Rare Impact Fund’s website, she states,
“The Rare Impact Fund is committed to expanding access to mental health services and education for young people everywhere. We work with a strong network of supporters and experts to bring mental health resources into educational settings to reach young people.
Because no one– regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or background - should struggle alone.”
Upon their start, the Rare Impact Fund committed to raising $100 million by 2030. Along with corporate sponsorships and donations from individuals, 1% of proceeds from all Rare Beauty sales go towards the charity as well. By 2021, they had donated over $1.2 million in grants to eight mental health institutions including Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
In 2021, the Rare Impact Fund launched a GoFundMe for their new Mental Health 101 initiative. According to the GoFundMe,
“Mental Health 101 advocates for more mental health in education, empowers our community, and encourages financial support for more mental health services in educational settings through the Rare Impact Fund,”
Promising to match up to $200,000 in donations, to date the GoFundMe has raised over $500,000 and has donations from less than six months ago.
How The Rare Impact Fund Works
By leveraging both Selena Gomez’s millions of social media followers and the four million people who follow Rare Beauty on Instagram, the Rare Impact Fund quickly trickles into visibility. Suddenly, fans of the brand and Gomez alike can help make a difference by donating even a few dollars in honor of their favorite actress-singer extraordinaire.
As of 2023, the Rare Impact Fund helped grantees like UCLA Friends of Semel Institute, Batyr, La Familia, Mindful Life Project, Black Teacher Project, and Trans Lifeline. According to the website, they have raised $6 million in contributions and distributed $3 million in grant support so far.
Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund alone are blazing a trail for all brands: you can make a change while still distributing high-quality products — and it pays off.
Firearms enthusiasts are leaving Youtube in search of greener pastures
Following Youtube's recent restrictions, many content creators are moving away from the platform.
A little over a month ago, Youtube changed its policies regarding videos that include firearms.
While Youtubers can still give shooting demonstrations or display their weapons, users are no longer permitted to post videos intended to sell firearms to prospective buyers. Youtube has also put a ban on all videos "providing instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories as those listed above." On the one hand, this move prevents illegal gun sales from taking place on Youtube's site, certainly making their lawyers happy. On the other, it's the absolute least they could do in the wake of the Parkland School Shooting.
If one were to assume that Youtube's core demographic is comprised of sane, relatively rational folks, then the logic follows that this move should have been a slam dunk, both from a legal and public relations perspective. Still, some of the more ardent gun enthusiasts are taking their content elsewhere in order to protest Youtube's decision. As if a group of people being upset that Youtube–a site famous for cat videos and Charlie Bit My Finger–won't broker their firearms deals isn't surreal enough, the first place they turned following the ban was Pornhub.
Yes, that Pornhub.
Unlike Youtube, Pornhub's restrictions for what goes up on its site are, um, pretty lax, and firearm aficionados are flocking. While Youtube certainly has more daily active users, Pornhub is still one of the most popular sites in the world, and would probably be a good alternative save for one simple fact; as its name implies, Pornhub specializes in a very specific type of video. For example, if you type the word 'gun' into the Pornhub search engine, the first video that comes up is of two men in tactical gear titled 'Glock 19 vs Hudson H9,' the second video is called 'Crazy girl ***** her ***** with a gun.' . The sociological implications of so literally blending sex and violence aside, the second video, as well as the rest of the page, certainly makes it difficult for content creators to gain mainstream appeal using the adult entertainment site.
Firearms information courtesy of Pornhub
Possibly with Pornhub's limitations in mind, the founders of Full30.com recently created an all new platform for firearms enthusiasts to share the content that they love. The site is broken up into three sections: video, blog, and forum. The video section contains the same types of videos that Youtube recently banned, namely men, mostly middle-aged and white, loudly explaining how their weapons work. Most of the videos are posted by accounts with names like God, Family, and Guns or Big Shooterist, and unlike Youtube–where videos can get millions of views in a matter of hours–posts on Full30 only tend to get around 500-1000 views a piece. The videos range from weapons tutorials and roundups, to Internet philosophers waxing poetic on their interpretations of the second amendment. While the comments sections are lacking in volume, they aren't lacking in enthusiasm or vitriol.
You'd be hard pressed to find a video on Full30 in which the comment section doesn't feature some iteration of "dumbass liberals are scared of guns."
Exuding a similar spirit, the Full30 blog is a section of the site dedicated to the discussion of gun policies that looks like it could have its own tab on Breitbart. On top of this, every article seems to be written by someone named Matt, and it's pretty safe to assume he's the only person churning out content for this portion of the site. Aside from various articles offering a conservative stance on gun control, the section also features thinly-veiled native advertisements for AR-15s and other assault rifles. Regardless of one's stance on gun control, seeing an ad for an AR-15 next to an article about the Parkland School Shooting can feel a little jarring.
Still, the most active part of Full30 is its forum, a sprawling list of comments where pictures of assault rifles captioned "A socialist judge killed more children than my AR15s" without any context compete with posts about the death of democracy.
Outliers aside, the forum reads a bit like a carefully curated Facebook wall. Specific questions about guns are answered swiftly and carefully, while social issues discussed there are usually approached with an attempt at nuance in lieu of expertise. It's worth noting however, that the threads on Full30's forum do fall into a similar trap that Facebook and Twitter feeds do; namely, they're echo chambers, resonating a relatively universal worldview and not putting much of a premium on diversity of thought.
Screenshot of Full30's Forum
Many of the posts in the forum also call for the creation of safe spaces for conservatives and gun lovers, and Full30 might be giving us a glimpse into what a conservative safe space might actually look like. While questioning American democracy may not seem like a proportionate response to Youtube telling a few content creators to stop selling weapons on their (Youtube's) platform, it's important to remember how insular and partisan online communities can be.
When a tight-knit group, online or otherwise, perceives a threat to their way of life, they tend to retreat inward.
As the world changes and gun policy gets (somewhat) stricter, it's a virtual guarantee that more sites like this will start popping up. Full30 is still pretty small, but inasmuch as a community's hobbies and entertainment are indicative of its worldview, the site is an interesting glimpse into the collective psyche of the American gun lobby's most diehard supporters.