hotflash inc.: why are celebrities putting their money on menopause?
4 minute read
these gen x celebrities are obviously fiscally savvy, going for a share of profits over a paycheque, but there’s a sense of mission behind their involvement too. getty
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when alicia jackson was thinking about raising money for her four-year-old menopause telehealth startup evernow, she knew having celebrities involved would help. but the ceo and founder didn’t want them to just market the company — she wanted them to invest in it.
flash forward to april, when evernow announced a us$28.5 million series a funding raise. on board were those celebrities jackson had wanted, all powerful founders in their own right: gwyneth paltrow, drew barrymore, cameron diaz, author glennon doyle and her partner, soccer star abby wamback.
celebrities have perimenopause too
the main thing jackson wants the rest of us to know is that all of these women have the same complaints about perimenopause and menopause as we do.
“they have had a really hard time finding great care,” says jackson. “they do feel like there’s just a mishmash of information out there, and they’re not sure who to listen to. and so no amount of resources, it seems, gives you a leg up in this space.”
paltrow was the one who famously said “menopause needs a bit of a rebranding” back in 2018, when her company goop launched a line of supplements for the 40-60 age range. but on a recent episode of her podcast she sounded as lost as the rest of us when she talked about getting a “flooding” period — a scary yet common symptom of perimenopause.
“i literally thought i was bleeding to death, and honestly almost thought, ‘do i need to go to urgent care’? and i had no one to call to say, ‘is this normal’?” she told dietitian esther blum.
celebrities have been talking about menopause for years — viola davis, whoopi goldberg, oprah winfrey and michelle obama are more recent examples. but this latest crew marks the first to figure out that if they have to experience it, they might as well make money from it.
if you are going to experience it, you might as well make money from it
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longtime actress judy greer was in her early 40s when a costume designer suggested her fatigue and brain fog might be due to perimenopause.
“at first, i was kind of annoyed with her,” greer told the hollywood reporter. “and then i started doing research. and i started realizing, yeah, she’s right.”
greer’s experience trying in vain to get the right kind help — like many women, she was offered birth control pills and antidepressants — led to co-founding the naturopathic supplements company wile with her friend and former publicist corey scholibo. (tennis star serena williams is also an investor)
as she told people: “it just felt like this great big white space where i was like, ‘why is no one selling me something for the way that i feel when everyone i talk to feels this way?'”
australian actress naomi watts said that menopause “felt like a head-on collision with a mack truck,” and after experiencing hormonal skin issues for years, she introduced stripes, a new beauty and wellness brand and community for women in mid-life.
“i think it’s time to see women in this phase of life or this age group be well represented,” watts wrote in an instagram post.“ we’ve been underserved in media, stories and marketing for too long.”
the tipping point for all this is coming by 2025, when various estimates have 1.1 billion women going through menopause globally — more than ever before. according to research by the venture capital firm female founders fund in 2020, menopause represented just five per cent of the $254 million invested in women’s health technology over the previous decade. the report estimated that menopause represented a $600 billion opportunity, with founding partner anu duggal calling it “the next fertility.”
these gen x celebrities are obviously fiscally savvy, going for a share of profits over a paycheque, but there’s a sense of mission behind their involvement too. that’s a big part of what drove stacy london, the former host of tlc’s what not to wear, to become the owner and ceo of the holistic product company state of menopause in 2021.
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“i started to think about, ‘what am i struggling with?’ because from the personal, comes the universal,” london said at the time. “that’s when i was like, ‘ok.’ menopause felt like this overwhelming rock that i was trying to push up a mountain. what if i did this with other people? what if i entered this conversation not with a question, but with a solution? that, to me, was the reason to start with a product.”
i asked london what she thought about the huge amount of celebrity involvement around the issue of menopause and mid-life. she revealed that one of her first investors in 2021 was debra messing and said that she found it “really telling” that the will & grace actress immediately understood the mission.
“to have debra as an investor signifies the importance of this issue, and the ways in which celebrity investing can have a much greater impact than celebrity spokesmanship,” says london.
ann marie mcqueen is a journalist with 25 years of experience covering health, wellness, science and more, and when she realized she was in perimenopause five years ago, she decided to make this transition her beat. she has since become a global expert on the subject through her platform hotflash inc., where she helps people navigate the gap between transitional and holistic treatments with evidence and experience-based research. she will be writing regularly on all things related to menopause and mid-life.
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