Insider Scoop: What Does She Do

I was at a Halloween party earlier this year when a guy tried striking up a conversation with me. Being the all too ~suave~ human that I am, I ventured into flirtation territory with much aplomb and all but one pick up line. 

“What do you do?” 

It came out as more of a formality; a question poised to try to get to know someone by way of their career choice and passions. The innocent Q was reminiscent of a culture I grew up accustomed to where asking what a man does for a living is almost as common as asking who his parents are. It made me think about how often we ask women what they do, and if it’s ranked first or second if at all on their personal latter of question significance the way it is for women. If it is of importance, how often do we follow up with, “Oh that’s cute!” or “That’s a nice way to keep busy.” 

We both went into detail about what we did and after I asked him all the inquiries my inquisitive mind could muster in one breath, he said, “I feel like we're in an interview” To which I ~suavely~ responded, “Well, if this were an interview, I would most definitely hire you.” Not one of my finer moments.

I replayed the conversation to my friend on our ride home. “Fuck,” I said. “Do I make every guy I talk to at a party feel like they’re in the hot seat?” As an avid over-thinker and curious being I usually skip small talk and move straight into hard-hitting queries, relating to people mostly by picking their brain.

Later that year I was at that same friend’s house and we were talking about badass millennial women in our community who were killing it in their careers. My friend suggested I interview them and here we are now. Women won’t be shocked by the next sentiment I’m about to share, but men (hi men do you read this blog you’re cool and I like you), miiiight be taken by surprise. Girls talk shit about each other all the time. We put each other down in a subconscious rage of envy. We don’t encourage each other enough, or highlight our achievements as much as we should. For an unspoken girl code and a generation where we strive for equality between men and women, we need to be more cognizant of treatment and equality between women. Where is my girl gang at?!

Throughout my interviews thus far, many women universally felt like not enough people asked what they did. Nor did they care. They felt like engagement and baby announcements were deemed of higher caliber than getting the job of their dreams or getting a big promotion at work. Through my findings, interestingly enough, some girls referenced a male figure who pushed them to believe they can start a business or venture into a male-dominated field. If more girls are raised with role models to look towards as pedestals of achievement, our community can progress further in our efforts to achieve a more egalitarian society. 

 Thankfully, most men I speak to encourage women to work and are interested in what they do. I am also thankful to be surrounded by family and friends who support my endeavors. A lot of my inspiration comes from a group chat called "The Saturday Morning Reading Club," which entails a group of like-minded and not like-minded women who voice their opinions and share articles to discuss over summer Saturday morning coffee and constant talk throughout the year. A true beacon of hope came from a male friend of mine who told me recently about a girl’s clothing line he’s starting. The message? “I just want to empower young girls.” His words, not mine. 

That’s why I started What Does She Do, so young girls can be self-motivated from a young age to believe they can wear many hats and dive into their passions with the same tenacity as the women featured on my segment. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d have my work published in Harper’s Bazaar but I did because I took the first step, as platitudinous as it sounds: Believing in myself. I feel that it’s my duty to instill in our next generation the confidence to achieve great feats in two full time jobs. 1: Motherhood. 2: Their Passions. And to do it all under the framework of a partnership. 

A lot of girls also mentioned the word, ‘lucky,’ which is a phenomenon among women who feel they got lucky for getting the opportunity to do what they do. Lots of women can’t see that they deserved this role, are worthy of this role, and were chosen or chose to do what they do because of their talent and skill set. I can attest to imposter syndrome- “a concept describing high-achieving individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and think they don’t deserve their success.” Another thing I unexpectedly realized was how different people are outside the confines of a party milieu in which boozy small talk is the only talk circulating. It was nice to see these women in a different element, to really hear their thoughts and get to know them on a deeper level. We’re very quick to judge people and often don’t get to see the brilliant talented person hidden under the mask of party talk. 

I took my passion of writing and curious nature and turned it into a space where women and men can get wildly inspired by the awesome women in our community. I hope I have a daughter some day and I hope you all have daughters some day to empower and show them what she can do. Which is anything. Everything and anything. 

Gracy Accad

You may have seen the eponymous brand, Gracy Accad (formerly known as Style and Grace), donned on Instagram or at Shaareh Zion but the face behind its name isn’t as conspicuous. When I met up with designer Gracy at her bustling showroom in Midtown I got to know the woman behind the feminine, intricate customwear they’re most distinguished for. “When I first started, [my work] was more of a persona, because I never particularly wanted to use my name in it. I'm an introverted person, you don't see me out there.” She always felt that her designs and attention to quality and detail stood on its own. “My friend will joke that our company hiring a sewer is like going through the Hunger Games.” A room full of sewers fighting till the death to make the perfect garment? I'd like to see that.

  As I walked through the crowded space (“we’re growing out of these walls” she says knowingly), I took in the crafty mood boards, the sewers fervently working away, and all the beading my mind could wrap my head around. There are only big things in the works for the luxury womenswear label, including their first (eep!) custom bridal gown which is equally exciting as it is nerve wracking the designer admits. But I don’t want to give too away much, catch up with Gracy yourself, below!

Spring/Summer 18' collection 

What inspired you to start designing?

“I've always been a girly girl, growing up I used to make my sisters do little fashion shows on Saturday’s. I always liked clothing, making outfits, and getting dressed. I kind of really started my business thinking I was going to do personal shopping when I introduced it [on Instagram]. I was having things made when me and my sisters were having a lot of semachot [happy occasions]. You’ll see something and you're like I like this, but I would like it if it looked like this instead. Nothing was 100 percent the way I would have wanted it to be, so I had things made. Someone at the time had told me why don't you just put them on Instagram. I was shy about it, and needed a push initially, but I did it. And ever since then people call and new opportunities constantly present themselves. You continue to set new goals, and it's fun.”

How did your brand evolve?

I used to have a contractor, I would go to her and show her the idea; this is what I want made or I'd come to her with a client and say this is what we want made. And now I'm the contractor, we have our own team, we have our own beaders, we have our own fabric suppliers, we run a full production. It's gone from making a custom dress here or there, or a piece for myself to having full time staff, and full collections. We're growing beyond these walls. It's great, thank god. It started as a hobby, something I enjoyed to do in my free time, now it's my career.

Transitioning from Style and Grace to Gracy Accad:

When we officially opened up our doors the first thing we were advised by legal, was to trademark our brand. And Style and Grace wasn't an option. It's also not a brand name, it sounds like I do arts and crafts. When I first started it was more of a persona, because I never particularly wanted to use my name in it. I'm an introverted person, you don't see me out there. I liked it that people didn't particularly know who I was, that my work spoke on its own and I was behind the scenes. So at the end of the day [Style and Grace] wasn't me, it was my work.

What is your greatest challenge?

There's a hurdle every day. From the bead work that comes in wrong and you've been waiting for it for six weeks, fabric being out of stock, to simply not finding the perfect zipper color match; there is dealing with the day to day circumstances. We work with stores, yes. But I personally love the custom, and I want to continue doing custom; but the day to day of making sure the client walks out happy is…  it's not tough because I enjoy it, but it's a challenge. And people expect you to create on the spot, they come to you and they want to see 150 ideas. You can show them every dress you have but they want something new. So I remember when I'd have back to back consultations, I'd come home and be like okay, even the biggest designer they present you 40 looks, those are your 40 looks. People expect you to have 40 looks and then they ask, okay so what else? (laughs). But it's the fun part, it's keeping me constantly my toes and keeping up with what people want. I’ve learned that I need to incorporate my taste, into what sells.

What does your day to day look like?

My goal every day is to be out of the house by 7:45am. We go over what needs to be done that day, what needs to be cut, what's coming in. A lot of times we have custom clients walking in, every day is really different. I'm the fit model, so if we're trying a new style it's me trying it on seeing what adjustments need to be made. Well, I drink a lot of coffee also. (laughs)

How does Gracy Accad give back?

Mary Tawil fashion show was our second community show we participated in.

I get reached out to a lot when there's chinese auctions and things like that; we are always taking on projects for people in need, and making exceptions. We recognize that we are part a community at the end of the day. So we do [give back], and get involved with the community events as much as we can.

What is it like working with your mom?

When we first started I was doing everything. She realized I was being torn in different directions. She's been in the business, working since she was 18, for over 38 years. She has the experience  and knowledge. She started with her brother, he has a very large garment company--- his wife is Nicole Benisti she does those coats. Then she worked with my dad who does wholesale, and she did production for 25 years, she was actually the head of production and design, and now with me she takes care of the stuff she has experience with. She deals with the finances, the invoices. Sometimes when people see me it's like it takes time for me to get footing, but she has that standing and professionalism, and I try and learn. (laughs).

Gracy and her mom in their element

Where does your ambition come from?

“I never thought I was not going to work. It was always, 'what was I going to be’. The only thing that has changed is what I wanted to actually do. From when  was a little girl if you check my 5th grade yearbook it says I want to be an administrator. I asked ‘Ma what do you do?’ She said ‘I'm an administrator’, so when they asked me what I wanted to be I said an administrator. It was out of the question that I was going to stay home forever. I've seen my mom and my dad work my whole life and I always respected their work ethic. I've never seen a work ethic like theirs and their ambition and their dedication to what they do.”

You're at the forefront of making people happy, how does that feel?

My personal fave

I'm very lucky because I see instant gratification almost. Not instant, sometimes it takes months and months and months. But I see the fruits of my labor relatively quickly. So it's very rewarding. I'm very lucky, it's a very rewarding job.

How would you describe Gracy Accad?

Feminine. I think everyone would agree we're very feminine. We're very intricate, I'd say. Attention to detail, we do like beading. We try to incorporate trends but we're not particularly trendy. But I'd like to think that our garments are still timeless at the same time. Like this jacket I'm wearing, got it my first year of [Baruch] college when I was 18 years old and I'm still wearing it.

What Makes Gracy Accad stand out from the rest?

My friend will joke that our company getting a sewer is like going through the Hunger Games, we have them sew us a garment and we decide if they’re good enough. We literally interviewed dozens and dozens of sewers and we've only kept literally only a little bit over a handful. We're very very selective, because it's the quality of work. From pattern-making, beadwork, to fabric suppliers, we only use the best.

A Word of Advice?

Intern by somebody who's successful at what you want to do. I didn't particularly have that, I worked with a contractor at first so I got to learn things by watching it actually happen in front of me. I would be waiting for her to deliver me a dress so I'd get there first thing in the morning and not leave till my dress was done, weeks and weeks at a time. I sat around for days and days and watched the process. There would be times where I would walk in 7:30 in the morning and she wouldn't talk to me till 4 in the afternoon. I would sit there, talk to the beader, talk to whoever it was or just watch. Sometimes you learn from experience and determination, but it's always easier to learn from someone who is established.

Maybelline NY Global Marketing Assistant

I didn’t know what to expect when I met up with Robyn Saad, Maybelline NY’s Global Marketing Assistant, at her brand spanking new office in New York City’s Hudson Yards. But as a woman working for the number one beauty company in the world I was shocked to find her sitting at the cafeteria (overlooking a dreamy rooftop terrace might I add) completely bare-faced, albeit, looking completely profesh (hi it’s me, please teach me your ways). She attributes a lot of her success to luck but as a smart, hardworking University of Pennsylvania graduate, luck seemed too humbling a word to use.

 As she walked me through her day to day tasks, I saw what an impact her role amid the multi billion dollar beauty brand made on consumers like myself. “You know the mascara you use? I know the person that thought of the idea and made it show up on the CVS shelf”, she says with fascination. Catch up with Robyn below about staying true to one's self, striving to be super woman, and learning from her role models.

 What did you study at Penn?

 I applied to Penn intending to be an architecture major and I thought I was going to love it like oh cool math, creativity, so up my alley. I took an intro to architecture class and it was so hard, you're in the studio all hours of the night. It was crazy, crazy difficult. And it was all rejection, it's always like you're presenting your hard work but being scrutinized and criticized all the time. It was too much for me freshman year I couldn't handle it. And then I also thought ‘what could I do with my architecture degree?’ I can become an architect but when I googled careers it said architecture has the highest unemployment rate in the country, so if I want to be an architect I really have to go somewhere else to really have a fair chance. As a Jew from the community I'm not moving to India to become a crazy cool architect.

 Then I thought what else can I do that's creative and analytical or creative and math oriented? I thought marketing could be a cool field.. Everyone looks at marketing and thinks social media. Or oh you run the Instagram for L'oreal, that's cool. No that's not what I do. It's everything from conceptualizing a product idea all the way to seeing it through sold in stores. When I thought about what I could study at Penn that will end up leading me there, I ended up studying communications with a minor in consumer psychology, which is marketing in Wharton and psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

 Tell me about your internships!

 I was really lucky. I wasn't one of those internship hunters. After freshman year I went to Camp David and was a counselor. Everyone's like oh you go to Penn that's cool what is that? That's what my life was. Then after my sophomore year I said well I have to do something so I could talk about it for junior year because junior year internships should lead to what you do when you graduate. So I applied to all these little firms, I got these small interviews here and there nothing crazy. My sister in law, my brother’s girlfriend at the time, works at an ad network doing human resources so I was able to intern there. It was cool learning about search engine optimization and other techniques, I didn’t love itbut it was great because then I was able to talk about that when I applied to L’Oreal.

 Junior year I said I really need to figure something out so I was applying to all the big firms and didn't hear back so I said if I can't get a job from the agency side, let me try the brand side. I asked myself: what brands would I want to work with? I said I like Essie nail polish, so I googled 'work for Essie' and the first link that popped up was L'Oreal. I was shocked to learn that L'Oreal owns Essie. I Found out that L'Oreal is this big company that owns a lot of different brands. I found the internship link, sent out my resume, wrote a cover letter, filled out their questionnaire and a few weeks later I got a call for a phone interview. After I did my phone interview I was asked to come to Taste of L'Oreal which is a weekend long program of networking and case studies in the City. And after that I got the offer to be a summer intern. I got a very, very good manager, on a  really cool team--- the Global Maybelline Marketing team, and after my internship I was offered the full time position!

 What exactly do you do?  

 Upper management says we need to launch a new mascara so I say okay what's doing well in the world. This is doing really well, this is the trend, this is where the market has a gap, our portfolio is missing x y z. So I decide we need a mascara that does this this and this. I go to my labs and I say what technology can we use that'll do this in a mascara to my lashes, go to development and say do you know any vendors that have this formula or cool packs that we can leverage. That's what my role is on the global team. I go to creative, I say I want my packaging to have this logo and this color, tweak that change this. That whole process takes forever, we’re thinking 2019 right now. We also suggest the concept of our digital campaigns and our advertising to align with our product concept, and  the ad agency then makes it, sends it to us, and we say yes no maybe. Then we send it to the country specific side of the business- European countries, the US etc...and they will adapt the concept to their particular regions and say, CVS wants to put this display I'm going to take this line from my advertising to put it on it. We have this advertising, I'm going to space it out on my media calendar this way. We have this in our merchandising wall, I want to make a special education on the front so that they understand what the product does. They do more of the tactical in store stuff and we do more of the global conception of the product.

 What does your day-in-the-life look like?

First day of work

 Alarm goes off at 5:53AM. I'm out of my house by 6:15, I go to the gym at Equinox. Shower there, get to work by 9. Check my emails, see what I have to do for the day, follow up on all the projects that are pending, running to the creative room getting the artwork for our packaging done, meeting with development to see if the new formula I want for my new project is working or not, meeting with my vice president on my ideas for our new collection, touching base with my manager if she needs any slides done for our presentation, constant running around, meetings meetings meetings. Then around 5:30ish the meetings calm down, and I can actually sit and do my work, work till around 7:30 on average and then I leave and do whatever I want after work.

 What’s the biggest challenge?

 In my role particularly, work life balance is the hardest thing for me because I come from a community that's very focused on family and  I'm the kind of person that doesn't want to raise my family mainly with a nanny or be an MIA mother. Right now on my whole team, nobody has kids, almost no one's married, they do have significant others but it's under the assumption that they can be working later than their significant other sometimes. So for me the hardest thing is deciding for my future what I want to do. Besides for already considering taking on a different role within the company that might have better hours, I have to come to terms with giving up the work I love to do a different role that might not be as fulfilling in the career world to balance it out with having a family. And seeing what’s enough- my kids can’t wonder where’s mommy, but they should be super proud of what she does and want to grow up to be just like her. My goal is to be super woman but at the end of the day it's super woman to a point. You can't really have it all and you have to find the happy medium that works for you and your family.

Advice to someone wanting to be in your position?

 You have to not be afraid to be honest. For me when I applied here and they're like 'why do you want to work at L'Oreal?' I don't wear makeup, only when I'm out. I'm not one of those people obsessed with it, I don't follow beauty blogs. I was wearing makeup in my interview but when they asked why beauty I told them I don't really know much about it and I want to learn about it. I didn't lie to them and say I'm obsessed with beauty because I'm not and I think that's what pushed me over the edge.  So I think always remember to stay true to yourself. That's my advice, always staying true to yourself of who you are and what you believe in but also not being afraid to push that limit.

 Favorite part about your job?

 Waiting to see a project that you've worked on finally hit store shelves or when you open the box of first production before it hits the store shelves. That's like oh my god this is my baby and here it is in real life.

 Where do you see yourself in five years?

 I want to be super woman with a family. I want to be the kind of person who wakes up, makes Eggo waffles, puts my kids on the bus, works in my cool corporate career that I'm excited to go to, come home make dinner shower my kids and put them to bed and do homework with them somewhere in there. That's what I want to do in five years. I want to move up in the company for sure, too.

 Who are your role models?

 My parents for sure. In first grade a 95 was never good enough, always strive for better. Your best is of course good enough but they were always pushing me to do more. Not going to college wasn't an option, we were always pushing for that and now they're very proud of what I do, they're proud that I was able to achieve this and so am I. My mother was a super woman, she was a teacher but she got her Master's in early childhood education. She left Lebanon amidst a war by herself with nothing. She was the matriarch of the family when my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was struggling with all the kids and the war. That really affected where I wanted to get in life and the way I want to live my life in the future comes from her. She made Eggos for me every morning, put me on the bus, worked, was at every school play, but made sure her career was fulfilling at the same time.

The Thought Process of Recovering from a Wedding

Look at this as your 12 step recovery guide. We are in this together. 

1: Silently cry into the empty confines of your closet.

2: Take a good hard look in the mirror and admit:

3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 for good measure.

4: Put your best online shopping addiction to the test by perusing the shit out of dress sites till your fingers cave from carpal tunnel.

5: Make hair and makeup appointment. Realize you are three months too late and everyone is booked.

6: ITS OKAY WE ARE GOING TO BE FiiiiiiiNE

*watches eyeliner Youtube tutorial*

7: Fuck. Where in God's name is my makeup remover.

8: Throws hair up in a bun and tells everyone you had it done.

Ex: “I LOVE you hair! Who did it?”

“Hair by Sarah!”

Sarah I know you’re out there.

9: Slips on heels. Walks out the door. Baby steps, you recite in agony, baby steps. Almost there. You are a strong independent woman.

10: Gets into the car fully clothed, no nip slips yet. TBD

11: Makes a beeline for the bar, leaves ID at home, pleas with the bartender. My GRANDFATHER BUILT THIS WEDDING HALL WITH HIS BARE HANDS STRAIGHT OFF THE BOAT FROM ALEPPO and you mean to tell me you can't pour me a drink? 

12: Squeezes through the dance floor. Almost loses a limb. A toe. Your liver. And some other unidentifiable body parts. Somehow, makes it out there alive.