Actress turned entrepreneur Jessica Alba has come along way from her Dark Angel days, the 34-year-old beauty who is currently the cover girl for the March issue of Cosmopolitan, has been immersed in her duties as founder of her billion-dollar eco-couscious brand, The Honest Company.
The Santa Monica-based consumer goods company is known for its distribution of everything from baby products to cleaning supplies with the promise that they are all completely stripped of toxic materials.
Alba, who was 13 when she ventured into Hollywood hit stardom at 19, when she was handpicked by James Cameron star int the cult TV show Dark Angel.
She admits to the magazine that the physically demanding role, coupled by her need to dominate has always spurned her to tackle challenges with gusto. “I always wanted to be a big action star, to be as relevant as men. I was very aggressive with the vision and manifesting it”. She adds, “Most of my life, I identified with my more masculine side”.
With her movie star looks and accessible persona, Alba could’ve easily rested on her laurels and submitted to the typical Hollywood way of life. But, there was the unrelenting need to unleash the ambition she always harbored. And it looks like her gamble paid off.
Alba, was just recently named one of America’s richest self-made woman, an honor that she didn’t earn easily as she points out the daily struggle of maintaining her femininity as she commands the boardroom while navigating a space that she describes as “a man’s world”.
“I’m in a man’s world in business”. But I know what women want [men] don’t”. “Whenever [male colleagues] question me in meetings, I’m like Go home and ask your wife. This is a pointless conversation. Go home and talk to her”.
Alba also seems to know how to find time for her family, a feat that most working mothers in high-powered positions have a hard time tackling. Married since 2008 to producer Cash Warren, 37, the couple who’ve been together for over a decade have two daughters, seven-year-old Honor and four-year-old Haven.
It looks like Jessica Alba has mastered the basics when it comes to making an Honest living and at this point – the sky is no longer the limit.