"She Looks Like an Instagram" Or, How Empowerment Became a Brand with Kelly Diels

What Works

I’m continuing my rebroadcast of a series I did a couple of years ago called Self-Help, LLC, and asked the question, "Are we all in the self-help business now?"

Today’s episode is all about the aesthetics of self-help and what my guest Kelly Diels has dubbed the female lifestyle empowerment brand. If you’ve ever fussed with your hair or outfit before taking a selfie or sought out the perfect Instagram-worthy spot on vacation, this episode is for you. And if you haven’t? Well, hopefully, this episode will put your mind at ease: you don’t need to do any of that to be successful.

It’s not only self-help or entrepreneurship products that are sold as tools for “empowerment” today. It’s just about everything: makeup, clothing, workout equipment, vitamins, office supplies… Whole brands are built around the promise that a purchase won’t just solve your problem, it’ll make you a better, more fulfilled person. But empowerment isn’t for sale—only the status quo.

In this episode, I talk with writer and coach Kelly Diels about empowerment marketing and what she calls the “female lifestyle empowerment brand.” You’ll also hear from independent beauty writer Jessica DeFino about how empowerment is leveraged by the beauty industry (more from her later in the series!).

Footnotes:

• Learn more about Kelly Diels
• Learn more about Jessica DeFino
• Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
• Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
• How to be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment by Skye Cleary
• Helen Gurley Brown as quoted in Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
• “The Rhetoric of the Image” by Roland Barthes

Read the updated essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi

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