Category: Power Figures

As a nine-time marathon runner, Carrie Sporer was seriously over having to wash and blow dry her hair after every sweat session.

As a fashion industry consultant, she’s well versed in bringing problem-solvers to market.

That’s how she invented her own.

SWAIR Showerless Shampoo cleans hair–something dry shampoo doesn’t actually do–without the shower, making it easier and faster for busy women like herself to get out of the gym and into the office.

“We should not have to plan workouts around washing our hair,” Carrie told Bare Necessities. Find out how this month’s Power Figure goes the distance, one step at a time.

At 33, Arianna Davis has figured out a few things about going fearlessly in the direction of her dreams. That’s what happens when Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King take you under their wings, as they did her.

Now the digital director of OprahMag.com, Arianna has just published her first book, What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly inspired by the life and work of the free-spirited artist Frida Kahlo.

Arianna gave Bare it All the inside scoop on what she’s learned about going one’s own way, both from researching her heroine and from doing just that herself.

No topic is off limits for Nina Lorez Collins. At 51, the founder of The Woolfer—a digital platform for women over 40—and a mother of four fledgling adults, she is as self-actualized as she is self-deprecating.

A big career as a literary agent, then as a writer for Elle and Vogue, led to Nina’s creation of The Woolfer, her highly engaged tribe of sassy, brassy women who congregate on the site or app to serve as each other’s sounding boards, friends and life coaches. Their posts, seminars and meet-ups are lively, candid, awkward and occasionally vulgar—authentic, like she is. What followed was her book, What Would Virginia Woolf Do? And Other Questions I Ask Myself as I Attempt to Age Without Apology, as well as the “Raging Gracefully” podcast.

Nina lives in Brooklyn and East Hampton, sometimes with her new boyfriend and all the time with her new poodle, Strudel. She spent a recent afternoon telling Bare Necessities about traversing that long, winding road of life while fearlessly living on-brand.

A study in contrasts, Abigail Posner is a perfect example of how a circuitous path can take you where you need to go in life just as well, if not better, than any straight shot. 

Currently a director at Google, this Power Figure came up through advertising and finance after studying anthropology at Harvard. She also blogs about fashion and beauty from a cultural standpoint. An observant Jew, Abi powers down for the Sabbath, then powers back up to hit a fashion show or launch party after services end. 

These conflicting worlds don’t rattle her a bit. Instead, they propel her. Abi takes whatever personality traits most of us would consider our weaknesses and harnesses their power to adapt herself to any job, in any field. She draws on what she knows. By embracing all the pieces that make us up, by leaning into the way they clash instead of constantly fighting to reconcile them, in this Bare Necessities exclusive, Abi proves that knowing what makes you different is the real secret to rising to the top.

The craziest thing Mary Latham has ever done: complete her three-year More Good Road Trip.

That adventure was inspired by a conversation Mary had with her mother on the morning of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: “The same time the shooting was taking place in Connecticut, a coworker of mine told me he was being bought a coffee by a stranger down the street in New York City. When I told my mom the two stories and continued to harp on the shooting and all the bad out there, she reminded me, ‘You have to focus on the coffee story. There will always be horrible tragedies in our lives and in the world, but there will always be more good out there. You just have to look for it.”

A few weeks later, Mary’s mother died of cancer.

So Mary carried her mom’s words with her as she began the More Good road trip, a 50-state mission across the United States to compile stories of human kindness: “After I finished, my plan was to put these stories together in a book I would donate to hospital waiting rooms across the country. I spent a lot of time those when my mom was sick, and I thought they could use a book of hope. I know I could have.”

Mary packed up her mom’s old blue Subaru in the fall of 2016 and hit the road. After traversing the country and in the process of writing a book about her journey, Mary shared what she’s seen with Bare it All.

Despite a less-than-idyllic childhood, writer Lindsay Powers single-mindedly rose through the publishing ranks, interviewing the likes of J.Lo, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Then, working alongside Katie Couric, Bobbi Brown and Marissa Mayer, Lindsay launched Yahoo’s digital parenting magazine.

That’s where the whole #NoShameParenting movement started. The campaign really resonated with overachieving, overstressed parents and evolved into her upcoming book on the topic, You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids, which will be released on March 31. Lindsay gave Bare Necessities an exclusive preview.

Angela McKnight was elected in 2016 to “legislate, educate and empower.” The first African American Assemblywoman for her hometown, the 31^st district in Jersey City, New Jersey, she actually never set out for a career in politics.

Angela founded the nonprofit AngelaCARES, Inc. to support senior citizens and their caregivers. The organization also mentors kids by teaching them how to volunteer, all of which strengthens communities and improves the quality of life for the youngest and the oldest among us. She’s the owner of Care About You, a consultant service for the elderly and, as a Carepreneur, she speaks, consults and trains others on these subjects that so deeply have her heart.

Before advocacy work became her calling, Angela spent 25 years in customer service technologies, showing her firsthand how to turn good intentions into concrete plans. Married to her high school sweetheart, she’s a mother and a grandmother, too.

Day in and day out, this activist-advocate-author-educator’s actions reflect her deep-seated passion to help others and her community. Read her Bare Necessities interview to get inspired to bring your true self to every last thing that you do.