Hailey Bieber

Twelve years of ballet training at the Miami City Ballet ended with a foot injury and a pivot into modeling at 15. The early work, campaigns for French Connection, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, put her in magazines but kept her firmly in the working-but-unremarkable tier. Being Stephen Baldwin's daughter and Alec Baldwin's niece opened doors, but the courthouse wedding to Justin Bieber in September 2018 rewired what her name meant. After that, coverage of every campaign she landed shifted. She went from industry player to tabloid constant, and had to build something genuinely her own to prove the modeling career had weight before the marriage.

Rhode launched in 2022 with $10 million in sales in its first 11 days. Three years later, with roughly 10 SKUs sold exclusively through its own website, it posted $212 million in net sales for the year ending March 2025. e.l.f. Beauty agreed to acquire it for $1 billion in May 2025. Three years, 10 products, a billion dollars. The acquisition gave her financial standing that has nothing to do with who she's married to, which is the only fact that matters when people still search her name alongside his.

At 25, she had a mini-stroke at breakfast. A small blood clot reached her brain after three factors converged: she had recently started birth control, recently had COVID-19, and had just taken a long-haul flight. Testing found a Grade 5 patent foramen ovale, a hole in her heart at the highest severity classification, which allowed the clot to bypass the lungs and travel directly to the brain. A catheter procedure closed it. She has said the experience contributed to her interest in skincare, which is a very measured way to describe watching your face droop at 25 and losing the ability to speak.