Vogue – Bobbi Brown

Bobbi Brown may have stepped down from her billion-dollar namesake cosmetics company three and a half years ago, but she has hardly stopped working. On the contrary, she became a certified health and wellness coach, founded a line of supplements, wrote her ninth book, and filmed a MasterClass. But it is through her lifestyle platform, JustBobbi, that she is truly hoping to, in her words, “educate and inspire.” Last week, she did just that by joining an Instagram Live session with a New York City recovery community for young adults aged 18 to 35 called BIGVISION.

“I am humbled by what you do and so happy to speak to you guys today,” Brown said to some 150 viewers and Eve Goldberg, the founder of BIGVISION, who six years ago lost her son, Isaac, at age 23 to an accidental overdose. “I came to BIGVISION recently because my best girlfriend, Amy, went through a similar thing and lost our Jakey,” Brown said, choking up. “I am going to try not to cry but to use my heart for giving back.” Sharing her thoughts for an hour on everything from makeup and work to her life in quarantine, Brown confided that she wears Lululemon tights these days with a sweater (no pants), hides her gray roots with eye shadow, and to cope repeats her father’s mantra: “You can’t change your surroundings, but you can change your attitude.” In short, she delivered the perfect pep talk for a group that is particularly vulnerable right now.