From WAH to the Stack: Charting Sharmadean Reid’s Girlboss Journey

A shark in a vintage dress, Sharmadean Reid is a self-made entrepreneur who has dedicated her life to empowering women in the beauty space. Having founded nail art studio WAH Nails in 2009, Sharmadean went on to develop Beautystack, a digital beauty directory and social app connecting clients with service providers for beauty and wellness treatments, in 2018. 

The advent of the COVID-19 was a massive blow for beauty business and entrepreneurs who were forced to close their operations in accordance with national lockdown laws. Sharmadean campaigned tirelessly and lobbied the government to properly compensate and provide substantial support for beauty service providers, acutely aware of how heavily the loss of earnings was affecting their livelihoods and personal well-being.

The VC-backed launch of Beautystack was cut short by the pandemic, cutting off thousands of beauty entrepreneurs from a steady stream of income. This galvanized Reid to campaign to increase awareness to the UK Government on the lived experience of the average beauty professional. Alongside this, Reid used her platform to provide valuable content from business and professional webinars to mental health talks with a variety of people, across industries; further reinforcing the multiple intersections of the beauty industry and how pivotal it was to the collective good. She inspired people to realise that whilst COVID-19 had affected the industry physically, there were meaningful ways they could support their community in ways that transcended beauty and spoke to a much wider audience. 

In 2021, Reid pivoted once more, always inspired by her situation to do better, and created The Stack World. “Our tagline is that we have content, conversations and commerce,” says Reid. Developed to serve as an evolving ecosystem for women, driven by culture, content and conversation, The Stack World serves as a multi-purpose destination for the modern woman looking for a place to be inspired, supported and never forgetting Reid’s roots, beautified. 

Always one to roll with the punches, Reid has managed to combine her previous expertise and a powerful love for media into one promising business, backed by investors wanting to get in early on this venture. 

The startup is an online platform with a content vertical called ‘The Stack’ and will curate lots of events throughout the city for working women who need guidance, mentorship and provide valuable networking opportunities.The long-term goal is to add an e-commerce arm with The Stack Marketplace which will allow audiences to book external services relevant to The Stack’s articles or events, powered by a paid membership program which gives exclusive access to services and resources, be it aesthetic treatments, coaching or even legal advice.

Reid has championed the beauty industry in England and managed to transform her years of experience into a vehicle of change and empowerment for other women. By creating an ecosystem for “city-based women with a desire for change”, Reid is providing them with resources and opportunities to become their own bosses and take ownership of their careers, much like she did with hers.

Reid serves as an inspiration to many women who found themselves knocked back and their careers thrown off course by the pandemic. She’s an expert in the art of the pivot; a perfect example of a woman who has used her multitude of experience to build her own future, write her own narrative and create opportunity not just for herself but for thousands of other women. Often, the world girlboss gets thrown around and diluted in the process but with women like Reid, whose life’s work serves to uplift and empower others, what other word is there?