In part two of our Meet the Makers series, we speak to Entrepreneur and former beauty influencer, Eleanor Pendleton. A woman who has always inspired us for her honesty, originality and beautiful, down-to-earth personality, Eleanor left behind a career of working for Australia’s top beauty magazines, to start her own beauty website and digital magazine, Gritty Pretty (our go-to source for all thing beauty and skin). Find out how she got started and how she’s overcome her biggest challenges in business so far…

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. We are long-time Gritty Pretty fans and have followed your journey since the beginning. Can you tell us how you got started?

Thank you for having me! I got my start in the beauty publishing world after landing an internship at Cosmopolitan. It was one of those fate kind of moments because someone else had dropped out of the program, which meant I got the call up. I was commuting into the city from the Central Coast every day that week and was always early and would greet everyone with their coffee and mail. I relished the opportunity and was so excited to be there that I never expected any kind of acknowledgement.

Then, after a year of interning at Cosmopolitan and it’s sister titles, I was offered a job as Editorial Coordinator & Beauty Assistant which led to my eight year stint in print publishing as a beauty editor.

What made you decide to take the leap and leave the comfort of a full-time job to become an entrepreneur?

To be honest, it wasn’t really a leap of faith. When I left InStyle magazine, and my stable nine to five job, I was planning on just working for myself and doing some freelancing. Gritty Pretty had always been in the background, but lay dormant for many years while I was working as a beauty editor. Once I was out on my own, I decided to relaunch the site as a personal outlet to write about the products, ingredients and trends that I was passionate about. Within a couple of months, and because of the relationships I’d already established over my career, I started to see some revenue come through. That was the turning point when I realised I could make it a viable business and beauty platform. The rest, as they say, is history.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since starting your business?

I can say without a doubt that 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic was the most challenging thing I’ve faced as a business owner. For the first time since I launched Gritty Pretty, I had moments where I worried that it would all fall apart. I think also watching such iconic titles in Australian media taking a hit, I was worried that my small business wouldn’t survive. Fortunately, we did – and the business has grown more than ever.

Last January, I had also just given birth to my beautiful son Banjo. He was six weeks old when Australia shut down and I had no choice but to cut my leave short and come straight back to Gritty Pretty to support my team. We had advertising clients put all of their booked media activity on hold practically overnight and businesses rely on cash flow to survive. But the silver lining was that we had more time to focus on what we actually wanted to do: we launched a podcast, we did virtual events and shoots. I worked smartly, strategically and encouraged my team to look at the positives in order to keep up staff morale.

What have you found most rewarding when it comes to owning your own brand?

I think definitely seeing how much our audience loves the content we produce and how we are able to help them solve their skin problems or step out of their beauty comfort zone when wearing makeup or embrace their flaws. Connecting with our readers (and now, listeners) is definitely the most rewarding part.

Biggest ‘pinch me’ moment in business so far?

I’d say one of the biggest ‘pinch me’ moments in the business so far was actually something that happened very recently - when we landed Khloe Kardashian as our March 2021 cover star of Gritty Pretty Magazine. I’ve had the Kardashian name on my Gritty Pretty vision board since I started so to see that dream come to fruition was one of the most incredible moments. Oh, and when momager Kris Jenner reposted the cover - you can just imagine the squeals in the Gritty Pretty office!

Gritty Pretty is now a website, podcast and magazine. What’s next?

We want to do so, so much more – but I’ve got to keep some of our future plans under wraps! For Gritty Pretty, it’s all about how we can connect with and empower women when it comes to their personal beauty regimens.