Sisters Sadie and Abby Bowler started working on their brand at ages 16 and 18, respectively. They developed the formulas for three years before launching the brand, called SadieB, in 2022. Sadie is now 21, and Abby is 22.
In late February, SadieB launched in Target.
“When I was 11 years old, I started hairstyling, doing different braid styles. Eventually, I did hair for school dances, and then entire wedding parties,” said Sadie Bowler, speaking about the impetus for the brand. “But the messages [from the beauty industry] that were constantly bombarding me, telling me I needed to look a certain way to be considered good enough, began taking a toll on my mental health.”
For her part, Abby Bowler said, “I did a couple of internships with the International Rescue Committee, which supports refugees. [I worked specifically on their] partnerships with local brands and was exposed to this idea of using business for good.”
Together, the sisters decided they wanted to launch a personal care brand that spoke to the importance of mental hygiene, specifically for girls their age — fellow Gen Zers.
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“Sadie and I put in all the money we had saved for college, and then received support from angel investors, including our dad,” Abby Bowler said. One partnership, with a local design agency, involved the sisters exchanging equity for their design services. “They were nice enough to take a meeting and listen to our pitch as 16- and 18-year-old girls.” Sadie Bowler worked on the products with a formulator in Los Angeles.
The sisters’s father, Chris Bowler, is an entrepreneur, too, though not in the beauty industry. He started a charcuterie company in 2008 and still works in the CPG space. The brand proves that, rather than being “a platform to badger girls” about their looks, “personal care can be a platform to uplift them and teach them good mental health, or at least be part of a good physical and mental hygiene routine,” he said.
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SadieB getting into Target came by way of an introduction. At an event for female entrepreneurs hosted by McKenzie Bauer, founder of wallets and accessories brand Thread Wallets and board member of SadieB, the sisters met Cherie Hoeger, founder of period-care brand Saalt. Based on the fact that Hoeger said she had five daughters, they decided to send her SadieB products. A week later, Bauer emailed the girls, stating, “This has to be in Target. Meet my Target broker below,” copying her broker on the email. He responded that evening, stating that Target’s product reset for its hair-care category was five days later. “if you want to throw a pitch deck together, do it quick,” he said.
“We pitched Target in April of last year. And then it was radio silence for a few months — we were on the edge of our seats. And then we had a 15-minute call from Target’s buyer pop up on our calendars,” Sadie Bowler said. “The buyer opened the call with, ‘So you’re getting into Target. Five hundred stores in February, get ready.”
From there, the girls set about preparing inventory, refreshing the brand’s website and readying its social media channels. It tapped an agency to overhaul the look and feel of its Instagram grid and outline a clear growth strategy in advance of the Target launch. The brand currently has 7,000 followers on Instagram and 4,000 on TikTok.
Though the brand also makes body care products, including body wash and body spray, it only pitched its hair care to Target, Sadie Bowler said. “[We’re] hoping we can expand within the hair-care category first, building brand awareness with the Target guests in that aisle before we start dropping products in other aisles.”
SadieB’s hair-care products are divided into four lines, each with functionalities designed to meet girls’ needs. The Go-Getter is an everyday line that cleanses and lightly hydrates, The Athlete offers a long-lasting scent and UV and chlorine protection, The Adventurer is ideal for damaged hair and those who go on outdoors adventures, and The Creator is a color–safe formula that’s best for girls who color and heat-style their hair.
Though Sadie and Abby Bowler were hesitant to use social media throughout high school, they said they’re coming around after realizing its potential to fuel brand growth. Though they declined to share a specific revenue projection, given the Target launch, they expect to earn 20x their previous revenue this year.
SadieB’s other board members include Davis Smith, founder of outdoor gear brand Cotopaxi, and Noelle Bates, former svp of marketing and communications at the sock company Stance, among others. The brand also has an advisory board of 12 girls who provide feedback on everything from social media strategy to product development.
