ELIESA JOHNSON
Marketing buff Audra Robinson has an enduring entrepreneurial spirit, and after getting laid off in late 2019, she dove into her side hustle, Rocky Robinson, a personal care line for girls. Amid the pandemic, social unrest, and supply chain issues plaguing 2020, she managed to grow her fledgling company and create routine for girls needing a boost. For our new series featuring forward-thinking women, presented by Evereve, we talked with her about the need for representation and the girls who inspire her brand.
You’ve had a lot of success with your skin care brand catering to girls, especially girls of color. Have you faced any challenges along the way?
Brand colors are key to building the identity and differentiation in consumers’ minds. My brand hero, Rocky, has deep brown skin, and the color is important. I worked with a local print shop for my labels, and they came back very wrong. The printer said, Well, you’re going to have to take them and just sell those. And I was like, Absolutely not. That’s my brand color. Then I had to find a new printer, so that was a huge roadblock.
What propels you to keep moving forward?
I get messages from my customers who say how much Rocky has changed the self-esteem for their daughters. The girls are so savvy. They would demand that their parents send me Boomerangs of them with the products; some did product reviews. On the back of each of my bottles I have a positive message; a little girl read the message in her review video, and I was just bawling at my desk. I’ve had parents tell me that their daughters struggled with their complexion and their hair, and this brand helped them have a sense of pride in who they are.
Are there any little girls in your life that inspired Rocky Robinson?
All the girls, including me as a little girl. I don’t have children of my own, but I am a stepmom, a godmother many times over, and an aunt of two amazing, savvy girls, and I actually built the brand along with them. As the designer would come back with creative concepts, I would send them to my sister, and she would ask them what they thought, and at the time, the youngest was 6, and I remember her words exactly. She said, “I like her. She looks just like me.”
What need or gap do your products fill in the market?
Research shows that all parents are looking for more diverse and inclusive products, and Rocky fills that gap. Because we’re in personal care, there’s nothing specific about needs—it’s bubble bath and shower gel, it’s lotion, it’s lip balm, it’s hand sanitizer, so any girl can use it. That’s what Rocky’s fulfilling: that need for representation and for people to see themselves and be a part of that story that tells us that we all have a place in this world.
What is something you wish you had known as a kid that you’re now trying to share with young girls?
Being free to be who you are, that space for self-expression—I wish that I knew that as a kid.
Tell me about your personal style.
I have always loved fashion. As a kid, I would keep a weekly fashion journal because I didn’t want to overlap outfits. I love a really bomb shoe; I treat myself every year for my birthday to a high-end pair because I work hard. Then I might wear a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans with them. Thanks to COVID, I’ve found ways to pair joggers and blazers with them, and I don’t even know if it’s wrong or not because I’m about comfort now. But I throw in the blazer to make it look pulled together.
How did your Evereve fitting go?
I was already an Evereve shopper, so when I got the call, it was like, Oh, I was just there! It’s genuinely one of my favorites. Also, because it started as a small, local, Minnesota-based business, woman-owned, I’ve always admired their story, and I’ve watched the brand grow over the years.
On Robinson: Thompson blazer ($158); Cloth and Stone denim shirt ($98); bracelets ($36); Good American Good Curve Straight jeans ($155); and Marc Fisher Josley pumps ($165), all from EVEREVE, evereve.com
This article originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine as part of a new series, The Foreword, presented by Evereve.
