A Place in the Sun

Holly Thaggard of Supergoop!

by emma defelice

Holly Thaggard was studying education at Louisiana State University when she received the news that one of her close friends was diagnosed with skin cancer. She discussed it with her roommate, who was in her dermatology residency.

“SPF is not all about beaches and bikinis,” she remembers her roommate saying. “It’s about that little bit of exposure every day to UVA and UVB that is cumulative.”

That is when the wheels started turning for Thaggard. She became obsessed with SPF, and years later would create Supergoop!, a skincare brand that emphasizes UV protection in its wide array of health and beauty products.

Holly began her career as a third-grade teacher. After going out for recess every day and watching her students participate in sports, she noticed there was never a tube of sunscreen in sight.

“It was just mind boggling that we were not teaching this healthy habit,” she says. “We were telling kids to wash their hands and wear helmets on their bikes and buckle their seatbelts, but we weren’t teaching them to protect their skin.”

Both of Holly’s parents were entrepreneurs and told her that if she wanted to do something bigger, she should “look for the white space and do something that has never been done before.”

One in every five people will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime, but it is also one of the most preventable forms of cancer: one needs only to wear sunscreen daily, and not just when planning to be in direct sunlight. Holly considered this and decided it was important to introduce SPF to a broader market.

Supergoop! was launched in 2004, a time when SPF was largely lacking in the beauty industry, only becoming prevalent during the spring and summer months. “If we were going to get people to wear SPF every single day, it was only going to be through product innovation, creating game changing solutions that address every skin type,” Holly says. “There is no one size fits all with SPF.”

When developing a new product, Holly works closely with the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, which is the largest specialty organization in the United States exclusively representing dermatologic surgeons who have unique training and experience to treat the health, function, and beauty of skin throughout every stage of life.

Holly has an innovative and interesting marketing strategy; rather than instilling fear, she makes her ideas fun and presentable. Some of the most popular products from Supergoop! include their Glowscreen, Glow Stick, and Unseen Sunscreen. These products protect skin from the sun, and they also act as a great base for makeup and will help it last all day.

Holly and her team are currently working on the launch of their Defense Refresh Setting Mist, which should be hitting the shelves later this year.

In addition to developing new products, Holly has watched her career come full circle: she works with the program Ounce by Ounce, which donates sun care products to schools and classrooms in order to teach them to make a habit of protecting their skin.

Since then, Supergoop! has now donated more than 4,300 bottles of SPF to more than 1,600 classrooms and youth organizations.

“Since sun exposure is cumulative throughout our lifetime, it is super important to keep our little ones protected,” she says.