Amazon MGM Studios has optioned the rights to Marisa Meltzer’s nonfiction page-turner “Glossy” about Glossier founder Emily Weiss for an upcoming TV series, Meltzer confirmed to TheWrap on Monday.
“Glossy: Ambition, Beauty and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’ Glossier,” which was published in September and soon made the New York Times best-seller list, tells the story of how Weiss went from a Teen Vogue intern to a beauty blogger to founding her own successful cosmetics brand, Glossier.
According to several media reports, “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines” director Lindsey Anderson Beer is attached to produce through her production company Lab Brew. Alexandra Banks and Spencer Walken will executive produce and no showrunner has yet been named.
While the behind-the-scenes business tell-all and accompanying prestige TV series — such as “Blackberry,” “Super Pumped; The Battle for Uber,” “The Dropout” and “WeCrashed” — has become a cottage industry in Hollywood, Weiss’ story doesn’t end up with her in jail or court.
But her journey is still perfectly suited for adaptation: Per Simon & Schuster, the book solves the mystery of the often mysterious woman behind the go-to beauty brand: “Just how did a girl from suburban Connecticut with no real job experience work her way into the bathrooms and boudoirs of the most influential names in the world and build that access into a 1.9-billion-dollar business? Is she solely responsible for its success? And why, eight years later, at the height of Glossier mania, did she step down?”
For the book, Weiss spoke to former Glossier employees, investors, and Weiss herself. “From fundraising to product launches and unconventional hiring practices, Meltzer exposes the inner workings of Glossier’s culture, culminating in the story of Weiss herself,” touts the publisher.
When “Glossy” came out last month, the New York Times ran an opinion piece by Jessica Grose headlined C.E.O.s Don’t Need to Be Monsters, contrasting the book with Walter Isaacson’s “Elon Musk” bio of the X owner and SpaceX founder.
“Meltzer neither demonizes nor valorizes Weiss, showing that it’s possible to create a readable and propulsive book that admires a founder’s business acumen and market strategy without excusing her missteps as somehow a necessary byproduct of success,” wrote Grose.
