This article previously appeared on News@Northeastern. It was written by Ian Thomsen.
Aniyah Smith's imminent career was disrupted—happily—by the Husky Startup Challenge shortly after she began studying for an MBA at Northeastern.
She had been planning to pursue her entrepreneurial ambitions later in life. But the timeline underwent a radical adjustment last year at the startup challenge for Northeastern students where Smith placed second, based on her idea to create inclusive and accessible cosmetics for a diverse population.
“I did not expect to be building a company at 22 years old, but I've learned to be an opportunist,” says Smith, founder of the cosmetics startup Push Beauty. “Being an opportunist has allowed me to meet so many new people, to find those resources, to experience what it means to build a company—and just how hard it is.”
In support of her efforts to develop Push Beauty, Smith has received an inaugural $2,500 Innovator Award from Northeastern's Women Who Empower inclusion and entrepreneurship initiative. The awards recognize 19 women who are graduates or current students at Northeastern. The organization is distributing a total of $100,000 in grants to help fund 17 ventures.
Smith had been focused on a career in cosmetics since she was 15. She graduated in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in cosmetics and fragrance marketing from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. She earned graduate certificates in entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania and in organizational leadership from Northwestern.
She says her goal of creating an inclusive line of cosmetics has evolved to include products for disabled people that can be opened and used with one hand.