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Victoria Jackson revolutionized the beauty industry in the 1980s and '90s with her "no make-up" approach to make-up and ultimately made Victoria Jackson Cosmetics into a billion-dollar global brand. But her greatest test of the power of rare didn't come until her daughter, Ali, was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica, or NMO—a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease—and Victoria, driven by a mother's love, set out to find a cure for her daughter.
Within days of hearing Ali's diagnosis in 2008, Victoria began the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation to fund medical research into this often misdiagnosed orphan disease. Her "blueprint" called for breaking down the so-called silos of traditional medical research and bringing together some of the greatest minds to collaborate and share their findings. She hadn't expected to galvanize how medical research works, but within only a few years, that's just what she did. By focusing on the "rare" in each of us, the foundation has catalyzed breakthroughs in NMO in record time. These advances are also opening new doors to solving MS, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases—plus diseases that are not so rare, including cancer, infection, aging, and more.
It has been Victoria's guiding philosophy that if she can do it, anyone can. With The Power of Rare, she shares how the foundation harnessed the power of rare to speed discoveries that help patients. Through her business savvy, wit, and heart, she offers real-world advice and inspiration for others to tap into "rare" to empower their own breakthroughs.
About the author
Cosmetics entrepreneur, medical research trailblazer, and Women’s Hall of Fame inductee Victoria Jackson founded the global powerhouse brand Victoria Jackson Cosmetics. With her creation of the “No Makeup” makeup aesthetic, she irrevocably altered the beauty landscape and became the first person to market a cosmetics line on television. During her decade-long run on QVC, she developed more than six hundred products and generated a billion dollars in sales.
Then in 2008, when her young daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder and given four years to live, the mother of three shifted her focus from mascara to medicine. She and her husband, Bill Guthy, founder of the marketing behemoth Guthy-Renker, established The Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation to fund research on NMO treatments and a cure. Victoria’s unrelenting determination proved effective: In 2016, the foundation developed the first NMO therapeutic, and soon after, three therapies received FDA approval. The unprecedented pace of that accomplishment prompted the American Academy of Neurology to declare 2019 “The Year of NMO.”
In recognition of Victoria’s unswerving dedication to the NMO community, as well as her foundation’s groundbreaking research, feminist icon Gloria Steinem inducted her into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2016. The following year at the Vatican, Victoria accepted the Pontifical Key Advocacy Award for her personal and visionary approach to advancing the understanding of NMO around the globe. She has authored four books, including The Power of Rare: A Blueprint for a Medical Revolution. In 2021, her entrepreneurial journey came full circle when she partnered with Ellen DeGeneres to launch Kind Science, a skincare line.
