
Entrepreneur, Cosmetics Pioneer, Medical Research Catalyst, Author & Philanthropist
2017 Inductee to the National Women's Hall of Fame | 2018 Vatican Pontifical Key Advocacy Award Recipient
As Founder and CEO of the global brand and informercial giant, Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, Victoria revolutionized and dominated the beauty industry with her “No Makeup” makeup. Pioneering a new approach to sales, Victoria became the first to market a cosmetics line on television with eleven international infomercials. With a 10-year run on QVC, Victoria Jackson Cosmetics became an international sales powerhouse, with over 600 beauty products that generated a billion dollars in sales. Victoria’s approach to all that she does is personal – in this case by designing and developing all her products - ranging from cosmetics to hair care, skincare, fragrance and beyond.
As a teen, Victoria’s approach to surviving a sexual assault was to harness her personal need to reach out and empower women. Later, she became a passionate advocate and guest lectured on self-esteem, enhancing our natural beauty and embracing change. Over a period of 20 years Victoria inspired women from all walks of life – in prisons, hospitals, and youth support programs. Victoria challenged women to celebrate their gifts of unique beauty and contributions to the world.
2008 was life changing for Victoria with the news that her daughter had four years to live. Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) —a devastating and rare autoimmune disease — became a new personal mission in Victoria and her daughter’s lives. Little was known about this potentially fatal disorder of the central nervous system. Victoria and her husband, Bill Guthy—of the infomercial giant Guthy-Renker— established The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation to fund life-saving research to better understand, treat, and cure NMO. Victoria has personally led the work of the Foundation to achieve quantum progress and at record speed. At its start the foundation tackled a bleak landscape of NMO research. There came a groundswell of Guthy-Jackson personally funded research that illuminated the darkness of NMO. An unprecedented 12 years later, the foundation exceeded its goal of a first-ever NMO therapeutic. The scientific world was astounded when within one year, three therapeutics achieved approval by the FDA, marking 2019 as “The Year of NMO.”
In 2017, activist and feminist Gloria Steinem inducted Victoria into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. One year later at the Vatican, Victoria accepted the Pontifical Key Advocacy Award for her personal and visionary approach to advancing the understanding of a rare autoimmune disease worldwide through her foundation. 2019 brought Victoria back to Seneca Falls where she had the honor to induct Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor into the Hall. Accepting these honors with gratitude, Victoria’s entrepreneurial journey has kicked up full force with the 2021 launch of Kind Science, a skincare line she founded with Ellen DeGeneres. From Mascara to Medicine and now Moisturizer, she keeps a keen eye on continued progress in curing NMO. Her work for her daughter and all who daily walk the path of NMO continues onward.
Victoria has personally planned and produced a series of documentaries on the transformative progress in unraveling NMO and other autoimmune diseases - all in a remarkably short period of time. Additionally, she has written four books - most recently The Power of Rare: A Blueprint for a Medical Revolution. She and her daughter Ali Guthy co-authored the acclaimed Saving Each Other, a chronicle of their mother-daughter journey to overcome the odds of a terrifying diagnosis. Ms. Jackson’s two previous works include Redefining Beauty and Make Up Your Life: Every Woman’s Guide to the Power of Makeup. She currently sits on the board of LACMA, UCLA Health Systems and Time’s Up.
Victoria is the proud mother of three children—Evan, Ali and Jackson---she and her husband Bill make their primary residence in Los Angeles.