Family leave benefits at larger, more established American companies remain limited, offering little roadmap for brand founders hoping to do better for themselves and their families. According to the most recent numbers from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 39% of workers in management, professional and related occupations had access to paid parental leave in 2023, compared to 27% of workers overall.

There are some encouraging signs. Fathers appear to be increasingly participating in postpartum caregiving, with the share of fathers taking no leave dropping from more than 50% in the 2004–2013 cohort to 35% in the 2014–2022 cohort, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation. For mothers, access to paid leave has risen modestly over the same period, from 42% to 49%.

Many beauty and wellness brand founders are creating their own versions of parental leave that allow them to keep scaling their companies, honor postpartum bonding time, model supportive practices for their teams and build the kind of workplaces they want to see in the world. Still, it takes considerable effort to prepare for leave on their own terms, and even the best-laid plans can be quickly derailed.

To learn more about their parental leave experiences, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 10 beauty and wellness founders: How did you make it possible to take parental leave while remaining at the helm of your brand?