Welcome to Follow These Women! the latest series to join To The People’s lineup. In this series, we’ll get quality one-on-one time with the women of Youth To The People and sit down with them to discover their career paths—some are unusual, all are inspiring—their goals, dreams, and values. No matter the stage of your own career, taking a peek into someone else’s path can be a breath of fresh air—it can offer a new perspective, or even help you double down on the things that are important to you. If you’re looking for groundbreaking women, look no further. Follow these women!
The latest guest to join the series is Miranda Martin, Senior Manager, Planning + Sales Operations at Youth To The People. Miranda says, “I love being surrounded by my family and my close friends. My dog, Lidia, and I like to chase the sun together. I love to cook and bake and travel to experience new places.”
As the senior manager in planning + sales operations, Miranda works with her team and YTTP’s retailers to gather industry forecasts, create supply plans, and get orders out the door to make sure customers can find YTTP’s pro-grade vegan products online and in stores. She’s always known herself to be a numbers person, but it wasn’t until her senior year of college—when as an accounting major she took her first operations elective—that she started to feel like she might know the field for her.
“I have a twin sister and growing up, everyone would joke that she was the creative right side of the brain and I was the mathematical left side,” says Miranda. “She is more artistic than I, but I would posit that creative people and data-driven people have much in common. We can both identify a problem, work through many solutions in our heads, analyze the right way forward, and then put it to paper—or paint. The medium is simply different. Numbers are just a puzzle that I must creatively solve.”
To Miranda, every experience is an opportunity to learn—if you open your eyes, ears, and heart to learning from everyone and everything around you.
“If we aren’t continually learning, we aren’t growing,” Miranda says, and it’s with that mindset that she’s set herself the ultimate career goal of being a brand’s CEO.
Before landing at YTTP, Miranda worked at a large company where she was the only woman on the operations team. Though she liked the work and was determined to learn and grow, Miranda wasn’t satisfied, and struggled to resonate with the product or the male-centered company culture.
“I knew that I needed a company where women were valued and encouraged to achieve. I also needed to believe passionately in the corporate culture. My current boss, Armine [Charkhchyan, SVP of Operations + New Product Development], found me on LinkedIn and, after a few interviews, showed me how I could apply all my knowledge with a totally different industry,” Miranda says. “It was an excellent match for me. I have always loved the beauty and skincare world, so once I found my place here, there was no turning back!”
Aside from being able to apply her operations wisdom in the beauty industry, transitioning to YTTP has given Miranda strong female role models to learn from in the workplace.
“They create space for those of us who are coming up behind them through support and mentorship, encouraging each of us to not only reach our own goals, but setting the bar even higher,” Miranda says. “I am supported and I know that it will be my turn some day in the future to encourage the next generation to reach their potential.”
In Miranda’s personal life, her village is strong.
“Starting with my mother, my three sisters, my teachers, my best friends, and my peers—they are all creative groundbreakers: engineers, marketers, consultants, librarians, artists, teachers,” Miranda says. “All chose their own paths and opportunities.”
And what does it mean to be a groundbreaker?
“To me, it means changing the way things are done. Innovating. Not just change for change’s sake, but being a pioneer, an innovator, a trailblazer. It’s about breaking down barriers, inspiring others to improve things—not just for oneself,” Miranda says. “We can all be groundbreakers. No matter our age. No matter our role.”
Follow Miranda at @mandamartin on Instagram.
