Fans Salute Hailey Bieber Selling Rhode Cosmetics For $1 Billion, Why?

Forbes

3 days ago

Hailey Bieber in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor Academy Museum of ... More Motion Pictures )
Hailey Bieber just sold Rhode, her make-up brand, to e.l.f. Beauty for a reported $1 billion. This, undeniably, is one of the biggest celebrity acquisitions in recent years and propels Bieber into the upper echelons of wealth in her industry.
What's particularly interesting though is the reaction. It's easy to assume that the vast majority of people online would express anger and bitterness, but, instead, there's been a large swell of people congratulating Hailey Bieber for Rhode being acquired by e.l.f. Beauty.
This is an interesting example of how social media can drive parasocial relationships with celebrities, but in a way that ends up expressing positivity.
First though, a little context.
Hailey Bieber is a 28-year-old model and social media star who's married to the musician Justin Bieber. She co-founded the line of skincare and cosmetic products in 2022, and it has only gone strength-to-strength.
Much of the popularity of Rhode was driven by online fans, which has allowed the brand to generate an estimated $200 million of revenue each year.
It's this success that led e.l.f Beauty to acquire the company.
'We are excited by Rhode's ability to break beauty barriers, fully aligning with e.l.f. Beauty's vision to create a different kind of company,' says Tarang Amin, the chairman and CEO of e.l.f. "Rhode is a beautiful brand that we believe is ready for rocketship growth.'
This level of success seems primed for an online backlash and although there are some people that reacted negatively, there are a swathe of others celebrating Hailey Bieber. The question, of course, is why?
One thing that many celebrities encounter online are negative reactions. It's a now-expected part of being a public figure that they will receive criticism for their actions, no matter what they do.
There are a few theories about why this happens, but one of the most interesting is how celebrity success can impact self-esteem. When people view a famous person thriving and achieving things that they desire themselves, it can be viewed as a direct comment of their own lives.
This can lead to a negative sense of self-significance, which then manifests as aggression towards a public figure—and is something we see time and time again online.
Yet this makes the amount of positive reactions to Hailey Bieber's sale of Rhode to e.l.f. even more fascinating.
While there are a range of possible explanations for this response, one of the more interesting is the idea of parasocial relationships.
Effectively, a parasocial relationship is a one-way connection with a public or fictional figure. The rise of social media makes this easier than ever to engage with, as we can see intimate details of someone's life and feel as though we're actually close to them.
While there are negative outcomes of parasocial relationships, one positive is that it can make individuals feel as though the public figure is their friend and they want to support them.
We can arguably see this happening with Hailey Bieber. She's a figure with a huge social media following (at the time of writing she has over 55 million followers on Instagram alone) which means there will be a fair number of people in potentially parasocial relationships with her.
What this leads to are, on some level, messages of support about her selling Rhode, rather than solely the expected negative reaction.
Ultimately, although there are some elements of the online world that can drive people apart, there are plenty of flipsides to this. Sometimes, parasocial relationships can actually cause a groundswell of support for celebrities—something Hailey Bieber is currently experiencing following her $1 billion sale of Rhodes.