[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Malini Adapureddy is ‘Deconstruct’-ing the idea of what women can do

An IIT-Kharagpur graduate, Malini Adapureddy was born and raised in a pretty progressive family in Vishakhapatnam. Her inspiration to become an entrepreneur stems from her mother, Dr Sree Devi, a doctor and a director of Pradhama Multi-speciality hospitals.

While her entrepreneurship path—from IIT to INSEAD to Flipkart, P&G and Kraft Heinz—she recognises it is one that is commonly undertaken by men. 

“I have been in a class full of 80 men and only two women, including myself. I have worked in organizations that have been dominated by men - from technicians to managers. So, I learnt to deal with biases and had so much to learn from them from a very young age,” says Adapureddy.

Even as a solo founder of her skincare The Deconstruct, bias is commonplace. From investors questioning her ability to handle her business alone as a single woman founder to close relatives advising her to rely on her husband, Adapureddy has overcome biases by following her intuition.

“It is usually your intuition that recognises these unconscious biases. So trust these intuitions and stand up to the biases,” she says. 

The inspiration for  The Deconstruct also stems from biased beliefs about beauty standards. Changing the narrative around beauty was a major driver to set-up a skincare line of her own. 

“Skincare brands focus on fairness as the only source of confidence. No one really talks about the skin issues that women face such as pigmentation, acne…. Just because society has set fairness as the standard of beauty, these brands are riding on this wave. Moreover, there is no innovation among the products and only labels are different,” Adapureddy explains.

With a product line that includes serums, moisturizers, and sunscreens, Adapureddy and The Deconstruct are trying to change the narrative around beauty to include concepts beyond fairness and ensuring that women are comfortable in their own skin.