S A L U D O S H I S P A N O S The company's IPO, or initial public offering, is when a private company "goes public" by selling shares that essentially anyone can purchase on the stock market. Shares have gone up and down over time, fluctuating from day to day, but the company actually grew during the pandemic and is currently valued at about $1.5 billion. There have been snags and stumbles along the way, and a few years ago recalls and lawsuits raised questions about some of the claims in Honest's products. But the company has managed to recover and course correct while maintaining its own high standards. "There was so much work put into bringing us to this point," Alba said recently. "But in a lot of ways, this is the beginning of really becoming that company that I always felt like we should be." At 40, and as a mom of three, Alba reaches a demographic that marketers across the consumer-goods segment want to capture: the affluent millennial parent. Often online and focused on wellness and their own environmental impact, these consumers spend a lot of money on household goods for their new families. The Honest Company had built in name recognition with Alba. And as to marketing efforts and advertising, the company is very adept at using social media and various online platforms to its advantage. Alba has over 19 million Instagram followers and upwards of 10 million on Facebook. Alba was born in Pomona, CA on April 28, 1981. Her mother is of Danish-European ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her father’s Air Force career took the family to Mississippi and Texas before returning to California when she was 9. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five. Alba also expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, after much pleading, the 11-year-old Alba finally persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed her nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere. She was originally hired for only two weeks, but her role turned into a two-month gig when one of the
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