Help CLICKED! secure £10,000 from Molly-Mae
A little about me and why I created CLICKED!
I've spent nearly 20 years working in skincare and have always been a passionate advocate for consumers, particularly when it comes to helping people understand their skin, make informed choices and feel confident in themselves.
I've always been fascinated by the relationship between our skin and our confidence – how the way we feel about our skin can influence how we see ourselves, how we show up in the world and how comfortable we feel being ourselves.
I'm a bestselling author and the founder of Black Skin Directory, a platform I created to help address the lack of representation, information and support available to people with darker skin tones.
Throughout my career, I've wanted to take everything I've learnt and build something that could reach and positively impact many more people.
CLICKED! is that ambition brought to life.
It's an intelligent, personalised skin and wellness platform designed to cut through the confusion, misinformation and overwhelming noise around skincare. Our mission is to give people the knowledge and confidence to understand their skin, make better decisions and feel empowered, whatever their skin might be doing.
This isn't a new business idea - it builds on two decades of my professional experience, consumer advocacy and a front line understanding of how our skin can fuel a confidence crisis.
The journey to building a tech business with an AI layer
One of the things that makes this journey particularly special is that I don’t come from a technology background. My expertise has always been skincare, not software development!
But I had a vision for what I wanted to build and rather than let my lack of technical experience stand in the way, I decided to immerse myself in an entirely new industry starting with a visit to San Francisco, the tech capital of the world.
I've had to learn about technology, understand AI, get to grips with how software is developed and work alongside my co-founders to turn an idea into a functioning technology product.
We've built CLICKED! from the ground up, with a bespoke codebase written from scratch. This isn't an off-the-shelf product or an app assembled using no-code platforms, it's a significant technology undertaking and an enormous learning curve, particularly as a first-time tech founder.
From the original idea to finding my co-founders, building the team, developing the technology and preparing for launch, it's taken an incredible amount of determination, commitment and hard work.
It's pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but it's also demonstrated what's possible when you have a vision and are prepared to learn whatever you need to make it happen.
Why CLICKED! matters
It’s so much more than skincare.
We're passionate about helping people develop a healthy relationship with their skin and their confidence - and we’re starting with our Gen Z’s.
Social media, influencer culture, unrealistic beauty standards and the sheer volume of conflicting skincare advice can make navigating skincare incredibly overwhelming. Young people are constantly being told what to buy, what to use and what their skin should look like, without necessarily having the knowledge to understand what they actually need.
We want to change that, so CLICKED! is about helping people become informed rather than influenced. It's about giving consumers more agency, making expert skin knowledge more accessible and helping people feel confident regardless of whether they're experiencing breakouts, pigmentation, dryness, sensitivity or any other skin concern.
We also want to make sure that skin intelligence and advice are inclusive, recognising that different skin tones and skin types deserve to be understood and represented.
Ultimately, we want to help people understand that their skin doesn't define them or limit how they show up in the world.
What would the £10,000 mean to us?
Winning this funding would make an absolute difference to what we can achieve as we approach launch.
One of our biggest ambitions is to take CLICKED! into universities through a roadshow, working directly with young women and students to educate, empower and help them develop a more confident relationship with their skin.
We want to take the conversation beyond the app and into real life, reaching young women at a formative stage when their relationship with their appearance, confidence and self-esteem is still developing.
The funding would help us bring this ambition to life, reach more women, create educational opportunities and introduce CLICKED! to the people who could benefit most from it.
It would help us move from building the technology to actively delivering the wider impact we've always envisioned.
It would also provide valuable support at a really important stage in our journey as we move towards launch and look to grow the business.
I've invested so much of myself into getting CLICKED! to this point. I'd love to see all that hard work translate into something that makes a meaningful difference to other women, particularly the next generation. There's something quite meaningful about this opportunity being supported by Molly-Mae who has built a hugely successful public profile and businesses, she understands the influence that social media, beauty culture and public expectations can have on young women.
The assessment will look at four things:
The nominee's story and achievements.
You’ll need my instagram (dija_ayodele) and my website (www.dijaayodele.com)
The potential impact of the support.
How the funding could help achieve future goals.
When explaining why you think we deserve the support, it would be wonderful if you could draw on some of the things I've shared above.
In particular, I'd love you to highlight:
My 20 years of skincare experience, my bestselling book and the creation of Black Skin Directory.
My journey from skincare expert to first-time technology founder, learning about technology and AI to help build a bespoke platform from scratch.
The determination and commitment it has taken to bring CLICKED! to the point of launch.
Our mission to make expert skin knowledge more accessible and help younger women build confidence and agency over their skin.
The opportunity to use the funding to take CLICKED! into universities, reach more young women and create a meaningful impact beyond the digital space.
Of course, please put it in your own words and share why you personally believe in the business and why you think CLICKED! and the journey behind it deserve this support. Your own perspective and reasons for believing in me and the team will make your nomination all the more meaningful.
Every nomination counts, and it would mean so much to have you behind us at this stage of the journey.
