Many would think that living a bohemian lifestyle — impulsive, desire-driven, hedonistic, carefree, happy-go-lucky, whimsical and such could lead one to sure doom, but not Anita Roddick. In fact, before she became the owner of the successful world-renowned business that is now known as The Body Shop, she was short of being a crazy bohemian herself.

As a daughter to immigrants living in a foreign country, Anita grew up feeling the same turbulent emotions that foreigners do when trying to make their living in a strange land. After having read about the holocaust, Anita set out to proclaim her beliefs and principles for humanitarian efforts.

However, during her travels, she encountered many setbacks- she went broke and when she was expatriated in South Africa, she decided it was time to go home. And back home she went to the café where she used to work as a waitress for long odd hours. This was where she met Gordon Roddick, who became her husband. From there, the partnership that made the success of The Body Shop possible was born.

The Body Shop started out in a mediocre situation; there were watermarks on the shop’s walls, there were few bottles that they had in supply, and too much space where there were not enough products to display.

However, Anita, recognizing the rise of the green and thrift movements, capitalized on this. And soon, she used deep green color as wall paint to hide the marks on her shop- the green supposedly part of the shop’s commitment to the environmentalist movement. She also used different sized containers in order to fill all the empty spaces in her shelves. She even banked on the idea of reusable containers, which the people actually liked and supported.

With her creativity, she was able to gain the attention and loyalty of her customers. And with the help of her husband, they were able to set up many stores — starting from their hometown. The Body Shop has reached the world-renowned status it has today, reaching countries in far-off borders, the countries that Anita Roddick herself, would have loved to visit had she been back in her traveling days.