As the global tween skincare market charges toward $8.1 billion, entrepreneur Judd joins startup alcheMe to protect Gen Alpha’s skin barrier.
Before becoming an established entrepreneur with two decades of business experience and taking the last name Judd, Rebecca Twigley was a tween growing up in the heat of a Western Australian mining town.
“Leeman is actually a crayfishing town on the coast,” she tells Forbes Australia, while sitting in a windowside chair in her Melbourne home, light streaming in on her luminous face.
The draw for Judd’s parents, who moved to WA in the 1970s, was Australia’s biggest export sector.
“Dad just retired from BHP, and Mum from Fortescue,” the unassuming founder says with pride. “She used to drive those huge mining trucks.”
Living in Leeman, Judd developed an interest in cosmetics at an early age. One of her earliest memories is receiving a cream blush-scented toy makeup kit around age three, and watching her mother get dressed up for special occasions. In her pre-teen years, like many Aussies, she was obsessed with stackable lipsticks, cherry-flavoured chapstick, and Impulse body spray.
“My tween skincare would have been Nivea, and a toner that I didn’t need,” she says. “If it sizzled and burned, I thought it must have been doing something.”
That evolved into heavy compact foundations during her teenage years. “We didn’t know then. I was just your average 90s teenager,” she says, laughing.
Fast forward to today, and that early interest in cosmetics has intersected with her commercial acumen. The latest addition to Judd’s startup portfolio targets one of the fastest-growing categories in retail: tween skincare.
Today’s youth beauty landscape looks vastly different from previous generations. Driven by social media and word-of-mouth from older siblings, tweens and young teenagers are adopting multi-step skincare routines. This shift is not without its challenges, however, as younger consumers experiment with products containing active ingredients formulated for mature skin – often resulting in irritation and damaged skin barriers.
The Gen Alpha Gap
Seeing a clear gap for age-appropriate products, Judd recently acquired a sweat-equity stake in alcheMe, which was founded by Melbourne-born expats Jessica Johnson and Jacqui Dixon, who now live in Singapore.
Manufactured locally in Victoria, the brand’s solution to the tween skincare gap focuses on age-appropriate basic barrier protection with colourful mix-and-match fragrance combinations like “Strawberry Milkshake.”
For Judd, joining alcheMe is both a strategic investment of time and a practical application of brand-building experience. Bringing hard-won lessons from founding her athleisure line Jaggad, spray tan company Spray Aus, and ambassadorships with SkinCare Company and Maybelline, Judd is in a position to advise her alcheMe co-founders on topics ranging from product development to distribution negotiation to marketing to supply chain decisions.
“There have been decisions where Jac and Jess said, ‘Hey, we’re thinking this,’ and I’ve said, ‘I tried that with another brand, it didn’t work, let me suggest this,'” she says.
Judd’s formal involvement with alcheMe developed after acting as an informal adviser throughout its initial stages. Having observed the company transition from concept to active retail, taking sweat equity allowed her to contribute operational guidance in exchange for ownership.
Her expertise comes at a time when the trajectory of the tween beauty market is on the rise. Valued at approximately USD$3.8 billion in 2025, industry estimates project the tween and kids’ skincare sector could reach USD$8.1 billion by 2034 due to increased awareness around personal care, alongside social media trends like the popular “Sephora Kids” phenomenon.
The Asia Pacific region represents a major driver of this growth, accounting for over 27 per cent of global revenue. It was in this market that AlcheMe’s original founding team, Johnson and Dixon met while living in Singapore. Recognising the demand for safe, simplified formulations, the duo established the brand in Asia while maintaining manufacturing in Melbourne.
Looking ahead, the alcheMe team see significant international potential, particularly in North America, which accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the global tween market.
“Right now, we’re online only… but we’re just about to open up to the U.S. I want buyers to be able to get it anywhere, any aisle, whether it’s Boots or Target US.”
Rebecca Judd
Australia is seeing a surge in demand, with young consumers increasingly drawn to beauty retail. Judd experienced this firsthand when her 12-year-old daughter, Billie, began experimenting with high-strength exfoliants from her skincare drawer.
“I remember saying, ‘Billie, you cannot use this. This is so bad for your skin,'” Judd recalls.
The entrepreneur also shares startup advice with her children. When Billie expressed interest in starting a crochet business, Judd responded with a barrage of logistical questions regarding profit margins, website hosting, and the cost of returns.
“I give my kids a reality check,” Judd says. “Getting something to market takes work, but maintaining momentum after launch is where the real effort begins.”
That perspective stems from navigating difficult periods with her activewear label, Jaggad, which she founded in 2013 with her former AFL-playing husband, Chris Judd, and Steven and Michelle Greene.
Judd learned a lot about the challenges of scaling a business during its early days.
“The first five years were so hard. We invested significant capital and didn’t see a dividend for years,” she says. “Sometimes we had no orders in a week, and as owners, we were placing orders ourselves just to maintain cash flow.”
Backing Aussie Entrepreneurs
With Judd’s neophyte entrepreneurial days behind her, the unassuming, matter-of-fact 43-year-old cautions that Australia’s economic settings need to remain competitive to support local business creation and retain talent.
She points to regulatory and tax structures as critical factors for local founders deciding whether to establish operations domestically or offshore.
“We risk losing talented founders overseas unless we create an environment where they can thrive. We need to incentivise entrepreneurs rather than penalise them.”
Rebecca Judd
With technological shifts like artificial intelligence changing employment dynamics, Judd argues that supporting home-grown ventures is vital for job creation and domestic economic growth.
“We have founders here employing Australians and contributing to the tax base,” she says. “We need policies that encourage ambitious people to stay, build, and keep their businesses Australian.”
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