aitlin Ruiz, a 30-year-old resident of Tucson, Arizona, firstgot involved in multilevel marketing

companies in her early20s. Also known as MLMs, businesses such as Mary Kay,Tupperware, Amway,
Arbonne, LuLaRoe and a host of othersemploy consultants who sell products directly to the public
aswell as recruit new members.Ruiz was attending school and working full-time, and likemany 20-
somethings, searching for a fulfilling career. A co-worker introduced her to Mary Kay, an MLM that
sellsmakeup and beauty products, in 2012. The co-worker set up alunch meeting with her “upline,”
the person who recruited herinto the company, to pitch Ruiz on joining them. “She said allthe right
things,” Ruiz said.Ruiz was promised flexibility, the ability to stay home with herfuture children and
the opportunity to build a business thatwould eventually allow her to quit working completely.Ruiz
also had a lot of student debt that she wanted to pay off,and her co-worker’s upline assured her she
could put an extra$400 or $500 a month toward her loans by working for MaryKay. “They promise
you the world and all the flexibility thatyou want. They make it seem like this big secret that
nobodyknows about,” Ruiz said. “I fell for it.”EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNEDIN SCHOOL
BUT DIDN’T