2019-03-01 Money

THE #GIRLBOSS REVOLUTION

38 MONEY.COM MARCH^2019

come from a business background and was

still learning how to scale, invest, and do all

the other things the head of a company

valued at nearly a quarter-billion dollars

should probably have a firm grasp of.

But under intense public scrutiny, fueled

by Netflix’s version of her life, she started to

question everything else too.

“I put myself on the cover of a book called

#Girlboss,and with that comes some kind of

accountability,” she says. “But reading every

awful comment you could ever read, written

by people who know so little about you, is a

really challenging thing. And there’s a

Stockholm syndrome that can happen. If

everyone is telling you that you’re blonde

when you’re actually a brunette, then you’re

like, ‘Okay, maybe I’m color-blind.’ ”

As everything crumbled around her, one

constant remained. Women were still buying

A self-professed introvert, she’s the first
to admit she’s no Tony Robbins (“I’m an
okay public speaker,” she says). But for
Amoruso’s followers, seeing her act like a
regular person, with regular insecurities,
only adds to her charm. She’s open about
going to therapy and says the word “f--k” a
lot. And when she talks about her failures,
she doesn’t sugarcoat the details. Amoruso
knows she f--ked up.
In her late twenties, she was the CEO of
Nasty Gal, one of the hottest clothing brands
around—an online treasure trove of
noticeable but wearable clothes (think
fuchsia pantsuits, faux fur coats). From 2010
to 2015, the company grew from $10 million
to $300 million in revenue, according to
reports. In 2016,Forbes named Amoruso one
of America’s “richest self-made women,”
estimating her net worth at $280 million.
“She’s richer than Beyoncé,” the piece
read. “And at 32, she’s just getting started.”
After all that hype, Amoruso’s downfall
played out like a Greek tragedy. Rumors that
Nasty Gal was run more like a popularity
contest than a global business were fanned
by damning employee reviews and a lawsuit
claiming the company discriminated against
pregnant employees. In 2015, Amoruso ceded
her CEO role, acknowledging that Nasty Gal
needed a more experienced leader at its
helm. Plagued by flatlining sales, the
company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection the following year.
At this point, Netflix was already mid-
production on a streaming series based on
Amoruso’s “rags-to-riches story.”
When it aired in 2017, the response was
overwhelmingly sour.The Guardian called
the show “a tone-deaf rallying cry to
millennial narcissists.”Vanity Fair
proclaimed: “It’s not a good time to be a
Nasty Gal—or at least, to be Nasty Gal
founder Sophia Amoruso.” Netflix canceled
the series after just one season.
All told, this was a wildly embarrassing
experience for Amoruso. She knew she’d
gotten in over her head—Amoruso doesn’t

I DON’T WANT TO BE THE

POSTER CHILD FOR FAILURE.”

—SOPHIA AMORUSO ON THE #GIRLBOSS EVOLUTION

Above:

Women reading

Amoruso’s

2O14New York

Times–bestselling

book.

Right: Amoruso

attends the

premiere of the

Netflix series

Girlboss.

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