Nasty Gal’s Sophia Amoruso: Be a Girlboss and take charge of your own life

Sophia Amoruso proudly owns the term Girlboss. So much so that the Nasty Gal founder and one of the world’s richest self-made women wrote a best-selling book about it in 2014 – encouraging other women to be the “mistress of your own universe”.

Given her business name – the one she started as an eBay store selling vintage clothing at just 22, before creating one of the world’s biggest online fashion retailers — she’s also rather fond of the term ‘nasty woman’, a gift Donald Trump offered during the third US presidential debate when he pinned the label on rival Hillary Clinton. Amoruso was in a room with 200 women at the time of hearing it and immediately started receiving memes on social media. “Donald was up there trying to equate the word “nasty” with a woman who is super qualified, intelligent and confident,” she says, “And the whole Internet was like, “Damn right we are!”

This year, Amoruso was named the second young woman to make the Forbes’ annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made women, with an estimated net worth of US$280 million. In 2015, Nasty Gal took first place in a list of 500 top e-commerce sites, ahead of Amazon and Apple. According to Internet Retailer, almost 20% of its traffic comes from social networks, which is around nine times higher than the 500 other online merchants studied. 

Amoruso traces her desire to run her own business back to working in a high end shoe store with an unnecessarily ‘mean’ boss. She celebrates failure as much as she does success, and says the latter is merely a moving target: it’s curiosity that really fulfils her.

So when Business Chicks offered us the chance to get some questions to Amoruso in the lead up to her upcoming Australia tour and following the release of her second book Nasty Galaxy, we jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the businesswoman – and take in a few tips along the way. (Tickets are still available to see Amoruso next week in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne)  

To those who haven’t read your first book or are still learning about who you are, can you briefly explain the idea of the ‘Girlboss’. What does it mean to be a Girlboss in 2016, or for those who’re planning to be one in the future?

A Girlboss is someone who is in charge of her own life. It’s about self-awareness and an insatiable curiosity and drive. It’s a philosophy rather than a literal term; you don’t need to be the managing someone to be a Girlboss–you’re just working every day to be the mistress of your own universe.

Ten years since launching Nasty Gal, what’s been the most painful lesson you’ve learned?

That it doesn’t get easier, you just get better at handling things. I think at one point I thought that five years into starting a business I’d be on an island somewhere sipping rum, but things only get more complex the more a company grows, and the demands only increase.

What was in the inspiration for the creative format of ‘Nasty Galaxy’?

I absolutely loved writing #GIRLBOSS, but the actual text was the only aspect where I had creative input. With Nasty Galaxy, I wanted to keep telling that story, but in all directions–it’s a super eclectic, stream-of-conscious portrait of everything that inspires me, everything that floats around the cosmos in my head. And I wanted to make something that was physically gorgeous. I worked really closely with Mother New York on every aspect of the book, from its earliest design concepts to getting the final files ready for the printer, which I loved.

If you could take the proverbial time machine back to 2006 when you first started out. What would you change — if anything — or would you prefer to simply ride out the lows as well as the highs?

I’d definitely wear more sunscreen and drink more water. Other than that, I think failures are really important.

Can you share a key turning point — from your childhood, or early adulthood or something else — that put you on the entrepreneurial path?

I worked at this really high-end shoe store in San Francisco and my boss there was super mean. That meanness seemed so pointless to me, and that’s probably when I knew I didn’t want to be under anyone else’s thumb, that I wanted to be my own boss.

We saw on Twitter you’re almost done with your third book. How do you find the time to so prolific??

Good question! It certainly doesn’t always feel that way. But you know, when you’ve got a million things going on at once, your priorities make themselves known to you. Sharing my story and whatever experience or knowledge I’ve gained through all this so that it might help or inspire other people is one of the things I get most excited about.

Did Donald Trump just inadvertently do a great thing for nasty women (and the Nasty Gal brand), giving us all a term to proudly own?

When he said that, I was actually in a room watching the debate with 200 other women. Immediately, people started tweeting memes at me. So yeah, it was an oddly exhilarating moment. Donald was up there trying to equate the word “nasty” with a woman who is super qualified, intelligent and confident, and the whole Internet was like, “Damn right we’re are!”

What will you be doing the night of the presidential election? 

Deciding if I should stay in Australia indefinitely…

And what are you most looking forward to seeing or doing in Australia?

It’s my first visit, so I’m excited to just take it all in. I’ll be bouncing around to a couple different cities, so it’ll be a whirlwind trip, but I’m looking forward to meeting all the smart women that will be in attendance at the events I’ll be at!

What does success mean to you today and how has it changed over the years?

I’ve learned that success is only an abstraction; there’s no job title or achievement or salary that’s going to automatically make you feel successful once you’ve obtained it. It’s a moving, shape-shifting target that’s not really a target at all; once you meet your goals, new ones inevitably pop up in their place, and that’s a really good thing. Instead of success, I try to move towards my curiosity, towards the things that light my brain up, because ultimately that’s what keeps me fulfilled.