Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Christiana Amoruso is an American businesswoman. She was born on April 28, 1984, in San Diego, California. She belongs to Italian, Portuguese and Greek descent. At age 22, she started an online eBay store. Based on its success she founded a women’s fashion retailer which was named Nasty Gal by her. Inc. Magazine named it as one of “the fastest growing companies” in 2012. In 2016, she was named as one of the richest self-made women in the world by Forbes. In her adolescence, Amoruso was diagnosed with depression and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

After being diagnosed, she left school and started schooling at home. Her first job was at a Subway restaurant when she was a teenager. She also worked in a bookstore, and in a record shop. Her parents divorced after her high school completion and she then shifted to Sacramento, California. As a youth, Amoruso spent her life gallivanting, hitchhiking on the west coast, dumpster-diving and heisting.

She was caught stealing in 2003, when she used to live in Portland, Oregon. She was then made to pay fine, and this experience made her stop stealing. After that, she shifted to San Francisco. She was diagnosed with a hernia in her groin, and it was essential for her to purchase health insurance for required medical treatments. She worked in a school lobby checking student IDs while she was in community college. Amoruso started an online eBay store when she was 22 and named it as Nasty Gal Vintage.

The store had a collection of used vintage clothing and other accessories. The first item sold by her was a book she had stolen as a teenager. She used to style, photograph, caption and ship items herself by using the strategies she had learned in a photography class. In 2008, Amoruso was banned from eBay because she had posted hyperlinks in feedback to customers. Then, she launched Nasty Gal as its own retail website. Nasty Gal attracted lots of young women and got a huge fan following on social media.

In time duration of merely three years, Nasty Gal grew with revenues increasing from $223,000 in 2008 to $23 million in 2011. She earned the title of “a Cinderella of tech” by The New York Times. In 2013, she was included in 30 under 30 list published by Inc. Magazine. In the same year, by the Business Insider, she was categorized as one of the sexiest CEOs alive. In 2014, Portfolio, which is a Penguin imprint specializing in books about business, published GIRLBOSS- an autobiography of Amoruso.

Her autobiography was adapted by Netflix into a television series called Girlboss. She admitted in an interview with Forbes’ Dan Schawbel that there was a feeling of incompatibility as to regards with demands of being a CEO and advised to seek managerial positions to those seeking the position as CEOs. On 12 January 2015, Amoruso annunciated abnegation from the post of CEO of Nasty Gal. In 2016, she resigned as executive chairwoman, after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.