There are women who rise.
And then there are women who rise, fall, and rise again—louder, wiser, stripped of illusions but not ambition.
Sophia Amoruso never claimed to follow the rules. At 22, she was selling vintage clothes on eBay under the name Nasty Gal, shipping orders from her tiny apartment and styling shoots with thrifted finds and instinct. There was no plan. Just hustle, aesthetic, and unapologetic attitude.
By 30, Nasty Gal had grown into a $100 million fashion empire, redefining online retail before Instagram even ruled the scene. She graced magazine covers. She wrote a bestselling book. She coined a movement: #Girlboss.
But then it all collapsed.
In 2016, Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy. The media turned on her with the same ferocity it once used to praise her. Girlboss became a meme. A cautionary tale.
And yet—Sophia didn’t vanish.
She pivoted.
She founded Girlboss Media, building conferences and communities for ambitious women. She sold that too. Then, again, she paused. Watched. Listened. Reassessed. In 2022, she quietly stepped into investing—helping other women build what she no longer needed to prove.
Her story isn’t tidy. It’s not linear.
It doesn’t end with an IPO or a unicorn.
It lives in something deeper: the courage to start over. The honesty to own missteps. The grit to evolve.
Because real leadership isn’t just about building empires.
It’s about what you do when they crumble.
