Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Amoruso (https://www.google.com/search?q=sophia+amoruso&esp (www.fashiontimes.com))

In society today, a hero is simply somebody who dares to live authentically to themselves. To go even further a true hero is somebody who reaches massive success, but got there from living true to themselves. "Sophia Amoruso, the author of ''#Girlboss,'' a book of advice for the budding young female chief executive. Never mind that the clothing empire Ms. Amoruso presides over is called Nasty Gal, and that it sells items like the Nasty Gal Uh Huh Honey Skirt ($52); never mind that her book describes Dumpster diving and shoplifting as early phases of her career. The fact is that in 2006 she started an eBay shop selling vintage clothing, and she now calls herself the head of a $100-million-plus business, dishing out maxims like ''Money looks better in the bank than on your feet.'' As a book meant to amuse and instruct young women, ''#Girlboss'' certainly has the edge on most of what passes for advice right now. Ms. Amoruso actually sounds interested in the success of persons other than herself." (Maslin) A hero possesses creativity, bravery and is an inspiration to others. Creativity meaning a creative visionary, somebody who redefines outdated system such as the online world and is a entrepreneur. Bravery meaning somebody who is brave enough to go against society and live authentic life. These things together create and inspiration for others to take inspiration from and apply to their own lives. Sophia Amoruso possesses both creativity and bravery therefore she is a hero.

Creativity is a big part of the way Sophia lives her life. Growing up like many people she always felt different and never liked school. "I hate high school, and am sent to a psychiatrist who diagnoses me with depression. I try the white pills. I try the blue pills. I decide that if this is what it's going to take to like high school forget it. I throw the pills away and decide to homeschool." (Amoruso, 3) School was never something she did well in or enjoyed at all she described in her book. Fast forward today she runs her business and a very creative and innovative way. Since her path to CEO of Nasygal wasn't like most, why not keep risk taking alive as Nasygal continues to thrive. Her work place is no exception to her "Girlboss" ethos, "Amoruso is pacing the headquarters of her seven-year-old company with YSL pumps on her feet and a toy poodle named Donna Summer under one arm. Wherever Amoruso roams, there are women: women with lilac hair and slouchy blazers, women in booty shorts, women juggling Starbucks cups and greeting each other with girlfriendly hugs. One hallway is lined with recent magazine clippings of Amoruso from the pages of Fast Company and Entrepreneur, which makes her feel funny, but she has no choice about the clippings: Her mom gets them framed and mails them over, then bills the company for her services. More than three-quarters of Nasty Gal's 300 employees-a number that does not include Amoruso's mother, who clips on a freelance basis-are women." (Molly Young) Many work places today are a land of cubicles with workers stuck on their computers, the opposite of the Nastygal Headquarters. Her workplace could possibly be the definition of creativity. Sophia's path to success has been unordinary, but even though now her company is greatly successful she still keeps creativity a main component of her business.

Bravery is also a prominent in Sophia Amoruso's formula to success. Today, to start a business alone is brave. But to say Sophia went to business school and was totally prepared to run a business in nothing close to the truth. "Web phenom Sophia Amoruso created a $100 million business despite a misspent youth and zero business training. Now she wants to help other single-minded women make the most of their potential." (Evie Nagy) Sophia showed bravery to dive into the terrifying ocean of starting a business, not to mention with no experience. To not google "How do I start a business?" and get caught up in how in today's society everything has to be planned, to instead just give it a shot and see what happens is bravery where some might not see it as. Many parts of Sophia's life show bravery, but a massive one is that she never gave up. As stated earlier, she never did well in school. Today we are trained to think the only way to reach success is through getting straight A's and getting a 2100 on the SAT. And if you don't do well in school, your setting yourself up to work at a fast food restaurant. Sophia wasn't afraid to not get trapped in this mold that society sets up for us. She never gave up on living a life and a career that was true to herself and embodied everything the opposite of what society sees as "important to be successful" such as getting good grades. She never thought that not working hard was an option, "I thought jobs were just so dead-end, and they were, until I figured out what I enjoyed. I was just very frustrated with the world, and I felt like a zombie in high school. I thought that spending my adolescence sitting in a desk was training for the adult world of sitting at a desk, and that was all I had to look forward to in life, and I was like, "No! I'm taking my life for me!" And you know, I had to try a bunch of stupid stuff to realize that freedom comes only through hard work, and it's not through taking (stuff) for free. That's a little too literal. And I personally had to learn the hard way. Not everybody does. Some people understand. I was just kind of extreme in my late teens. I needed to do that." (Shuster) Further proving her bravery to push the boundaries of society ideas of how to reach success and to be true to herself.

Sophia Amoruso (https://www.google.com/search?q=sophia+amoruso&esp (www.iconhouse.com))

Both Sophia's creativity and bravery makes her an inspiration. She is creative in the way she is a visionary in how she runs her business only the way she wants to. Her bravery to go against how society sees success and how to reach it and find her own path to success makes her an inspiration to show the world to only take actions that are true to yourself. To see that in high school, Sophia wasn't a happy person and didn't thrive in academics reassures me that I don't have to live my life as Society tells me to which is just a life in bullet point. That you have to go to school to get an education and get good grades so you can get into a good college so you can get a good job basically all so you can make money. Sophia inspires me that I don't have to live in society's mold and not to put myself down for not getting good grades. When I fail a test, I feel very looked down on by my teachers and that I don't have a future. To know that Sophia too possibly felt this way, makes me feel reassured that one day I could be as successful as her. I am a very creative person and being in school I feel so trapped by reading textbooks and having to follow requirements even in art class. I want to get out this normal path in life of the goal of wanting to make money, I want to go places and see things and be surrounded by creative minds. Knowing that Sophia is living a successful happy life doing what she's passionate about makes me believe in myself. In my opinion, being a teenager myself I know that a lot of teenagers especially struggle with believing in themselves, so somebody that can inspire me to do just that is a true hero.

Works Cited Amoruso, Sophia. #Girlboss. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print. Nagy, Evie. "The Secrets Of A Nasty Gal." Fast Company. N.p., 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 May 2015. Shuster, Yelena. "NastyGal Founder Sophia Amoruso on How to Become a #GirlBoss." ELLE. ELLE, n.d. Web. 25 May 2015. Young, Molly. "Be Bossy: Sophia Amoruso Has Advice For Millennials and a Bone to Pick With Sheryl Sandberg." The Cut. The Cut, 26 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2015. When the Water's Too Cold, Something Else to Dive Into.(Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk)(BOOKS OF THE TIMES)(Book review). Janet Maslin. The New York Times (May 23, 2014): pC21(L). Reading Level (Lexile): 1290.