On each episode, Nasty Gal founder and author of #Girlboss Sophia Amoruso interviews world-class girlbosses who have made their mark in creative, cultural, and business ventures to extract solid advice from the lessons they've learned along the way. Expect hilarious co-hosts and conversations you won't hear anywhere else. On this podcast Sophia hopes to humanize the known, champion the unknown, and, well, laugh a little about the absurdity that is life. Are you ready?
Amel Monsur is the Executive Creative Director at VICE, the world's leading youth media brand and content creation studio. At VICE, Amel has led project and content development across i-D & Noisey, VICE's fashion cultural and music channels, as well a variety of branded campaigns that live off-channel. Amel's background is at the intersection of fashion, music and news, and she previously served as the Creative Director for Prince -- yes Prince! On the podcast, Amel discusses her early days working for Target, what it's like to be a creative working for a superior creative like Prince, and why creating content with a purpose is important these days.
This week, we have not one, but two guests on Girlboss Radio - Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, the Co-founders of theSkimm! TheSkimm started a daily newsletter, giving its readers all the news and info to start the day. It's since grown into an 'audience company' that has a circulation of over 4 million active readers including fans such as Oprah and Hoda Kotb. Carly and Danielle met studying abroad together in college and several years later they both found themselves working at NBC News. They became fast friends, roommates, and eventually co-founders. On the podcast, the Sophia, Carly, and Danielle discuss how the co-founders met, how Danielle and Carly engage with their Skimmbassadors, and how they've learned to manage their growing team over the years.
You many not know Tracey, but you definitely know her work. She’s colored the famous locks of Jennifer Lopez, Lily Aldridge, Khloe Kardashian, and our very own Sophia Amoruso. She got her start working for none other than Bette Midler who put her through beauty school! Afterwards Tracey quickly rose through the ranks at the best salons in LA - Art Luna, Sally Hershberger, Byron & Tracey among others. In 2012, she and stylist Neil Weisberg teamed up to combine the best of styling and coloring in the business with Méche. On the podcast, Tracey reminisces about styling Bette's hair while combing through cookbooks, how she knew she could be a great colorist, and how beauty regimens like coloring might fix short-term problems but maybe not the longterm ones in your life.
From her early days bagging groceries, Alyssa Mastromonaco realized she had a gift for logistics. That gift led her all the way to the White House where she served as President Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff. If you wanted to talk to President Obama, you had to go through Alyssa first. She left politics in 2014, and now works as the Chief Operating Officer of Vice Media. On this week’s episode, Sophia and Alyssa discuss Alyssa’s early days interning for Bernie Sanders, what good leadership means, and Alyssa’s hilarious misadventures in Buckingham Palace and on Marine One.
Alli Webb's career has had numerous incarnations. She’s worked in public relations and she’s been a professional hairstylist. But it wasn’t until 2008, when Alli really found her passion. She started a side business called Straight-at-Home, which provided in-home blowouts on a referral basis in LA. When her business and popularity quickly outgrew her one-woman show, she expanded and opened a brick and mortar called Drybar. Drybar is based on the simple concept of focusing on one thing and being the best at it: blowouts. They now have 67 locations across the country. And her new book, Good Hair for All, tells you how you can achieve a great blowout at home. On the podcast Sophia and Alli talk about Alli's early days working at salons, leaving and returning to the workforce to found Drybar, and the inherent trust of working with family.
Anne Fulenwider is a tour de force in the publishing world. After graduating from Harvard University, she moved to New York and learned the ins and outs of journalism under the tutelage of George Plimpton at The Paris Review. And she continued to work alongside the greats including Graydon Carter at Vanity Fair and Joanna Coles at Marie Claire. In 2011, Anne left Marie Claire to become the Editor-in-Chief of Brides where she completely rebranded the magazine to expand its reader base, but she couldn’t stay away from Marie Claire for long. She returned to the magazine as their Editor-in-Chief where she continues to push the brand to speak to today’s modern woman with its in depth reporting, fashion guides, and entertaining and informative features. On the episode Anne tells us how she puts together a magazine every month, how simply raising your hand can get you the job your want, and why networking is useful even if the word itself can feel disingenuous.
Before Brit Morin could light that creative spark in all of us, she had to find that creativity within herself. After working for Google for four years, she left her stellar job working under Marissa Mayer to start her own company. But first, she decided to give herself a 6-month break. And those six months were, as Brit describes it, some of the most transformative months of her life. She enrolled in classes at a creative space for makers, and she abandoned the laptop screen for laser cutters, 3D printers, and clay. That experience ultimately inspired her to found Brit + Co, a new media and commerce company that enables creativity through inspirational content, online classes and do-it-yourself kits. The company now has partnerships with brands such as Target, and Brit is a regular DIY and lifestyle contributor to the Today show. On the podcast, Brit discusses her six month sabbatical after Google, how leadership roles can become political, and why everyone is a creative.
When Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter was asked to serve as the first female Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department, it was her dream come true. She left her tenured position at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and commuted weekly from Princeton to Washington D.C. to work under then Secretary of State and current presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But between the grueling hours, a rigid work schedule, and raising two teenage sons back in New Jersey, Anne-Marie was struggling. As much as this was a dream job, she knew her family needed her at home. She ultimately left the State Department after two years to return to a full workload at Princeton.
Anne-Marie wrote about the difficulty of women achieving work-life balance in her widely read 2012 Atlantic article “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All”, which became one of the magazine’s most read articles in its history. She continued this conversation with her book Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, and Family, which is now out in paperback. Anne-Marie is now the President and CEO of New America. On the podcast Anne-Marie tells us about her first job in academia at age 30, what's changed since she published her Atlantic article and how to foster equity and balance from the policy level to our relationships.
Journalist Jessica Bennett and her friends were all creatives striving for professional success in New York City. But some subtle (and not so subtle) bouts of sexism in the workplace were getting in the way of their hustle. So they sought refuge by creating a feminist fight club - a group of New York women in creative fields who meet once a month to share advice, vent, and support each other through their careers. Jessica’s penned her difficult workplace experiences, hilarious tips, and other useful advice for women in the workplace in her new book Feminist Fight Club.
Jessica is an award-winning journalist and critic who writes on gender issues, sexuality and culture. She is a feature writer and columnist at The New York Times and her work has also appeared in Newsweek, where she began her career as a staff writer. On the podcast, Jessica discusses her early days as a crime beat reporter, who a bropropriator is, and why women should support other women.
Yesi Ortiz has been called 'The Voice of LA' and man, does she know how to use that voice. Her dream was to work at Los Angeles' Power 106 radio station, and after enrolling in broadcasting school, she worked at all costs to make her dream come true -- that meant commuting from Long Beach to Las Vegas, taking a radio job in Mexico, and fighting big egos along the way. In 2006, through sheer talent and drive, Yesi realized her goal, and she's now Power 106's midday host. But what makes Yesi even more of a Girlboss is what she's accomplished outside of work. Off the air, Yesi is a single mother to her six children. She adopted them from their biological mother, Yesi’s sister, when she was just 25 years old. On the podcast, Yesi discusses developing a work ethic at her uncle's supermarket, how she suddenly became a single mother to her six children, and how work can be a haven.
