Every other Girlboss review you’ve read misses the entire point.
Last night I spent 6.5 hours binge watching the new Netflix Original Series, Girlboss. Prior to watching it, I read a couple of reviews because as a young woman looking up to Sophia Amoruso, I wanted to see what nasty things people had to say about her. And I was not disappointed.
The Netflix Original, Girlboss, is an inspiring tale of an authority-challenging, scrappy twenty-something trying to figure out life, love, and how to make rent. It’s a dramatic comedy filled with humorous takes on terrible situations featuring Britt Robertson. Ru Paul makes comedic appearances, and the most moving episode was that of the chat room: a brilliant portrayal of Internet connections and bullying. Girlboss doesn’t create a likeable character with a rough life for you to root for. That’s the whole point. Sophia was the only one cheering for herself at this time in her life (plus her BFF in the show) and beat the odds stacked against her.
Colorful, embellished, and at times slightly over-acted, Girlboss is an entertaining watch for young women loosely based on a true story. I don’t know why anyone else would expect something different, but this is it. And it’s great.
The first review I read was published on Mashable. By a man. I don’t know if you know this, but men are not the target audience for Girlboss. This guy’s main complaint about the show was that Sophia isn’t likable.
WOMEN ARE NOT HERE TO BE LIKED.
It doesn’t matter that Sophia isn’t likeable! That’s the whole point! She’s scrappy, struggled, was a millennial brat, and the show stays true to that instead of betraying her person for the sake of a happier storyline.
Again, for those in the back, WOMEN DON’T HAVE TO BE LIKABLE. I’m not particularly likeable either, and I’m proud. My goals in life lay outside of how others perceive me.
This reviewer’s other complaints stemmed from Nasty Gal selling to BooHoo after bankruptcy this past November, claiming that Nasty Gal was a failure and no longer relevant. THIS IS WRONG. Nasty Gal digitally paved the way for E-Businesses like BooHoo to thrive and be able to buy Nasty Gal. But more on that in a minute.
Another review was published on Dazed by a woman who hasn’t even watched the show. Her biggest issue was with the mismanagement that Nasty Gal endured in its later years, and how that means that Sophia’s story isn’t meant to be told.
FIRST. Girlboss on Netflix only covers the first two years of building Nasty Gal! Which they would have known if they took any time to even research it prior to writing their shit-on-Sophia piece. Yes, Girlboss is a loose retelling with embellishment for entertainment purposes, but it is also an incredibly inspiring story for young struggling women like me. Girlboss on Netflix is meant to entertain and inspire, and never claimed to do more.
SECOND. Accomplished women are held to an insanely high degree of perfection expectations. It’s fucking bullshit. Sophia Amoruso built a multi-million dollar company from nothing with no prior business education. Of course she was going to fuck up! That’s what people do. Everyone makes mistakes. Just because Sophia achieved a lot in a short amount of time doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to make mistakes. Plenty of mistakes were shown in the Netflix rendition of Sophia’s story. The review claims that we probably won’t see the dirty realities of Nasty Gal (but the author wouldn’t know would she? She didn’t watch it prior to writing her review!) Girlboss doesn’t hide every bad thing. It does take mistakes and poor situations into humorous ones, but they’re there.
THIRD. Nasty Gal had poor business practices, but they were not the actions of Sophia alone. So stop tying her to the stake already.
Nasty Gal sold to BooHoo in November 2016 after rounds of lay offs and bankruptcy, but it was not a failure. Nasty Gal revolutionized the e-commerce game. That’s not failure, that’s pioneering.
Sophia made the mistakes first, took the spotlight and the heat for all of this, even after stepping down as the CEO of Nasty Gal three years ago, and STILL shares her stories and her fuck ups for women like me. Sophia Amoruso has never hidden her flaws. She has openly admitted that she wishes she were more educated. She talks about her fuck ups for what they are, lessons. She learned from her mistakes, and was able to turn her inspiring story into a successful Netflix show, earning her even more recognition. So everyone else’s negative opinions are irrelevant if you ask me. She’s still hustling, the definition of a Girlboss.
PS. Our President has bankrupted more than one company and was giving a starting loan in his elite life of $1,000,000 and we elected him President after he had his own reality show. Stop shitting on accomplished women already.