Girlboss founder Sophia Amoruso doesn’t use the word 'girlboss' anymore

Sophia Amoruso reflected on the girlboss movement 10 years later

It has been more than a decade since 2014, the year Sophia Amoruso published her book "#Girlboss," which became a New York Times bestseller. Since then, Amoruso has more or less journeyed through the seven circles of the corporate underworld, and the "girlboss" has been declared dead. This podcast episode lets listeners hear her thoughts on the legacy of the girlboss phenomenon 10 years after she started it.

Sophia Amoruso coined the term 'girlboss' with her bestselling memoir

Sophia Amoruso turned a small eBay shop into Nasty Gal, a $250M fashion empire. Her success sparked the #Girlboss movement after her bestselling memoir, but behind the rise was a rapid fall. Leadership struggles and financial missteps led to bankruptcy in 2016.

A post-game interview with Sophia Amoruso directly after her 2016 Forbes cover

This article from 2016 is a time capsule of sorts. It includes an interview with the person who coined the term “girlboss,” Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, that took place just after she appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine. We now know that her company would go on to file for bankruptcy the next year.

The word ‘girlboss’ went from a compliment to an insult in a matter of years

What’s the difference between a girlboss and a career woman? The simplest answer, perhaps, is time. Once it was the term "career woman" that translated female ambition as selfish, immoral, and slightly ridiculous; now, "girlboss" does the job.

The woman who coined the term ‘girlboss’ now has a VC firm called Trust Fund

In 2006, Amoruso founded the clothing company Nasty Gal, then later wrote a memoir called “#Girlboss” about her company’s meteoric rise. Later, she launched other ventures, including her “Business Class” business coaching series and the venture capital fund “Trust Fund.”

The Girlboss TV show is generally regarded as a failure

Sophia Amoruso’s memoir, “#Girlboss,” spawned more than just a cultural movement—it also inspired an ill-fated television show that is remembered as one of Netflix’s first major failures.

Sheryl Sandberg's 'Lean In' book championed similar philosophies as the '#Girlboss' book

Sheryl Sandberg left her top executive position at Facebook around the same time that other girlboss-era founders stepped down from their companies or faced backlash about how they treated their employees. An article explores the part Sandberg played in the girlboss movement, and why her Facebook exit was significant.

Many of the 2010s girlboss-era founders experienced a public fall from grace in 2020

In the 2010s, dozens of female founders were celebrated on the covers of business magazines like Inc. for their recent startup success, from Emily Weiss’s Glossier makeup brand to Steph Korey’s Away luggage company. But many of these companies were also the subject of large takedown articles around the year 2020.

The Recount explains why girlbosses get accused of being 'white feminists'

In a video, a podcaster interviews an expert on the girlboss movement and a separate expert on “white feminism” in an attempt to understand how these two ideas intersect and overlap. It also includes a definition of white feminism and an explanation of how it differs from other types of feminist thought.

The Black Lives Matter movement coincided with the fall of the girlboss

It’s no coincidence that the white women who were seen as the faces of the girlboss movement (founders such as Audrey Gelman of The Wing and Christene Barberich of Refinery29, for instance) stepped away from their companies around the same time that America stepped into its era of racial reckoning with Black Lives Matter.

The values espoused in 'Lean In,' a book by a female Facebook exec, was part of the girlboss movement's doctrine

Sheryl Sandberg, a top executive at Facebook, published "Lean In," her career-advice book for women, in 2013. The book would go on to spend more than a year on The New York Times Best Sellers list and contribute to a cultural movement.

Many female-founded companies were branded with the color 'millennial pink.'

Sophia Amoruso's company Nasty Gal was worth $100M at its peak

In 2006, Sophia Amoruso started an eBay shop that would later transform into the clothing company Nasty Gal. However, Amoruso’s rags-to-riches success with Nasty Gal didn’t last. After multiple rounds of layoffs and employee complaints, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

Meta's former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is a highly influential female business leader

Sandberg joined Facebook as the chief operating officer in 2008, after previously serving as former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers' chief of staff under the Clinton Administration and the vice president of global sales and operations at Google. She built a personal brand for herself as a feminist business leader through becoming Facebook's first female board leader in 2012 and her 2013 book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

'Founder mode' is the idea that startup founders should take a hands-on approach to running their businesses

In 2024, Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham popularized the idea of "founder mode" when he wrote a viral manifesto in response to a talk that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky gave about leadership styles. Graham positioned the concept of founder mode as the opposite of manager mode—when founders hire executives and middle managers to run their companies and make decisions that Graham says are better left to founders.

'Founder mode' is the idea that founders should take a hands-on approach to running their businesses

In 2024, Y Combinator Cofounder Paul Graham wrote a viral manifesto of sorts about a strategy he calls "founder mode." It's the opposite of what Graham calls "manager mode," which allows founders to hire executives who he says ultimately run the company into the ground.

Read about why Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO in 2024 only to return in 2025

When Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO in 2024, assuming an executive chair role, she said she was eager to return to her "founder roots" and do more big-picture thinking. However, when her replacement as CEO, the former Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, left the company "for personal reasons," Wolfe Herd once again assumed the CEO role. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The term 'startup'—which is typically used to describe private companies in their early stages of operation that focus on innovating new products or services to meet a market gap—can be traced back to a 1976 Forbes article.

Airbnb's Brian Chesky explains 'Founder Mode' and how he took back control

The short-term rental CEO learned hard lessons through the pandemic, specifically around a culture focused on management and not building products. In the fall of 2024, Chesky gave a well-received speech at a startup conference that prompted debate in the startup world. He summarizes the talk here.

Listen to a 2026 interview where Bumble's CEO said its stock is down 96% since its IPO 'for no reason'

CEO and Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd said the company is still performing very well. She added that the business makes $1B per year and referred to it as profitable. She went on to say "who knows what people trade stock on?" and that she believes the stock market has written Bumble off as if it were debt

'Move fast and break things' was one of Mark Zuckerberg's early leadership principles

The phrase was plastered across Facebook's office as a representation of the company's hacker mindset that fueled its early growth. However, Zuckerberg said he has since moved away from that motto and has focused more on sustainability as opposed to breakneck growth.

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown coined the term “gig economy” in 2009

Although this article was written pre-pandemic, the workers interviewed in it still feel representative of the sector’s modern ethos. In the piece, the writer interviews a handful of gig workers about why, exactly, they’ve chosen to make a living off of Airbnbs or TaskRabbit gigs rather than doing something else.

Bumble's origin story includes a Russian billionaire, a Tinder cofounder, and a private jet.

Later in life, the clock in Grace Hopper's office ran counterclockwise

Acknowledging that most people have "an enormous tendency to resist change," Hopper's clock served as a reminder for the computer scientist that just because things have been done a certain way does not mean they should forever remain that way: "They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that." (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Grace Hopper was named the 1959 Time magazine 'Woman of the Year'

The honor was part of the 2019 series "100 Women of the Year," which spotlighted an influential woman for each of the years the publication had previously awarded a "Man of the Year." In its write-up, Hopper was described as having "paved the way for women everywhere to thrive in math, computer science, and service to their countries."

Marina Abramović provides an interesting bridge between mainstream pop culture and unconventional art

In a 2024 interview with GQ, Abramović shares her opinion on the “Barbie” movie and Kim Kardashian, while also sharing abstract insights into the power of dreaming, solitude, and stillness.

WeWork marketed itself on community

In a new era of work where many millennials wanted to work for themselves in offices with exposed brick, cold brew on tap, and casual dress codes, WeWork realized these entrepreneurs and startup workers didn’t want to do it alone.

Why Robyn's 'Dancing on My Own' became an anthem

Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," was a low-key hit when it was released in 2010, but it's become an anthem in the time since then, influencing artists like Lorde and Charli xcx and inspiring an iconic scene on HBO's "Girls." This article breaks down why that is, studying the song's beats per minute, which match humans' typical walking pace, and the queer experience reflected in its lyrics.

Girl Scout cookies are so successful because buying them feels like giving to charity.

The program generates $800M a year not because the cookies are exceptional, but because the salesforce makes refusal feel like a moral failure.

Y Combinator changed the way startups around the world are built

Many of the philosophies that the leaders of Y Combinator have infused into the program’s portfolio companies have become the playbook for building the next big thing, such as its focus on founder personality and more.

Rowling adopted initials to appeal to young male readers

At her publisher’s suggestion, Joanne Rowling used the pen name “JK Rowling,” believing boys might be less likely to buy a fantasy novel written by a woman.

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd wanted the movie about her life shut down

Wolfe Herd was informed about the movie after its creation process had been started. Her lawyer told her there was nothing she could do. She said she was both terrified of the movie and slightly flattered by its existence.

Watch a 2008 interview with Gloria Steinem, a leading voice in second-wave feminism.

Jane Maas was one of the first prominent female ad executives on Madison Avenue

Jane Maas started as a copywriter at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1964. She’s known for working on the famous "I Heart NY" tourism campaign alongside artist Milton Glaser. This interview provides a glimpse into what life was like for women like her on Madison Avenue.

Springsteen's nickname 'the Boss' began as a joke

Springsteen's E Street bandmates originally called him the "Gut Bomb King" because of his affinity for candy. He hated the name and jokingly began calling himself "the Boss" instead. When critics began digging into Springsteen's backstory after the success of "Born to Run," they unearthed the nickname.

Dating app Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is considered the youngest self-made female billionaire.

Mark Zuckerberg credits some of Facebook's success to constant evolution

Before becoming the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman was the president of Y Combinator—a startup accelerator company that supported companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Coinbase. In 2016, Altman interviewed Zuckerberg about creating Facebook and its growth over time. Zuckerberg said that, unlike other companies (think: CourseMatch), Facebook kept growing and adding new features, which prevented the app from becoming obsolete.

Why we should care about renaming the hormonal disorder PCOS to PMOS

The new name, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, nods to the hormonal disruptions that cause this condition, which affects roughly one in eight women. People with PMOS may have symptoms including irregular periods, trouble conceiving, weight gain, acne, undesired hair growth, and more. The earlier name, polycystic ovary syndrome, was a misnomer because women with the condition don't have cysts in their ovaries. Rather, they have masses that are actually immature follicles. World health experts think the condition often goes undiagnosed.

Political sloganeering is often downstream of memes

In 2018, #JobsNotMobs morphed from an internet meme into a conservative slogan. A video clip of angry protesters mixed with news anchors discouraging the use of the word "mob" posted on October 11, birthed the phrase. By October 19, it was adapted into a Republican party slogan.

Explore the annotated cover of the inaugural issue of Ms., the feminist magazine cofounded by Gloria Steinem.

Read a profile about a company that makes everyone's salaries public knowledge in an effort to curb the gender pay gap.

At social media management platform Buffer, employees have been able to see each other's salaries since the year 2013. This article explains how Buffer's decision to make these numbers public has impacted the social media company's workplace culture, internal wage growth, and more. Read the article here.

Some critics view Marina Abramović as more of a brand than an artist

As the performer became more tied to A-listers like Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and James Franco, culture critics began to consider the commercialization of performance art and how audiences may have flocked to see the “brand” of Abramović more than her actual work.

‘I realized after I got there it was a cult,’ one former WeWork executive said

WeWork isn’t only known for how it revolutionized modern work, or its spectacular financial rise and fall. It’s also known for its former cultlike company culture under former CEO Adam Neumann, complete with a charismatic leader and “summer camp” company retreats that blurred the lines between work and personal life.

Olivia Nuzzi serves as a modern example of New Journalism

Writer Lily Isaacs argues that Nuzzi, a political journalist known for engaging in personal relationships with her subjects, can be viewed as an inheritor of New Journalism. Isaacs claims Nuzzi’s departure from purely objective reporting has informed her profiles, leading to intimate insights into her subjects' psychology.

Bluesky is gaining momentum by offering users full control over their experience

Controversial changes made by Elon Musk to X have inspired an exodus from that platform and growth in Bluesky. The latter's open-source model gives users customizable feeds, portability between services, and a "billionaire-proof" design that prevents corporate takeover.

Simone de Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' merged existentialism with feminism

De Beauvoir’s 1949 philosophical treatise criticized patriarchy and its negative impact on women. She argued that gender differences were mainly due to socialization rather than innate qualities, writing that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” In turn, de Beauvoir believed women should refuse predetermined gender roles and instead define themselves, echoing a key tenet of existentialism.

Billie Eilish and TikTok helped inspire a bossa nova resurgence

Eilish's 2021 song "Billie Bossa Nova" along with a handful of other younger artists, like Laufey and Beabadoobee, have inspired Gen Z's interest in the genre, with the music soundtracking tens of thousands of videos on TikTok.

A 'girl group' is an all-female vocal group

It's not a perfect descriptor, but it's the one that stuck, due mainly to the definitive girl groups of the late 1950s that sang about teenage love. Since then, though, the girl group sound has evolved, even if the term has remained the same.

Despite many influencers having loyal followings, creator-led brands often fail when the hype from first-time buyers dies down and doesn't translate into repeat purchases.

Surviving the crash: a personal story of burnout

Jennifer Moss founded a tech company, had a baby in the middle of the start-up process, and crashed after months of rising exhaustion and disconnection from a career she once felt passionate about. She shared her story of burnout and the techniques she used to turn her life around and repair her relationships in this piece.