Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Christina Amoruso (born April 20, 1984) is an American businesswoman. Amoruso founded Nasty Gal, a women's fast fashion retailer, which went on to be named one of "the fastest growing companies" by Inc. Magazine in 2012. In 2016, she was named one of the richest self-made women in the world by Forbes. However, Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, Amoruso founded Girlboss Media, a company that creates content for women in the millennial generation to progress as people in their personal and professional life.

Her 2014 autobiography #GIRLBOSS was adapted into the Netflix series Girlboss.

Early life

Amoruso was born In 1984 in San Diego, California at Sharp Memorial Hospital. She grew up in the suburbs and wanted to leave home because her parents did not get along. She is of Greek, Italian, and Portuguese American descent. She was raised in the Greek Orthodox church. After being diagnosed with depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in her adolescence, she dropped out of school and began homeschooling to help cope with these issues. Her first job as a teenager was at a Subway restaurant, followed by various odd jobs, including working in a bookstore and a record shop. After high school, her parents divorced and she moved to Sacramento, California, to live a freer lifestyle.

As a young adult, Amoruso lived a nomadic lifestyle, hitchhiking on the West Coast, dumpster diving, and stealing. In 2003, while living in Portland, Oregon, she stopped stealing after being caught shoplifting. She left Portland and relocated to San Francisco, shortly after she discovered she had a hernia in her groin. To get the health insurance for surgery, she worked in the Academy of Art University lobby checking student IDs.