Sophia:
“I just need to find a way of growing up, without becoming a boring adult.”
“Adulthood is where dreams go to die. Grow up get a job, become a drone. That’s it. Then it’s over. Society just wants to put everything in a box.”
“I am a girl. And that shouldn’t be a bad thing. Girls are collaborative, empathetic, hard workers. Girls are great!”
So I just finished watching the Netflix series Girl Boss about a 20-something named Sophia who tries to navigate the online vintage fashion world back in its early heyday 2007. So this is around the time that online business became abundant due to the internet being at its most affordable and accessible ever. During this show we get to watch an online store being built from the bottom up. But that’s not all that this show entails it also talks about what it means to be a 20-something and how it can be both a scary and rewarding time in your life as you figure out who you are and what you want out of life. I am on the later spectrum of the 20-something world at 25 and I feel I could relate to a lot of what Sophia went through.
The show is based on Sophia Amoruso’s autobiography #Girlboss, which tells the story of how Amoruso started the company Nasty Gal while working as a campus safety host for San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. The first few episodes take place in 2006 with the majority of the episodes taking place in 2007 and then the last two episodes taking place in 2008. This show definitely shows it’s age as Sophia and her friend Annie both have MySpace pages and get mad at each other when they don’t put the other in their top 8 (because that was a thing). This was also when eBay was relatively new and a new market for online shoppers, buyers and sellers alike. Through out the show Sophia goes through a lot between having a hurnea, being in a more than casual relationship with a musician, best friend issues and not being supported by those around her like her dad. She also has many meltdowns throughout the show when things aren’t going right or she feels she is failing only to be validated that this is what she is supposed to be doing.
I can definitely see a lot of myself in this show. In the beginning Sophia is hellbent on not becoming a boring adult where she has a 9-5 and becomes a pencil pusher basically. Sophia is an also very reckless and impulsive and doesn’t think a lot of time when she makes moves. She just gets up does something out of anger and it either works really well or backfires and makes her even more pissed at herself. She is not a very good friend really to anyone especially Annie who basically helps her to build Nasty Gal from the bottom up. She talks out of her ass and over compensates for her less than perfect life a lot not really letting people in. Her parents are divorced and her dad doesn’t really believe in her at all and her mom is just a flow with the wind and leave all responsibility like being a mom behind her to be an actress. Even with all of that Sophia manages to succeed in the end in making her dreams come true.
Now yes this show is very very very white but I guess that’s the point of this show. There is one black guy which is Annie’s boyfriend named Dix, there is a gay kid, RuPaul’s character and there you go diversity + I guess the fact that the story is already based on a female they figure they got it covered. Anyway yea due to this lack of diversity race really doesn’t play a role in this story. Feminism on the other hand plays a big role in show or the lack there of. Don’t get me wrong the fact that this show is about a female who started her own online business is pretty cool but Sophia herself is not very female friendly or really to anyone. I know that’s just her personality but she is flat-out mean to a lot of people because she has to overcompensate for her shitty life she has created which she gets honestly from her mother.
Like I said though I relate to the general 20-something sentiments talked about in this show. It doesn’t make everything seem perfect at this age like a lot of shows do. In the beginning of the show Sophia lost her job, was about to be evicted and was sick and this was all during a Bush admin. She thinks the world is out to get her and that she isn’t going to make it and that’s real. I myself feel that way a lot and it can be hard after high school/college navigating this tricky time in our lives when we are no longer kids but hardly adults and we’re still trying to put together the pieces of our life while expected to have a job, place to live and a career goal all by 23 (and I’m 25 and still don’t have any of this). This series shows us that this is not always the reality.
Sophia also through out the show is dating a musician/tour manager and at first they are great together but Sophia finds a way to mess it up at times. The biggest blunder though was him cheating on her with the guitar player of his band. Sophia at first only wanted to be casual with this guy but like any good relationship she starts to fall in love with him so when he cheats on her it drives her crazy and really hurts her bad.
Do I recommend this show? If your into fashion of the 2000s or wanna start an online business (even though we have come a long way since 2007) or you’re a hipster then yea check it out but I don’t know if it’s really worth it other wise. Rotten Tomato gave this show only a 30% due to its story-line and the fact that Sophia can be hard to relate to with her mean-spirited, take no help from anyone, do everything on her own attitude.
Sadly I just checked out Nasty Gal now to see what it’s doing in 2017 and found out that it had to file bankruptcy last November so it’s not doing too well but hopefully Sophia had been saving her money and this Netflix show can help her out as well.
Sophia & Annie:
“I love you in case I die”
Sophia’s Mom:
“In life, the only one who can make you happy is you. The great big lie is that we need other people. But no. The truth is…we all die alone.”
Till Next Time…Be A #GirlBoss!
http://mashable.com/2017/04/20/girlboss-netflix-nasty-gal-timing/#ON.wLYxeLqqj
The Life & Times of Ice 