The Way to Growing-up // Girlboss Season 1 Review

Netflix’ Girlboss, as stated in the beginning of every episode, is based, loosely, on a true story. Sophia Amoruso is indeed the founder of “Nasty Gal” Vintage clothes, back in 2007, and she wrote a best seller book about her story. Kay Cannon (Pitch Perfect) turned her book into a compelling series about growing up, about achieving great things and learning life.

Sophia’s father, Jay (Dean Norris) pretty much doesn’t trust his daughter with anything, and he doesn’t believe she can get anywhere in life. After losing her job in a clothes store, she visits a second hand shop and buys an 80s jacket for 9 dollars. Later on, she manages to sell that same jacket on eBay, for no less than 250 dollars. For real. Realizing the potential of used clothes, she buys them for cheap money, upgrades them and sells them online for much more. Still, people do not believe this eBay store can be her career. But she goes on and proves otherwise.

Girlboss is series of hardships, and way to overcome them. Britt Robertson brings the childish, joyous and funny Sophia to life perfectly. Sophia doesn’t get things done easily, and she finds out how things work, the hard way. Her father, her eBay competitors, eBay’s policy, the russian who rents offices, no one gives Sophia the benefit of the doubt. She even takes another job to earn enough money to keep her business alive. But when the time comes, and her best friend, Annie, wants to come work for her (after all, she works with her for a while now), Sophia creates another problem and refuses.

But when she finally realizes she can’t do it all alone, she brings Annie on board, who brings a web developer to build their own website (after eBay bans Nasty Gal after the competitor’s vengeful move). Every character along the way is round and complex. Gail, her eBay competitor, is old school and tight, but she’s also a strong woman who knows how to stand on her own. Shane, Sophia’s boyfriend, is very supportive of her career, but can also get angry when she acts like a little girl. Annie is the best friend, but she is also able to get hurt when Sophia doesn’t respect her. Every character has, well, a character.

It is still very true, in 2017, to show a series in which a young woman needs to go through so many obstacles to achieve her dream. People still she women as not equal to man, let alone young woman. Why does it still have to be like that? We have enough stories of strong, assertive and successful women, everywhere in the western world. It’s a fact. The glass ceiling should be no more.

One last praise goes to Ellie Reed (Annie), who does an excellent job as Sophia’s best friend. In the beginning of the season I didn’t really like her, but as she began appearing more and more, and especially after the episode that introduced the two of them meeting in police lock-up, I realized how awesome Annie is. She is always there to say / do the right thing, but she also knows how to let Sophia know when she’s wrong. They fought twice (the MySpace top 8 episode, and for being a paid employee), and each time it felt organic and in place. And every time they made up, it was touching and funny.

As I said before, the series is loosely based on real events, and many things from the series seems added for Drama purposes (the eBay ban, the hernia, renting the hanger, etc). Still, it is the to make the story fit for television, and it does the job. It is believable and great.

Anyway, what were you thinking about Girlboss?