#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso

loved making patterns on the rug with a vacuum) and a basketball player (because I loved the outfits) and I wanted to live in Connecticut and have a royal-purple foyer that I would call a “fo-yay” with a French accent. I wanted to be fabulous. Some things have changed but I’m still striving for fabulousness. I knew I didn’t want to worry—I wanted a well-traveled, creatively inspired life where money was not my first concern.
    I’d had countless jobs, usually creative but always low on the totem pole. I wrapped presents at a jewelry store, served snow cones, taught swimming lessons, cut bagels, worked at a coffee shop, and at a few restaurants—even Panera! I was breaducated. I restored posters, I catered, I nannied, I worked on an ice-cream truck, I sewed sequins on headbands, sewed tags on T-shirts, painted walls, murals, removed wallpaper, assisted a prop stylist, a food stylist, and some
Devil Wears Prada
–type fashion stylists.
    My dad gave me a hard time, and all I could tell him was that I wanted to be an expert. Whatever I ended up specializing in, I would make sure to be the best at it. I was a hard worker, I always had been, and finally . . . I saw a lady painting a model’s nails on the set of a photo shoot and thought,
I would be really good at that!
    I quit my various part-time jobs and enrolled in LA’s cheapest beauty school. I was at my all-time most stressed and poor, sitting under fluorescent lighting, wearing a dust mask, watching a cheesy lady demonstrate airbrush makeup on a fake head. But I always knew it would work out.
    Now I’m an on-set, freelance manicurist on fashion editorial and commercial photo shoots, I develop nail products, and I work on lots of creative projects that have anything to do with nails. In short, I’m an expert.
    When I’m not working, I’m still working. I’m always observing, I’m taking photos of patterns and colors I see on the streets, I’m jotting down ideas, I’m meeting new people, connecting the dots, researching my craft, trying out new products, giving my friends manicures, working on my website, updating my social media accounts, working on my own products, on collaborative projects, putting togetherinspiration boards or sketching new ideas. I’m working on my craft and my business not because I feel obligated, but because I love it. I’ve always had to work hard because I had no other choice, but I always believed in myself.
    I always knew I’d be a #GIRLBOSS.

“Discomfort was where I was mostcomfortable.”



4
    Shoplifting (and Hitchhiking) Saved My Life
    We dumpstered, squatted, and shoplifted our lives back. Everything fell into place when we decided our lives were to be lived. Life serves the risk taker.
    —Evasion

I don’t remember the first thing I stole. However, I do remember (with zero pride) that it happened a lot. At one point, someone tried to recruit me to shoplift an Apple MacBook for him, and that was when I realized that holy shit, I have a reputation as a thief. There are plenty of things I’d like to be known for (armpit farting, photography, my legendary dance moves), but being a fabulous shoplifter is not one of them.
    I’m not proud of this phase of my life. And it’s so far removed from who I am now that it sometimes seems surreal. Recently, I had a meeting with executives from Nordstrom, and then a few days later, a meeting with the CEO of Michael Kors. And the whole time, I’m sitting in this meeting, thinking,
Oh, my god, I stole a Michael Kors watch from Nordstrom when I was seventeen. . . .
These were my lost years, and there were dozens of times when I could have irreparably messed up my future. It is a miracle, and through no fault of my own, that I didn’t.
    On Anarchism, for a Sec
    People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.
    —Emma Goldman
    For the latter half of my teen years, I was pretty lost. Though I knew who I was and always refused