Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Amoruso
Amoruso at TechCrunch Disrupt, 2014
Born	Sophia Christina Amoruso (1984-04-20) April 20, 1984 (age 32) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Founder & owner of Nasty Gal
Net worth	$280 million
Spouse(s)	Joel Jarek DeGraff (m. 2015–16)

Sophia Christina Amoruso (born April 20, 1984) is an American businesswoman. At 22, Amoruso started an online eBay store selling vintage clothing and other items, which she named "Nasty Gal Vintage."

Based on the success of her online store, Amoruso founded Nasty Gal, a women's 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.

On November 9, 2016 Nasty Gal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Amoruso was born in San Diego, California, in 1984. She is of Greek, Italian, and Portuguese descent. Amoruso was raised in the Greek Orthodox church. After being diagnosed with depression and attention deficit disorder (ADD) in her adolescence, Amoruso dropped out of school and began homeschooling. Her first job as a teenager was at a Subway restaurant, followed by various odd jobs, including working in a book store and a record shop. After high school, Amoruso's parents divorced, and she moved to Sacramento, California.

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, Amoruso was caught stealing; the loss-prevention of the store fined Amoruso, and the experience led her to stop stealing. Amoruso left Portland and relocated to San Francisco, shortly after which she discovering she had a hernia in her groin, which necessitated her purchasing health insurance for required medical treatments. While attending community college, Amoruso worked in a school lobby checking student IDs.

At age 22, Amoruso opened an online eBay store, which she called Nasty Gal Vintage, named after an album by funk singer Betty Davis. The store consisted of used vintage clothing and other items; the first item she sold was book she had stolen as a teenager. She styled, photographed, captioned and shipped the products herself using what she was taught in a photography class.