'Girlboss' Tells A Fascinating Story

By the looks of it, Netflix's upcoming comedy series Girlboss should be yet another feather in the cap of the streaming channel's critically-acclaimed original content. It follows the life and career of Sophia, a flawed young woman who unexpectedly becomes the self-made, massively successful founder/CEO of a major company. Starring Britt Robertson as Sophia (along with Dean Norris, Norm Macdonald, RuPaul, and Jim Rash in supporting roles), the show looks flat-out hilarious — and I can always do with another show about a complex female character. But is Sophia from Girlboss based on a real person?

Variety describes Sophia as "a rebellious, broke anarchist who refuses to grow up," who stumbles into a lucrative business reselling clothing online and winds up building her fashion empire — and yes, the Sophia of the series is based on a real woman. Girlboss is an adaptation of Sophia Amoruso's #Girlboss, a New York Times bestselling "book [that] blends memoir with career advice."

The Netflix show kicks off before the beginning of Amoruso's career, so the Sophia of the show is a younger version of the real-life young CEO and founder of Nasty Gal Vintage, a clothing company that began when Amoruso discovered online fashion retail by reselling vintage clothes on eBay. Amoruso was named one of the richest self-made women in the world by Forbes in 2016, which, if you ask me, makes her life story killer material for a comedy series.

Though the show is directly adapted from Amoruso's book, like many memoir-to-TV adaptations (here's lookin' at you, Orange is the New Black), the show takes liberties with the real-life events that inspired it. Even the official trailer for the show is careful to note that it is "loosely" based on real events. Robertson's character is described in various media coverage of the new series as a fictional version of Amoruso, who also went on to found the site Girlboss after the release of her book.

But again, much like Orange is the New Black, all of the dramatizations and changes from real-life appear to have been blessed by the woman on whose life story the show is based. The 32-year-old Amoruso, who stepped down as Nasty Gal CEO in January 2015 before the company filed for bankruptcy in November 2016, serves as an executive producer for the Netflix show.

The show's first season, consisting of 13 half-hour episodes, will premiere April 21 on Netflix.