Girl Boss: Toxic or Girl Power?

I originally wrote this post months ago but decided to keep it my drafts because I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea of where I’m coming from. However, I feel like this is an interesting topic to talk about so after many months, here we go.

Girl Boss: A confident, capable woman who pursues her own ambition instead of working for others or otherwise settling in life.

The term first made headway in 2014, with an autobiography by Sophia Amoruso called #Girlboss. The book is about how Amoruso created a company called Nasty Gal while working a different job. The book’s popularity was turned into a Netflix series, and it was canceled after one season.

On social media, I see #girlboss everywhere. Women show how to become successful, be your best self, and how you do not need anyone else to achieve your success. And to be honest, I like these videos; women supporting women is necessary in society.

What I have also seen on social media is some “girl bosses” use this method to try and scam people through MLMS. They also will use insecurities and guilt others for not being as successful as they are. They will make up these fake incentives to make a profit, and this is where there are major problems with the term.

Recently I have seen this rise of almost an “anti-girl boss” movement, where women talk about how they don’t need to be this CEO of the company, and that it’s okay to settle sometimes.

I believe there is a difference between women wanting to help other women versus where the only person benefitting is themselves. I feel that most of us are not strangers to people coming into our DMs, and they take one look at your page, and they believe they know you and can change your life for the better. Those DMs are usually ignored and deleted.

The problem that I have with this term is that “girl boss” believe we should all measure our success the same way, and if you do not have these goals and big dreams then you are not achieving enough. That is not how success works, being successful for one person can be completely different for another.

I think the internet takes a term and overuses it or uses it in the wrong way, and I think that’s what the internet did with #girlboss.

It’s a tricky subject to talk about because I feel like there are so many types of girl bosses and different avenues to explore. I also believe that I only touched on the surface level of this topic and we could go into much more detail of the term.

This was hard to put all my thoughts together and there are other articles linked down below with other reasons why this term can be seen as a problem rather than a tool.

Overall, I think there are positive aspects to some girl bosses. I have seen women use this term to spread useful information to other women, as well as helping others grow. But, sometimes it just becomes too much and they use your insecurities for their own personal gain.

I want to know other’s thoughts and what they think about the term. Is it a toxic part of the internet and needs to go? Or is it a positive movement that will help women around the world?

The video that inspired this post:  not a girl boss

Other Articles about ‘Girl Boss’:

‘Girl boss’: When empowerment slogans backfire – (Where I learned where the term came from)

The End of the Girlboss Is Here

Thanks for reading

Megan