I recently received an amazing business opportunity . A stranger named *Amara — whose Instagram bio reads ‘own your story ’ — DM’d me to tell me I can earn a high income with low effort, all from my phone. It’s completely free and full training is provided, but I should probably spend $725 on a starter kit as an investment to myself. Wow!
If you’ve been on social media over the last three months, there’s a good chance you’ve received a similar opportunity. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, just about every woman I know has been asked to join a multi-level marketing scheme.
If you’re not familiar with MLMs, like Avon, Arbonne, Younique, FM Fragrance, Amway, and Nu Skin, they’re product-based businesses that recruit unsalaried sales staff to recruit more unsalaried sales staff. A study on MLMs indicates that the majority of sales staff make a loss, and reps are required to engage in “constant and aggressive recruitment” of new members.
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They promote the message that women are failing because they aren’t working hard enough, rather than acknowledge the simple fact that “99% of sellers end up losing money when they invest in multi-level marketing.”
In the early 2010’s, MLMs’ main clientele were suburban women in their late thirties to early forties. One paper reported that “[Avon] typically caters to the needs of persons between the ages of 35 to 45 years old with higher education above high school.” MLMs were even parodied in a 2015 episode of Schitt’s Creek when David and Moira join a pyramid scheme, only to learn the craze had swept through the town two years prior. At the same time this show aired, Sophia Amoruso’s #GIRLBOSS had just been published, and a new generation of younger women were becoming empowered by the idea of owning a business, smashing their #goals, and living their best lives on Instagram, all in the name of feminism.
Recent essays like Leigh Stein’s The End of the Girlboss is Here have shed light on the demise of this mindset, but it’s still thriving within MLMs. Grace Wilson, a librarian who runs @MLM_busters , recently claimed that these companies “use ‘women supporting women’ to build a captive customer base of ‘empowered’ reps spending money” and explains that they “co-opt feminist language to justify exploitation.”
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Outdated #girlboss messages like the popular ‘You have as many hours in the day as Beyonce’ lend themselves perfectly to MLMs because they promote the message that women are failing because they aren’t working hard enough, rather than acknowledge the simple fact that “99% of sellers end up losing money when they invest in multi-level marketing.”
You can see this in action on pro-MLM social media accounts. They post the same unactionable advice we’ve seen since the dawn of Tumblr feminism, like ‘Girl, get out of your own damn way’ and ‘Hustle beats talent. ’ Delve a bit deeper into these millennial-pink posts and you’ll find problematic boss-shaming messaging like ‘If you’re not careful, your own fears and insecurities can trick you into a mediocre life.’ and ‘You spend $10/day on breakfast and lunch. That’s $300/month. You can start a business. You just won’t prioritize’.
While pyramid selling may seem like a clear no-go, it’s easy to understand why some see the appeal. The Instagram account MLM Debunked states, “the pandemic has left a lot of people in positions of financial uncertainty and distress, which makes them primed for an MLM pitch or “opportunity.” They add that “MLMs flourish amongst vulnerable and desperate populations.”
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The global financial crisis has disproportionately impacted women , especially women of color, and lockdowns have created increased isolation and mental health issues . Both MLMs and Girlboss culture offer a way to fix this: Improve your mindset, join a community of like-minded women, and, above all, get rich. Unfortunately, they also encourage excess spending and an unhealthy work/life balance.
In her essay on her personal experience with the #Girlboss mentality, Gina Vaynshteyn detailed how she spent money on non-essentials like manicures to look more “boss” and voluntarily worked 18-hour days to climb the corporate ladder. Similarly, the MLM recruiter I spoke to told me, “The harder you work, the more money you will earn” and listed “showcasing your life and making it look attractive” as a selling tactic.
Just as joining a pyramid selling scheme is unlikely to bring you financial freedom, working to exhaustion and spending your earnings on non-essentials to appease your Instagram audience is rarely a recipe for happiness or personal success. Until we all begin to acknowledge there’s more to life than “the hustle, ” and that struggling financially is not a personal failure, MLMs will continue to recruit and exploit aspiring girlbosses under the guise of female empowerment.
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(If you or someone you know has been affected by involvement in an MLM, you can find help and resources here .)
Like this story? Follow The Financial Diet on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for daily tips and inspiration, and sign up for our email newsletter here.So Elizabeth Holmes finally went to jail, with the former Theranos CEO recently starting her 11-year jail term for fraud and conspiracy.
“The crux of the Girlboss movement’s problem is that it wants women to behave more like men and the answer is for men to behave more like women at scale.”
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Holmes’ conviction and detention cap off a recent run of a certain type of prominent women leaders that received a lot of media attention for being prominent women leaders before being hoisted by their own petards.
Chelsea and TFD have been on the problem of the Girlboss for some time, identifying it as a superficial and cynical branding exercise that allowed certain types of women to assimilate into our existing power structures without changing them.
But that’s not the only reason the term fell out of favour, and it’s certainly not this podcast’s conviction that Girlbossery represents the full spectrum of women entrepreneurs. Far from it.
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There is a trap women leaders face regardless of their behaviour, with their actions and very existence defined by and compared to some male ideal—an ideal that frankly allows most men in tech to act like plum fools without repercussion or introspection.
Now there’s more to this conversation that we didn’t get to, unpacking the other difficulties women founders face, like the lack of access to capital—things we’ve discussed on past podcasts and will discuss in future podcasts.
Why? Chelsea had to go to an event for her new book (A Perfect Vintage, available for purchase today) and some technical difficulties cut short our recording time.
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That’s OK, because before she had to dip Chelsea left us with a wonderful example of positive entrepreneurial leadership—how she approaches running her business—and a promise to return in future episodes.
Palette Skills is thrilled to announce its transformative 6-week training program, aimed at helping individuals unlock their potential in the world of business-to-business tech sales without previous industry experience. Applications for British Columbia and Ontario are now open. Take charge of your future and apply now!
The Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur. Recorded at StartWell. Sponsored by Palette Skills.
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Douglas Soltys is the Editor-in-Chief of and founder of Incorporated. He has worked for a few failed companies and written about many more. He spends too much time on the Internet.Sophia Amoruso’s bubblegum pink memoir slash career novel featured the mogul herself on the cover, arms akimbo in a severe but fashionable Serious Lady dress, her facial features framed by blunt jet black bangs and a short bob. In 2014, the same year #Girlboss was published, I saw so many women chop their hair and ask their hairstylists for a short, textured cut.
A new kind of boss lady had kicked down the door. She was a girl boss. She believed in the #hustle, not saying sorry in emails, and certainly not feeling ashamed for her unbridled ambition.
Nasty Gal, which sold everything from boho blouses to edgy cocktail dresses meant to be worn with Doc Martens, was at the peak of its popularity. Although Sheryl Sandberg had published her ubiquitous and chart-topping career book only a year before, a new kind of boss lady had kicked down the door. She was a girl boss. She believed in the #hustle, not saying sorry in emails, and certainly not feeling ashamed for her unbridled ambition.
Pdf) “so You Want To Be A #girlboss?”: Millennial Femininity And Entrepreneurial Selfhood In 'the Girlfriend Experience' And 'girlboss'.
I was in my second to last year of grad school when #Girlboss came out. I never read it, because quite honestly, I didn’t have the time. On top of my classes, I was teaching two courses, tutoring English privately, and I had just started to break into online writing. But the #Girlboss cover followed me everywhere I went. I didn’t even have to read the book. The girlboss mentality had seeped into my dreams and goals for when I graduated. I wanted to work for a cool girl website. I wanted to make money and flaunt my success. I wanted to be able to afford Clashist T-shirts. I wanted to erase phrases like “I feel, ” and “I think” from
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