{ "id": "ep5xfbfr7k", "slug": "girlboss-2017-tv-series", "title": "Girlboss (2017 TV series)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv", "label": "Scripted television and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy", "label": "Sitcom and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series", "label": "American sitcoms and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies", "label": "2010s cable and streaming comedies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies", "label": "United States · 2001 to 2020: 2010s cable and streaming comedies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001", "label": "United States · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv", "label": "Scripted television and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy", "label": "Sitcom and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series", "label": "American sitcoms and comedy series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies", "label": "2010s cable and streaming comedies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Girlboss is a 2017 Netflix comedy series created by Kay Cannon, based on Sophia Amoruso's memoir #Girlboss and her Nasty Gal fashion startup. Thirteen half-hour episodes premiered April 21, 2017; Netflix canceled it after one season amid mixed reviews.", "snippet": "Girlboss is a 2017 Netflix comedy series created by Kay Cannon, based on Sophia Amoruso's memoir #Girlboss and her Nasty Gal fashion startup. Thirteen half-hour episodes premiered April 21, 2017; Netflix canceled it after one season amid mixed reviews.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_scripted_tv_comedy.american_sitcom_series.2010s-cable-and-streaming-comedies", "markdown": "# Girlboss (2017 TV series)\n\n**Girlboss** is an American comedy television series created by Kay Cannon for Netflix, loosely based on the life of [Sophia Amoruso](https://www.edgepedia.org/sophia-amoruso), founder of the fashion brand [Nasty Gal](https://www.edgepedia.org/nasty-gal), and on her 2014 memoir *#Girlboss*. It premiered on April 21, 2017 with a 13-episode first season and was canceled two months later, in June 2017.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01) • [2](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cancels-girlboss-after-one-season/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Network / run | Netflix; one season of 13 half-hour episodes, all released April 21, 2017[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01) |\n| Creator | Kay Cannon, writer of the *Pitch Perfect* films and a writer-producer on *30 Rock*; she also served as showrunner[3](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671) |\n| Basis | Inspired by the New York Times best-selling book *#Girlboss* by Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso[3](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671) |\n| Main cast | Britt Robertson (Sophia), Ellie Reed (Annie), Alphonso McAuley (Dax), Johnny Simmons (Shane), Dean Norris (Jay), with RuPaul recurring as Lionel[3](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671) • [4](https://epguides.com/Girlboss/) |\n| Executive producers | Kay Cannon, Charlize Theron, Laverne McKinnon, Beth Kono, Christian Ditter, and Sophia Amoruso[3](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671) |\n| Critical reception | 35% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (40 reviews) with a 73% audience score; Metascore 53 on Metacritic[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/girlboss/) |\n| Status | Canceled by Netflix after one season, announced June 2017[2](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cancels-girlboss-after-one-season/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and setting\n\nThe series follows Sophia, a rebellious, broke anarchist who refuses to grow up. After losing her job and receiving an eviction notice, she discovers a knack for sourcing vintage clothing cheaply and reselling it online, and the hobby grows into a retail business. As the company expands, she confronts the value and difficulty of being the boss of her own life.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/girlboss)\n\nCannon deliberately set the story in 2006 San Francisco, just before Sophia launches her own company, so viewers could watch her journey from apartment evictee to entrepreneur.[7](https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/girlboss/) • [8](https://www.tvline.com/previews/girlboss-preview-netflix-series-britt-robertson-820758/) The season's episodes trace the business's early steps, from naming the eBay store and protecting her seller rating against an angry customer, to an online rival, a vintage fashion forum backlash, and the season finale, \"The Launch,\" in which Sophia's old friends arrive at the Nasty Gal launch party while she struggles to stay focused in the face of a betrayal.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01)\n\n## Development and production\n\n[Kay Cannon](https://www.edgepedia.org/kay-cannon) said she wanted to create a show about a flawed, complicated heroine whose life story was not centered on romance. When her agents sent her Amoruso's memoir, she decided on the project after reading the synopsis, describing the real Amoruso as \"a college dropout, a shoplifter, an honest-to-a-fault asshole millennial\" who went on to build the online vintage fashion empire Nasty Gal. Cannon came on board as creator, executive producing with [Charlize Theron](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlize-theron) and Amoruso.[9](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/mix/shee28099s-boss/shee28099s-boss)\n\nChristian Ditter (*How to Be Single*) directed several episodes in addition to executive producing.[3](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671) The adaptation took deliberate liberties with its source: the first season ends with Robertson's character launching the Nasty Gal thrift website with a few employees; in real life, Amoruso left eBay and launched Nasty Gal's standalone website in June 2008. Amoruso noted that most characters besides Sophia were Cannon's inventions, including a fictionalized version of her mother.[10](https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate-is-girlboss-to-sofia-amorusos-life-the-netflix-series-is-its-own-thing-according-to-the-cast-crew-52618) • [15](https://intothegloss.com/2012/09/sophia-amoruso-founder-ceo-nasty-gal)\n\n## Reception and cancellation\n\nReviews were mixed to negative. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus held that the show \"has its charms, but they're ultimately undone by a fundamental mishandling of the show's problematic protagonist,\" and the Tomatometer stood at 35% from 40 reviews, against a 73% audience score.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01) On Metacritic the season scored 53 out of 100 from 13 critic reviews, in the \"mixed or average\" band, with individual scores ranging from 75 ([Entertainment Weekly](https://www.edgepedia.org/entertainment-weekly)) to 25 (the [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle)).[5](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/girlboss/) Recurring criticisms included the unlikeability of the protagonist and a perceived gap between the show's feminist framing and Sophia's selfishness, though some reviewers praised the visually inventive depictions of online forum discussions and the alt-rock, post-punk soundtrack.[11](https://journals.ub.uni-koeln.de/index.php/genderforum/article/download/2470/2563/8521) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01)\n\nNetflix announced the cancellation on a Saturday in late June 2017, about two months after the premiere. The decision followed the cancellations of *The Get Down* in May and *[Sense8](https://www.edgepedia.org/sense8)* earlier in June.[2](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cancels-girlboss-after-one-season/) Amoruso responded in a series of Instagram stories, writing that she was proud of the work but \"looking forward to controlling my narrative from here on out,\" and that \"living my life as a caricature was hard even if only for two months.\"[2](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cancels-girlboss-after-one-season/)\n\n## The show and the fall of Nasty Gal\n\nThe series aired against a backdrop its go-getter message could not escape. Amoruso had built Nasty Gal from an eBay side project into a full-fledged online retailer with a reported valuation of $200 million, but pregnancy discrimination lawsuits and reports of a toxic company culture had tarnished her public image, and a combination of [overinvestment](https://www.edgepedia.org/overinvestment) and revenue declines led to a November 2016 bankruptcy filing. As the show rolled out in April 2017, Nasty Gal's brand assets were sold to the British fashion retailer Boohoo.com for $20 million. Fortune reported that the show was dogged by the disconnect between its message and the company's troubles, quoting Variety's description of it as \"a love letter to a paragon of success that doesn't exist.\"[12](https://fortune.com/2017/06/25/netflix-girlboss/)\n\nThe show has since been read as a document of the peak and decline of the \"girlboss\" cultural phenomenon. Scholars note that the term was popularized by Amoruso's 2014 book, that Nasty Gal had reached over $100 million in annual sales and 200 employees by 2012, and that the Netflix series, produced in the same year Amoruso founded Girlboss Media, received mixed reviews as the hype cycle turned.[13](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106486) Critics in gender-studies venues have described the show's portrayal of female entrepreneurship as problematic, arguing that it equated capitalism with feminism and presented its protagonist's individualism without interrogating inequality.[11](https://journals.ub.uni-koeln.de/index.php/genderforum/article/download/2470/2563/8521) • [14](https://thesociologicalreview.org/collections/guest-essays/girlboss/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Girlboss: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/girlboss/s01)\n2. [Netflix cancels \"Girlboss\" after one season, CBS News (June 26, 2017)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cancels-girlboss-after-one-season/)\n3. [Girlboss, Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80115671)\n4. [Girlboss, a Titles & Air Dates Guide, epguides.com](https://epguides.com/Girlboss/)\n5. [Girlboss Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/girlboss/)\n6. [Girlboss (2017), JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/girlboss)\n7. [Girlboss TV show on Netflix: Cancelled or Renewed?, TV Series Finale](https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/girlboss/)\n8. [Girlboss: Preview of Netflix Series Starring Britt Robertson, TVLine](https://www.tvline.com/previews/girlboss-preview-netflix-series-britt-robertson-820758/)\n9. [She's the Boss, Television Academy (June 29, 2017)](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/mix/shee28099s-boss/shee28099s-boss)\n10. [How Accurate Is 'Girlboss' To Sophia Amoruso's Life?, Bustle (April 21, 2017)](https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate-is-girlboss-to-sofia-amorusos-life-the-netflix-series-is-its-own-thing-according-to-the-cast-crew-52618)\n11. [Kay Cannon's *Girlboss*. Netflix, 2017, GenderForum](https://journals.ub.uni-koeln.de/index.php/genderforum/article/download/2470/2563/8521)\n12. [Netflix Cancels 'Girlboss' After Only One Season, Fortune (June 25, 2017)](https://fortune.com/2017/06/25/netflix-girlboss/)\n13. [The rise and fall of the girlboss: Gender, social expectations and entrepreneurial hype, Journal of Business Venturing](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106486)\n14. [Girlboss, The Sociological Review](https://thesociologicalreview.org/collections/guest-essays/girlboss/)\n15. [Sophia Amoruso, Founder & CEO, Nasty Gal](https://intothegloss.com/2012/09/sophia-amoruso-founder-ceo-nasty-gal)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › American sitcoms and comedy series › 2010s cable and streaming comedies*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Girlboss (2017 TV series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Girlboss (2017 TV series)](https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series](https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Girlboss (2017 TV series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/girlboss-2017-tv-series. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Girlboss is a 2017 Netflix comedy series created by Kay Cannon, based on Sophia Amoruso's memoir #Girlboss and her Nasty Gal fashion startup." }