Welcome back to the second week of Self Care Month. Remember all month long I Am Woman is introducing you all to women owned self care businesses, as well as who the women behind them are. This week I will be sharing my interview with Whitley Richardson, she is the owner of The Ugly Pretty Girl. You can learn more about her business by clicking on the underlined business name!
Whitley Richardson was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is active duty military, be sure to thank her for her service down in the comments below! For six years she was a reserve and during that time she was always working, sometimes even three jobs at a time. Finally she became active duty and now also works full time on The Ugly Pretty Girl.
When asked about her greatest achievement, she spoke about being the first in her family to graduate college (according to Whitley technically her mother beat her and finished a year ahead of her but congratulations to both of them for such a great achievement) . She explained to me that most of her family went through highschool and stopped there, however she is extremely proud to have made it through college, earning a bachelor's degree in Business with a specialization in Entrepreneurship. She was also excited to tell me that soon she will be working on her master’s degree! I’m so glad I have the opportunity to share such a great achievement with everyone.
Throughout our conversation we also spoke about some of the struggles she faced while starting up her business. She told me how the white men she worked with would always ask, why do you have to specify that your business is black owned? They would ask if that meant only black people could shop there. I found this part of our talk particularly interesting because I wonder if this is a thought that crosses other people’s minds and it is something that should be addressed. If a business is black owned that does not mean it is only open to the black community, however it is important to specify that the business is black owned because it shows society that black people are more than just the typical no good stereotype. It is also important for young children of color to see people like them owning businesses because it shows the kids that they can have their own business one day too.
Whitley and I also spoke about some other difficulties she has faced in starting up her company. We spoke about finding the motivation after coming home from her full time job, to then work on her business for another few hours. This is something I’m sure new entrepreneurs and even myself have struggled with. We all love what we and somedays are harder than others, but for all those trying to make a name for themselves, don’t give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel and someone out there in the world is benefiting from your ideas! Just think, had Whitley given up on her business I wouldn’t be able to say that if you head over to The Ugly Pretty Girl article, you will find the PROMO CODE for 30% off the whole website!
Thank you so all for joining me and giving the article a read. If you haven’t already, be sure to read last week's post on Kaiya Denson! And or you don’t already follow us on Instagram!!
If there is a woman you’d like see up here, be sure to send over her information so I can get in contact with her!