Sara Blakely Essay

Many women praise Sara Blakely for her creation of SPANX, but up until 2000 no one had a clue who Sara Blakely was. Born February 21st, 1971 to an attorney and an artist in Clearwater Florida, she was just an average child. When Sara grew up she attended Clearwater high school, and continued in state to get her communications degree from Florida State. Although she faced many hardships, she persevered through them and has become the youngest self-made female billionaire. During college, Sara Blakely had originally planned on becoming an attorney like her father, however she “..failed the LSAT- twice” . Since her original plan didn’t work out as she had planned, she moved along and got her communications degree. After college Sara worked part-time
Originally Sam Kaplan was not on board with Sara’s product, so he instead brought his two daughters in and asked if they would be willing to buy her product. Luckily for Sara, both of the daughters said yes , which lead to Sam Kaplan approving her product. After the product was successfully manufactured, Sara then went to Neiman Marcus to give a demonstration of her product. Again, the young woman was successful and her SPANX were put into several stores for testing. Still in 2000, Sara Blakely caught another huge break, Oprah Winfrey had discovered her product and added it to the “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list for 2000. After 2000 Sara Blakely’s business continued to sky rocket, and in 2002 she was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Southeast region by Ernst & young. SPANX quickly grew, continuing to release items across the spectrum; they released bras and reinvented some practical and cute stockings. In 2006 Sara began the Sara Blakely Foundation, which at the time raise funds for 278 women to attend a city campus in South Africa. Continuing with her charity work, in 2007 she donated $1,000,000 to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation in South