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Power Figures

Carrie Sporer is Changing the Game for Busy Women Who Work Out

As a nine-time marathon runner, Carrie Sporer was seriously over having to wash and blow dry her hair after every sweat session.

As a fashion industry consultant, she’s well versed in bringing problem-solvers to market.

That’s how she invented her own.

SWAIR Showerless Shampoo cleans hair–something dry shampoo doesn’t actually do–without the shower, making it easier and faster for busy women like herself to get out of the gym and into the office.

“We should not have to plan workouts around washing our hair,” Carrie told Bare Necessities. Find out how this month’s Power Figure goes the distance, one step at a time.

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Behind the Seams Power Figures

Liza Bennett is the Brains Behind Bare Necessities

We’ve met our fair share of Power Figures here on Bare it All, from fashion designers to physicians, novelists to entrepreneurs. To kick off the year, we realized we didn’t need to look any further than our own backyard, to a woman who knows the business of fashion better than pretty much anyone. Who has built her career from the front door to the top floor. Who gets things handled all day, every day without breaking a sweat.

Torching every stereotype about female bosses, Liza Bennett is what you want in a leader: kind, likeable, unflappable under pressure, an ally in the corner office who wants everyone to succeed–and to be happy and have a life while they’re at it.

Liza has spent the past 15 years at Bare Necessities, ascending from the brand’s second-ever buyer to the Vice President of E-Commerce, seeing things through when we were a private company, then under Walmart and, now, under international intimate apparel corporation Delta Galil.

We picked Liza’s brain to find out what she’s learned about finding your calling, forming a team you can count on and trusting your gut…in and out of the office.

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Power Figures

Author Arianna Davis is Living Boldly Like Frida Kahlo

At 33, Arianna Davis has figured out a few things about going fearlessly in the direction of her dreams. That’s what happens when Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King take you under their wings, as they did her.

Now the digital director of OprahMag.com, Arianna has just published her first book, What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly inspired by the life and work of the free-spirited artist Frida Kahlo.

Arianna gave Bare it All the inside scoop on what she’s learned about going one’s own way, both from researching her heroine and from doing just that herself.

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Power Figures

Nina Lorez Collins is Making a Room of Their Own for Women Over 40

No topic is off limits for Nina Lorez Collins. At 51, the founder of The Woolfer—a digital platform for women over 40—and a mother of four fledgling adults, she is as self-actualized as she is self-deprecating.

A big career as a literary agent, then as a writer for Elle and Vogue, led to Nina’s creation of The Woolfer, her highly engaged tribe of sassy, brassy women who congregate on the site or app to serve as each other’s sounding boards, friends and life coaches. Their posts, seminars and meet-ups are lively, candid, awkward and occasionally vulgar—authentic, like she is. What followed was her book, What Would Virginia Woolf Do? And Other Questions I Ask Myself as I Attempt to Age Without Apology, as well as the “Raging Gracefully” podcast.

Nina lives in Brooklyn and East Hampton, sometimes with her new boyfriend and all the time with her new poodle, Strudel. She spent a recent afternoon telling Bare Necessities about traversing that long, winding road of life while fearlessly living on-brand.

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Breast Cancer Awareness Power Figures

How Paula Flory Went from Surviving to Thriving When Faced with Breast Cancer

In the first chapter of her career, Paula Flory worked as a counselor for nonprofits serving underprivileged youth. Then, in 2011, in her early 40s and in the best shape of her life, she felt a lump in her armpit.

After focusing on beating Stage III breast cancer, Paula found her next chapter: serving women in the same circumstances she had so recently been in herself. That’s why she started Move Over Breast Cancer, a tricked-out van near our New Jersey headquarters that will bring you all the nice-to-have services you could want when undergoing treatment…for free.

“As everyone who has ever been diagnosed with cancer can tell you,” said Paula, “it’s as if you’ve been hit by a high-speed train when you hear the news. It created chaos in me and in my life. Even with the tremendous support of family, friends and my and community, I felt as though I was crawling through sludge making these huge decisions about treatment and surgeries.”

Each day was more difficult than the next, said Paula, but there was also a moment early on in the diagnosis process that “there seemed to be a tiny tunnel through which I could see a light of hope. I strongly felt when looking through this pinhole that I would find an opportunity within this problem.”

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, hear Paula’s fresh perspective on breast cancer and find out why our Power Figure calls it “a gift.”

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Personal Style Power Figures Relationships

Liz Forkin Bohannon is on a Mission to Make the World More Equitable for Women

Before it was a thing, Liz Forkin Bohannon came up with the idea of making sandals with interchangeable ribbon ties that could be made by women, for women, to raise enough money to send girls in developing nations to university. She launched Sseko Designs in 2009 from her home base in Portland, Oregon. From a handshake deal under a mango tree in Uganda, she’s grown her fair trade business to 65 employees in almost as many time zones, a third of whom at any one time are earning money to go on to higher ed. From that game-changing sandal concept, Sseko now sells more than 300 different items like scarves, jewelry, handbags, clothing and, as of a few weeks ago, coffee.

In 2015, Liz brought the business onto Shark Tank and, in 2019, she wrote Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now. “It’s all been such a fun, wild ride,” she told Bare Necessities.

Find out what’s next for this Power Figure on a mission to make the world a more equitable place for womankind.

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Power Figures

Abigail Posner Knows What Makes You Different is the Secret to Success

A study in contrasts, Abigail Posner is a perfect example of how a circuitous path can take you where you need to go in life just as well, if not better, than any straight shot. 

Currently a director at Google, this Power Figure came up through advertising and finance after studying anthropology at Harvard. She also blogs about fashion and beauty from a cultural standpoint. An observant Jew, Abi powers down for the Sabbath, then powers back up to hit a fashion show or launch party after services end. 

These conflicting worlds don’t rattle her a bit. Instead, they propel her. Abi takes whatever personality traits most of us would consider our weaknesses and harnesses their power to adapt herself to any job, in any field. She draws on what she knows. By embracing all the pieces that make us up, by leaning into the way they clash instead of constantly fighting to reconcile them, in this Bare Necessities exclusive, Abi proves that knowing what makes you different is the real secret to rising to the top.

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Power Figures

Mary Latham Visited All 50 States Collecting Stories of Kindness

The craziest thing Mary Latham has ever done: complete her three-year More Good Road Trip.

That adventure was inspired by a conversation Mary had with her mother on the morning of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: “The same time the shooting was taking place in Connecticut, a coworker of mine told me he was being bought a coffee by a stranger down the street in New York City. When I told my mom the two stories and continued to harp on the shooting and all the bad out there, she reminded me, ‘You have to focus on the coffee story. There will always be horrible tragedies in our lives and in the world, but there will always be more good out there. You just have to look for it.”

A few weeks later, Mary’s mother died of cancer.

So Mary carried her mom’s words with her as she began the More Good road trip, a 50-state mission across the United States to compile stories of human kindness: “After I finished, my plan was to put these stories together in a book I would donate to hospital waiting rooms across the country. I spent a lot of time those when my mom was sick, and I thought they could use a book of hope. I know I could have.”

Mary packed up her mom’s old blue Subaru in the fall of 2016 and hit the road. After traversing the country and in the process of writing a book about her journey, Mary shared what she’s seen with Bare it All.

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Power Figures

Linsday Powers Wants Parents to Cut Themselves Some Slack

Despite a less-than-idyllic childhood, writer Lindsay Powers single-mindedly rose through the publishing ranks, interviewing the likes of J.Lo, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Then, working alongside Katie Couric, Bobbi Brown and Marissa Mayer, Lindsay launched Yahoo’s digital parenting magazine.

That’s where the whole #NoShameParenting movement started. The campaign really resonated with overachieving, overstressed parents and evolved into her upcoming book on the topic, You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids, which will be released on March 31. Lindsay gave Bare Necessities an exclusive preview.

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Power Figures

Deanna Taylor-Heacock Sees a Plastic-Free Future for Us All

Ever stop to look—really look—at how much trash you and your household produces? It can be a five-alarm wake-up call.

It definitely was for Deanna Taylor-Heacock. Looking for alternatives to so much disposable stuff but not finding nearly enough to change the way she lived, Deanna opened Good Bottle Refill Shop, the first bulk home care store of its kind in the state of New Jersey, this past fall. You can bring your own container and stock up on everything from essential oil-scented dish soap to laundry detergent, bath salts to toothpaste powder, all designed with a “zero waste” mindset and an elevated aesthetic.

Find out how this former Bare Necessities buyer saw a problem and solved it herself in a way that’s as good for the planet as it is for business.

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Power Figures

Assemblywoman Angela McKnight Lives in Service to Others

Angela McKnight was elected in 2016 to “legislate, educate and empower.” The first African American Assemblywoman for her hometown, the 31st district in Jersey City, New Jersey, she actually never set out for a career in politics.

Angela founded the nonprofit AngelaCARES, Inc. to support senior citizens and their caregivers. The organization also mentors kids by teaching them how to volunteer, all of which strengthens communities and improves the quality of life for the youngest and the oldest among us. She’s the owner of Care About You, a consultant service for the elderly and, as a Carepreneur, she speaks, consults and trains others on these subjects that so deeply have her heart.

Before advocacy work became her calling, Angela spent 25 years in customer service technologies, showing her firsthand how to turn good intentions into concrete plans. Married to her high school sweetheart, she’s a mother and a grandmother, too.

Day in and day out, this activist-advocate-author-educator’s actions reflect her deep-seated passion to help others and her community. Read her Bare Necessities interview to get inspired to bring your true self to every last thing that you do.

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Pop Culture Power Figures

BlogHer 2019: 14 Pieces of Advice From Serious Boss Babes

It isn’t every day you get to sit in the company of fifteen hundred game-changing women, but that’s what Bare Necessities did last month at Blogher 2019 in NYC, a summit for women content creators.

From famous faces like actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who just launched her very own wine, to upstart entrepreneurs pitching status quo-shattering ideas, like MIT-grad Adriana Vazquez’s overhaul of the breast pump, big estrogen energy ran high as we listened and learned how to lift each other up through the power of our personal brands.

Just in time for Women in Business Month, borrow some of their empowering, inspiring mojo for yourself today, then go make some magic happen. Because if not you, than who will?