Maya Emme, the dynamic, insightful, and passionate founder of Poor Little Rich Girl Studio , has created an online fashion boutique. Maya is a business leader at the intersection of marketing, client strategy, and data science. She boasts over 15 years of experience driving revenue growth and crafting data-driven strategies for top brands.
However, her greatest asset is undeniably her heart. Beyond impressive credentials and accolades, Maya is an advocate for change and women’s empowerment. She serves on the Women’s Global Leadership Initiative (WGLI) board and created the Business Is Blooming Roundtable, a platform supporting women entrepreneurs. And she conducts monthly rap sessions with Freshman & Sophomore girls in Chicago Public High Schools.
Unconventional Path to Empowerment
Maya’s path has been anything but conventional. Raised in Oakland, California, where Black residents constitute less than 5% of the population in the predominantly White San Francisco Bay Area, she acknowledges, “Succeeding in environments that lack the presence of other women and/or people of color can feel impossible.”
She often found herself as the sole Black individual in educational and professional settings. Despite this, Maya leveraged her unique cultural perspective and communication skills to promote inclusion. She believes, “The joy of inclusion lies in its ability to accommodate and celebrate the authenticity of each individual.”
Nevertheless, Maya has emerged as a consummate communicator, able to shift perspectives and foster mutual understanding across dividing lines. Her outspokenness positions her as an agile challenger of the status quo, invested in questioning assumptions and dismantling barriers. This knack for bridging gaps and reimagining possibilities propelled Maya to become an advisor for international brands and small businesses.
Maya explains, “My uniqueness adds value and flavor at every level. I introduce fresh insights. My experiences motivate me to ask hard questions and challenge biases.” However, deep down, her true passion lies in female empowerment. Maya balances a successful corporate career and her personal business endeavors.
Style for Every Story
In 2018, Maya launched Poor Little Rich Girl Studio , an online boutique aimed at making high fashion accessible to every woman. The studio caters to “the glamorous city girl” in all her forms: The Boss, the Traveler, the Foodie, the Student, the Artist, the 90’s Rap Connoisseur. Maya’s mission was clear: to inclusively curate fashion offerings that celebrate all hues and accommodate all body shapes. However, glitz and glam alone weren’t enough. Maya sought to make high fashion radically inclusive, catering to women frequently overlooked by mainstream brands. She explains, “Every woman deserves to feel stylish and beautiful regardless of societal norms.”
To achieve this, Maya carefully selects colors, fabrics, and designs intentionally suited for darker complexions across all body types. Rather than dictating rigid beauty ideals, the brand empowers women to embrace their unique beauty through self-expression. The boutique has struck a chord by providing apparel that seamlessly transitions from boardrooms to happy hours.
Sowing Seeds of Support
Driven by her commitment to speaking out and claiming space, Maya recently founded the Business Is Blooming Roundtable in 2021, aiming to create the supportive community she yearned for as a founder. This virtual speaker series connects women entrepreneurs across sectors to exchange insights, trends, and inspiration monthly.
Her goal is to mitigate feelings of isolation through collaboration. Maya explains, “I created a space I wish existed earlier in my entrepreneurial journey.” She designed the Roundtable to tackle hurdles like imposter syndrome that frequently derail women-owned ventures.
This initiative was merely the beginning. The inaugural Business Is Blooming Retreat manifests Maya’s vision to fully recharge and empower female founders. She enthuses, “It’s more than a getaway, it’s a transformative experience aimed at helping women entrepreneurs thrive.” The multi-day event incorporates educational activities along with engaging speakers, fitness experiences, and restorative sessions.
Empowering Unconventional Leaders
As a multifaceted leader traversing industries, Maya offers blueprints and encouragement for achieving excellence as an unapologetic trailblazer. She leverages firsthand experience to inform her business practices and builds community ecosystems where none previously existed, inspiring fellow entrepreneurs to remain steadfast in the face of isolation.
Her parting advice emphasizes the importance of staying informed, “Get tuned into your industry, market trends, competitors, resources, fundraising, and advancements in technology.” In essence, she advocates for continuous learning as the ultimate competitive advantage. For Maya Emme , knowledge and understanding are the fuel that propels her to boldly reach for once-distant visions of inclusion, now steadily becoming reality.
This relentless drive positions her as the guiding light for other audacious women navigating their unconventional paths. Maya is proof that cultivating community uplifts us all higher. Although the road less traveled is often lonely, she’s paving the way for other women to bloom.
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