Here is a brief excerpt of an interview of Sophia Amoruso by Jena McGregor for the Wasington Post. To read the complete article, check out others, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

Photo by Autumn de Wilde

* * *

Typical business books are definitely not written by a former dumpster-diving shoplifter. Then again Sophia Amoruso, the CEO of online fashion site Nasty Gal and author of the new book #GIRLBOSS, is not your typical CEO.

The 30-year-old founder of the online fashion phenom started the site in 2006 as an eBay project, selling vintage clothing while she worked as a security guard checking IDs at an art school. She had no college degree, no experience in business, and writes that as a teenager and in her early twenties, “I thought that I would never embrace capitalism.” Yet without taking out a dime in loans, she started a business that has led her to be called one of the most creative people in business and the “Cinderella of tech.” Eight years later, the site is an online mecca for stylish young women, with more than $100 million in revenues.

Her book, released last week, is part memoir, part management guide and part girl-power manifesto. A sort of a Lean In for misfits, it offers young women a candid guide to starting a business and going after what they want. We spoke with Amoruso about what she’s learned, what she reads and what advice she has for people just starting their careers. The discussion below has been edited for space and clarity.

Why did you decide to write the book?

I’ve learned a lot from reading business books along the way. My first business book, I guess, was technically Starting an eBay Store for Dummies, and from there they’ve gotten slightly more sophisticated. My favorite magazine is the Harvard Business Review. If someone sat across from me in a restaurant and didn’t know me, that might surprise them. There’s so much to learn in business that I think anyone — even if you don’t own your own business — can learn a lot about how to navigate the world and the workplace, and being a manager and being managed.

There’s also no one really speaking to the audience that I’m trying to reach. Every woman who has a business book has a platform. For the most part they’re either a television personality or someone who had the perfect pedigree and worked their way up the career ladder. If you look at my Instagram, girls are just beating down my door for tips or a job or mentorship. I can’t hire every single one of them. My story is one thing that gives them hope. It’s an unconventional story with anecdotes, commonsense advice and a big dose of permission to figure things out for yourself.

What have been some of your favorite or most influential business books?

Well it’s not really a business book, but The Richest Man in Babylon is a must-read that’s more about managing your own personal finances. I also read No Man’s Land which is about that middle stage where you’re too small to be big and too big to be small and you’re hiring middle and senior managers. That was good.

What’s the story behind the title #GIRLBOSS? Why did you choose to focus on women, and not just any up-and-coming entrepreneurs who never thought they’d end up business?

Well I’m a girl. I’m a boss. I think it would be boring to call the book “Boss,” but it’s not just for girls. There are a lot of parents who’ve come to me and said about their daughters, “Oh my god, she’s 21, she’s totally flailing. Your story gives me hope.” I put my mom through that. She’s totally earned what she’s experiencing today.

As for the hashtag, part of my story is about using social media as free marketing. By putting the hash tag in front of the title, you kind of have to use it. It’s built in. The title is also a riff on this ’70s Japanese movie called Girl Boss Guerilla, which is like a female revenge movie. It’s pretty campy — very campy — something like the style of film Quentin Tarantino stole from. That’s initially part of where the title came from.

The company has grown immensely since you started it. How has your job as a leader changed over time?

As the company grows, you have to move from a team of generalists to a team of specialists. I was the ultimate generalist. I hired the first employee, another generalist. And in a certain way even today I still preach that there’s no such thing as “that’s not my job.” Everyone needs to do what they need to do to get the job done.

But my job also went from whatever it takes to get job done to leading people, hiring people directly under me, and creating strategy and holding the company accountable to it. I’m making long-term goals, which I never had in the beginning, and am trying to create meaning and have conversations about it, so that everybody can take that and do a better job. It’s a completely different team I’m managing today compared to the team I was managing six years ago.

* * *

Here’s a direct link to the complete interview.

Jena McGregor teases out the leadership issues in the day’s news. To read more of her work, please click here.