With the rise of women in the entrepreneurial world, the age-old stereotypes are being broken in the corporate world. The journey has certainly been challenging but women around the globe are proving every day that how a sense of empowerment can invoke the inspiration to achieve anything.
In today’s world, women are not only making a name for themselves in the industry, but they are disrupting it with their passion and devotion to their careers. Below we are presenting 30 such empowered women disruptors who are serving as a driving force behind the recent revolution in the entrepreneurial world.
Alice Henshaw
Alice Henshaw is a name becoming familiar to all cosmetic and skincare lovers. Not only is Alice an award-winning cosmetic practitioner but she has launched her own skincare brand – SkincyclesTM. Her A-list clientele keeps her incredibly busy, so expect to be on a waitlist to see this chic London clinic for all your injectable needs. Alice has created a bespoke lip injection technique women fly from all over the world to see her for and curated a £2500 facial exclusive to her Harley Street Injectables premises for those wanting to truly indulge. Successful and a truly self-made woman, this high net worth individual is breaking barriers and inspiring women in the traditionally male-dominated non-surgical aesthetic industry. SkincyclesTMencompasses all ingredients and formulations anti-aging which Alice developed as she struggled to find products for her clients that met her high standard. The first in a class product; the SkincyclesTM Bio-Cellulose masks sold out in 14 days of launching. This is a woman and brand to watch in 2022.
Soniya Vadher-Patel
Soniya is an inspiration to many. Her audience is growing rapidly as she uses her social media platform to educate and help others, through her experiences, to accept and cope with invisible diseases. She makes it very clear that she refuses to let life’s obstacles rob her of her happiness. Soniya is a fierce and highly motivational individual whose aim is to help people face challenges in their own lives. She does this by being open and raw to let others see how she turned her pain into her passion.
Natallia Ivchankova
Natallia started in the beauty industry as a makeup artist, specializing in creating custom makeup products. As a busy mom, she found that a corporate world was not conducive to her lifestyle. In a leap of faith, she decided to branch out on her own to build a business helping to empower women with a similar lifestyle and quick makeup routine. She quickly realized that brows are the foundation of an entire look. As she gained recognition among clients, she also gained recognition among professionals in her industry, even called the “Brow Queen”.
Globally renowned educator – Natallia Ivchankova, became a sensation on Instagram for her flawless brow treatments techniques and applications. She offers continuous support to artists at all levels and all over the world, helping them to succeed within their businesses. Her “Brow Product Line” allows you to create a simplistic long-lasting result quickly and easily with just one pencil and one gel. “Great eyebrows is not just a treatment. It’s a knowledge and it’s an ART”, Natallia Ivchankova.
Jamielynn De Leon
Jamielynn’s mission is to provide a positive environment where hairstylists and clients feel free to express themselves. At Rogue House Salon, Jamielynn has brought together a community of hairstylists who believe in themselves and their work, recognizing that self-worth and authenticity are essential to achieving the best results for clients. As a certified life coach with a background in psychology, she understands that success comes from both embracing people’s individual talents and working together as one.
While in the process of expanding and relocating Rogue House, Jamielynn exited an abusive relationship and endured a violent robbery. Drawing on the same strength and perseverance she showed during those experiences, Jamilynn has turned Rogue House into one of the fastest-growing salons in NYC. The salon offers a lounge atmosphere (complete with in-chair Amazon TV displays) as well as a workspace for multitaskers. Jamielynn has served as an NYFW lead artist since 2018 and has appeared on The Today Show and in Business Insider, Glossy, The Cut, and Bustle.
Shrabonee Paul
Shrabonee Paul is an organizational development specialist with a passion for people and process enhancement. She served reputed global organizations in her career, before starting Neuworldz. Since 2005, she has been invited as a consultant trainer and guest speaker to more than 90 renowned companies and premier institutions and featured in several journals including Times of India, Readers Digest, India Today, for her expertise in her field. Through Neuworldz, Shrabonee conducted many enriching programs to promote Indo – US collaborations, through learning programs, business development, and talent promotions.
Neuworldz gained worldwide viewers and celebrity engagements for the intellectual content and elegant visuals. Neuworldz has helped promote several businesses to grow even through the global pandemic with these engagement programs. Shrabonee continues to make a positive impact by creating platforms and programs that help talents and businesses find sustainable growth through impactful promotions and meaningful collaborations.
Darya Mohler
Darya is the designer and maker behind gras‘ roots URBAN a slow-made, ethical jewelry brand. Her innovative, fresh approach is inspiring a new way of thinking about the polymer clay and acetate mediums she works in. “I had a very unique “hippie” upbringing which was extremely different from my current “urban” life. These two opposite worlds are what motivate the thought process of my creativity and designing.”
Darya started with hand-me-down tools, working out of her garage, and has grown her creative business into the full-time, successful brand it is. Her jewelry is now in demand worldwide and she is well known as a mentor, teacher, and prominent designer. Her fresh, modern take; minimalist, clean look; dynamic, on-trend colorways plus care and attention to each of her handmade pieces is what makes Darya’s jewelry so sought after.
Millie St. Waters
Millie St. Waters is a new voice in poetry. She uses her talents to help people tell their stories. The woman behind the project writes under a few different names. She is a professional ghostwriter, graphic designer, and trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness teacher. Millie’s unique designs and authentic marketing style have inspired other poets. You can see elements of her art echoing across the Internet.
Knowing what she knows about joy after trauma, she believes in the power of a story to help us process and memorialize life. Over the last year, she has put that belief to practice telling hundreds of peoples’ stories through art and poetry. As a poet, she uses detailed imagery to set her audience out of time and into their bodies. The rest of the story is told in her intricate and mysterious designs. She’s here to hold space for the full spectrum of emotion.
Katie Dixon
Katie’s love for food was born from a desire to fuel her body while developing a passion for healthy eating. Her heart’s desire is to nourish and heal lives with good nutrition that leaves the taste buds satisfied. Katie opened the Birdhouse Cafe in 2017 and Birdie’s Nourished Kitchen in the summer of 2021 to create an environment where everyone feels loved, nourished and inspired. Katie also offers a full-service meal prep program, private dining, event catering, cooking classes, travels as a celebrity chef, and has a vegan protein sweet treat line.
Katie published her first cookbook BE NOURISHED this year and is currently on her book tour. (cookbook and sweet treats both available on her website) She also travels all over the country as a motivational speaker as she captivates audiences with tried and tested strategies for empowerment and personal and business growth.
She was a finalist on Masterchef season7, Food Network Star season 14, and a food and fashion panellist for Neiman Marcus. Since food is fuel for the mind, body, and soul in Katie’s eyes, we can’t go without mentioning that she is a certified personal trainer in TRX, gravity, and barre. Katie believes that it is possible for anyone to live life to the fullest if you can inspire people to love and nourish their bodies. Her heart is to make people wake up and love the face they greet in the mirror each morning. Katie is also working on a new project with her best friend Brittany Favre called The Happy Seed Market which will open in the fall of this year.
Malaysia Coleman
Malaysia Coleman is the founder of Lip Lash Dolls, a cosmetics company known for ethically manufacturing makeup items such as lipsticks, gloss, and matte. With a strong sense of mission, Malaysia is determined to deliver the high quality found in prestige brands without the high price point. Her high-end yet affordable cosmetic products have significantly filled a void in the makeup industry. Malaysia’s innate passion to serve the industry with her exceptional beauty products and create an inclusive brand has been beyond significant in establishing her brand.
Today, Lip Lash Dolls is standing tall as a black-owned business and setting an example for aspiring women entrepreneurs all over the world to work towards their dreams. As Malaysia likes to say, “I believe all women are pretty without makeup but with the right makeup can be pretty powerful!! Everything we do and everything we create is based on what we believe in. I believe that helping others look beautiful is nice but helping them believe they are beautiful is life-changing.”
Widad Abdalhadi
Widad is a Palestinian Marketing and Corporate Communications Specialist and Social Entrepreneur with over 11 years of experience in marketing, business strategy, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. She is an ambassador for inclusion and diversity in the corporations she works in. In addition, she is passionate about women’s empowerment and equality in the community as she works with social enterprises to improve the status of women through education and work opportunities.
Her passion for corporate social responsibility and community development paved the path to start a small initiative four years ago under Ayadi. Ayadi is a partnership between Widad and her sisters Noura and Nada Abdalhadi. It is a social enterprise aimed at enhancing the lives of Palestinian women in Palestine and in the diaspora through the traditional art of embroidery called “tatreez”. Widad wanted to focus on 4 main pillars; women empowerment and financial independence, people with disabilities empowerment, create a positive impact on the environment by using recycled fabric, and upcycled techniques, and finally preserve the Palestinian heritage through modernized styles.
Ayadi addresses conscious, sustainable, and compassionate living; as it aims for a more sustainable fashion movement through its empowered 175 female artisans, where 30% are deaf; Ayadi gives traditional art a contemporary life in the modern world—celebrating compassion, culture, and heritage. Ayadi strives to change the world, one stitch at a time.
Aliyah A. ‘Rózalia Rosé’ Gillespie
Suhail Aponte
Suhail Aponte is the founder and CEO of Platinum Natural CBD, an award-winning female-owned small business in East Hampton, CT, Westbrook, CT, and e-commerce. The company was established in 2019 with one goal in mind: to provide their clients with the highest quality product at an affordable price.
A few years ago, Suhail noticed how CBD had helped her with her backaches, migraines, and skin conditions. This was when she decided to create a brand that is accessible to everyone. Their products are the highest-grade CBD tested by a third party to ensure the best quality and effectiveness. All products are also tested in-house before their release. Their mission is for clients to know they are committed to a holistic approach to health and wellness. Conclusion: there is a product suited for everyone`s need with honesty and authenticity in everything they do, so clients can rest assured that they are in good hands when they shop with Platinum Natural. Are you ready to go organic?
Effi Mai Paul
Effi Mai is a content creator from the UK who works with businesses to come up with creative, inventive, and sometimes unconventional ideas to help them flourish. With a background in digital strategy and writing, she has worked with a variety of companies to assist with their social media and written content to grow their customer base. Effi states “Marketing your business should be exciting, and you should enjoy every part of the journey!”
She is the co-founder of Six20Two, an agency focusing on experimental hands-on marketing, and since setting it up in Oct 2020, has clients in the UK, Europe, and the US. “Polished marketing doesn’t work anymore; social media is all about living in the moment. I always try different ideas; sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but that’s how you are disruptive. Always have a set plan, but have the space to be adventurous.”
Sabrina Macchio
Sabrina is a young and ambitious New York native. As the Founder and CEO of By Sabrina Jade, her goal is to build a brand full of authenticity, versatility, comfort, and confidence. “Make it posh and keep it real” is Sabrina’s motto. Sabrina had the vision to create a garment that can be worn on and off shift. She got to work and in under 6 months, she did just that. By Sabrina Jade’s first line features two jumpsuits, The Loren and The Jolie. The best part, everything is created in the heart of New York City. Sabrina is also the president of The Gino Macchio Foundation. The GMF is actively making strides to restore our waterways and has an incredible program, “Put Recovery To Work” where they assist those in recovery with job placement. Sabrina is extremely goal-oriented and ready to show the world what she has up her sleeves.
Dewnya Bakri Bazzi
As a: Muslim; female; CEO; Lawyer; Serial Entrepreneur; Mom; Wife; and Business Coach, Dewnya thrives on helping people find and create solutions to evolve.
Dewnya became determined to make a difference in the Personal Injury world after seeing her brother suffer from serious injuries from a motor vehicle accident. Specifically, her passions grew to serve those who were injured, fight insurance companies, and help fix inefficiencies in health care.
Her drive for entrepreneurship and growth plays a large factor in her law firm AT Law Group is able to scale to over 50+ employees and over 8 figures in revenue. Dewnya is well versed in what it takes to build a sustainable, powerful, and scalable infrastructure. She finds great joy in being able to teach her frameworks and experience with those who are driven to grow. She recently launched an online university, dewnya.com with its motto being “the world is yours – now go get it.“
Lowree Tynes
Ashley Barnett
Ashley is the Owner and Lead Stylist of Pink Swan, a clothing boutique and personal styling company located in central Florida. Pink Swan’s mission is to assist women to authentically express themselves through fashion and to be confident themselves. Pink Swan gives back to the community by donating a percentage of profits every Tuesday to a different nonprofit.
Ashley opened Pink Swan during the height of the pandemic. During this time, she experienced many joys and challenges that come along with creating and scaling a business. Ashley created a community for female entrepreneurs called Boss Babes Florida with the goal to establish a collective of ambitious and successful women who inspire and learn from one another. This organization is dedicated to empowering female entrepreneurs by helping them connect, collaborate, and learn.
Ashley serves on the boards of several local and state nonprofits, she is an award-winning photographer with work featured in Uploader Magazine and at a Smithsonian affiliated museum, Polk Museum of Art. Ashley is a new mother to a beautiful six-month girl and is currently finishing her S.J.D., the Ph.D. equivalent in Law, at Emory University School of Law.
Gabrielle Dellys
Gabrielle is the Founder of Wrapt About, an online gifting and wish list platform that improves the way people gift. Her mission is three-fold; help people give and receive gifts that will truly be enjoyed, reduce the waste of gifts that ‘miss the mark’, and promote eco-friendly gift wrapping alternatives. Gabrielle developed Wrapt About in the background, while working her way up in the beauty industry, from local beauty therapist to digital marketer at online giant, Adore Beauty.
In 2019, Gabrielle placed third at the Google for Startups ‘Techstars’ event in New York and has received awards of excellence in both Marketing & Communications and Beauty Therapy. Backed by private investors and supported by a small team, Gabrielle is an ambitious business owner and proud female entrepreneur, attributing her success to her dedication, unwavering passion, and resilient mindset. For Gabrielle, this is just the beginning of great things to come.
Kristy Kilcup
Kristy Kilcup is a Certified Health, Life, and Mastery Transformation Coach who has been supporting her clients through their weight loss, mental health, self-care, and self-acceptance journey for almost 30 years. Her vision is to facilitate a sustainable lifestyle by introducing critical behavioral changes to create better health outcomes and holistic wellbeing.
Her Health and Wellness Coaching services and programs for sustainable lifestyle habit change focus on preventive, proactive wellness and health. Harnessing her experience, skillsets and education Kristy takes the approach of blending scientific rigor with holistic self-care, emphasizing the need to focus on psychology and physiology. Her programs are curated to address mental and physical challenges such as self-sabotaging behaviours, lack of motivation, not making oneself a priority, and high blood sugar, chronic stress, high blood pressure, and cholesterol. Kristy is also known for working 1:1 with her clients to expedite results by re-igniting motivation, dedication and unearthing the resilience that lives inside each of them.
Jessicka Anne
CaraJoy Nash
CaraJoy helps entrepreneurs around the world become a better version of themselves, so they can conquer what it is they desire. She experienced overwhelm, procrastination, and avoidance in her early years of being an entrepreneur, but determined to make her business work, CaraJoy used a unique blend of neuroscience, the psychology of self-discipline, and micro behaviors, to overcome what was holding her back. The result… She became an award-winning social media agency owner, entrepreneurship educator, and micro behavior revolutionary.
CaraJoy has worked with countless women who have a side hustle or new business, and customarily they haven’t had any (or much) business or entrepreneur training. So in 2020, she created an innovative learning movement for women whose income, daily routine, and lifestyle are directly tied to their efforts, especially those working in today’s chaotic and sometimes lonely environment. CaraJoy believes in building the business of your dreams without the stress and tears.
Lamia Mrabet
Born and raised in Tangier, Morocco, Lamia Mrabet has always been surrounded by the delicious aroma of Mediterranean cuisine. Naturally, this led to an interest in cooking and experimenting with different flavors at a very young age. When Mrabet eventually left Tangier and came to the US, she was astonished by the near nonexistence of authentic Moroccan flavors and decided to take it upon herself to share this beauty with the American people.
She started her own Moroccan spice company in 2019 under the alias, The Queen of Spice. Her wonderfully fragrant and tasteful spice mixes bring the flavor of not only Morocco but many other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries to everyone’s table.
Today you can find Lamia’s spices for purchase online at thequeenofspice.com where she also provides perfect recipes for you and your loved ones to enjoy because “Breaking bread together is like a promise that you will be faithful to that other person, it’s a sacred bond.”
Arezou Zarafshan
Arezou Zarafshan is an immigrant, an accomplished business leader, an entrepreneur, a mom, and a strong influencer within the community of entrepreneurs and founders. While she has had numerous executive-level positions in large and multi-national corporations, it is the world of startups that has become her new calling. Passionate about helping working parents, especially working moms, having thriving careers without sacrificing family life, Arezou founded Call Emmy; a double-sided technology marketplace that connects busy families to hyperlocal and qualified household service providers. Call Emmy has had immense success in Colorado and Arezou plans to scale the company nationally starting in 2023.
Additionally, Arezou is a mentor and coach to a number of startup founders and small business owners. She helps founders and entrepreneurs navigate the path of uncertainty with confidence and determination. Arezou’s favorite slogan is: “If not now, then when?” Arezou was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business in Colorado in July of 2021.
Hacia Atherton
As an entrepreneurial trail-blazer in courageous leadership, Hacia is dedicated to transforming corporate management to embody vulnerability, compassion, and empathy as part of the new paradigm for dynamic industry leaders. Passionate about Positive Psychology, she empowers leaders to expand their remarkable potential, while creating psychologically safe and thriving workplaces for all.
Hacia motivates people to triumph over life’s challenges through her Courage Coaching and Speaking. As Founding Director of Empowered Women in Trades, she’s revolutionizing how trade-based industries in Australia attract, support, and retain female careers within skilled trades. Hacia’s transformational ideology was developed after she sustained crushing injuries in a life-threatening equestrian accident. Being told she may never walk again in any meaningful way, she realized that success is a relative concept, which must constantly be redefined, and that advancement in life is primarily based on one’s ability to implement incremental goals, which, when achieved, aggregate into forward-propelling milestones.
Shiwon Green
Shiwon Green is the galloping housewife. She writes content to inspire, inform and entertain, hoping to impart some of the lessons learned over an extraordinary life and encourage other middle-aged galloping housewives to find the superpower in their own brand of ordinary.
In a world full of perfectly plastic people, she is an ordinary middle-aged woman who happened to represent her country in international competition while raising two kids and working as a part-time nurse, and who transformed her fortunes from drowning in debt as an illegal immigrant to owning two successful businesses.
She uses humor and story to convey her belief that women of a certain vintage are the ones who will save the world by helping themselves, their families, their communities, and our global society heal, prosper, and thrive.
Uzma Naqvi
Uzma Naqvi is a Qualified Holistic Transformation Life Coach and a Practitioner of Neuro-linguistic Programming and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Her list of achievements also includes practicing Thought Field Therapy, Ho’oponopono certified as well as many other personal development certifications.
Uzma is a Founder of a Global Non-Profit Organization, Club 313 which is dedicated to Youth Empowerment. Uzma Naqvi has dedicated her career to enriching and transforming women’s lives and empowering their choices with her proactive approach.
The mother-of-four believes people tend to lose the value of themselves and their dreams during various stages of their life and have a hard time identifying the right pathway. Individuals these days even when faced with new opportunities get caught in a conundrum of second-guessing every little thing and over-analyzing the situation. To prove to everyone that there surely is a light at the end of the tunnel, she has introduced a year-long step-by-step program called “The Universe Within You” – a Holistic Transformational Program. The program is designed to walk individuals through a complete transformation systematically in every area of their life while giving a crystal clear vision in every sphere, helping them realize the purpose of life and connecting them spiritually.
Rose Gibson
Saima Shaheen
Saima Shaheen is a skilled, licensed Master Esthetician with over 1200 hours of training and continuous education and 15 years of experience as a senior Master Esthetician.
In 2020 and during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, She took a gutsy move and launched Suraya Beauty Lounge Inc., a thriving business tailored to serve females of all ages and backgrounds. A major focus of Saima’s young venture is to have a positive impact on the surrounding community and support its needs by holding seminars, fundraising, providing donations, and strengthening the bonding and the support with all the women-owned small businesses in the area.
Saima is determined to positively influence the way females to feel about themselves and take care of their skin health and maintain their beauty. In 2021 she obtained her second license as a permanent make-up artist.
Catherine Griffin
Catherine Griffin is the founder and CEO of ImpactableX provides the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and impact funds with a control center for impact measurement and management. Her groundbreaking approach democratizes access to validated, research-driven analytics, and helps drive capital to the social innovations with the greatest potential for impact at scale.
Prior to launching ImpactableX, Catherine served as Managing Director at an award-winning impact accelerator, where she worked with The Obama Administration, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Wharton among others to build multiple global, cross-sector innovation consortiums designed to catalyze and accelerate the application of new technologies to address the world’s most pressing challenges. Her work has been featured in Forbes and the New York Times, among others
Catherine serves as a lecturer at Wharton, an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a judge for leading pitch competitions nationwide, She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Hayley Bohan
Hayley Bohan, an award-winning marketer with over twenty years in progressively senior marketing roles. During her career, she’s worked with hundreds of brands including Canadian favorites, Moose Light, Alexander Keith’s, and Swiss Chalet. In 2017, she launched her own marketing company, Marketing on Purpose that has already helped over 100 small business owners take their marketing to the next level. Her programs are curated for small business owners to discover their secret sauce for winning the hearts of their most ideal customers and generating the results they desire. Hayley’s goal is to help entrepreneurs find the foundation on which meaningful brand strategies can be built that can drive the business forward.
Her proactive approach helps her empower her clients to harness the power of vulnerability and authenticity to build a better, more profitable, and more relatable brand. With her expertise, numerous entrepreneurs, executives, and business owners navigate the waters of what to do, and in the right order. The thread of her success came from her entrepreneurial mindset and passion for solving problems.
Final Thoughts
These women disruptors are not only serving as an example for aspiring women entrepreneurs but with their unrelenting spirit and passion to achieve anything, they are breaking the stereotypes and inspiring the revolution in the male-dominated business world.
