Female Disruptors: Hannah Serimian of Boxy Girl On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Grace. Grace to me is the feeling that you get when you’re in the pocket. When your circumstances and surroundings come together with the synchronicity and seamlessness that feels right. I strive for grace in all of my engagements, which comes from a place of offering grace and in possessing the continence of grace.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hannah Serimian.
Hannah Serimian is the female founder of Boxy Girl, a lifestyle brand that offers home organization and beauty solutions that inspire women to live authentic, intentional lives.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’m a third-generation entrepreneur and I grew up working in and around all aspects of business. Being an entrepreneur and innovator is part of the fabric of my identity. I have a background in marketing and sales and majored in communications at Fresno State University. I am passionate about creating products for women and I’m constantly thinking about solutions and products that can improve my daily routines and compliment my consumer’s lifestyle. It’s the mission for Boxy Girl and the Boxy Girl brands to create thoughtfully curated and innovative product lines, ranging from organic skincare to organization solutions for the home.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Being a woman in business is disruptive. Being a female founder is disruptive. Just look at the data. Look at the pay gap. Forbes recently stated there’s still a $189 billion gender gap in startup funding. Further, I’m defending my intellectual property through the court system in a David vs. Goliath battle over my trademark name with large, dominant firms in order to protect and preserve what we create and offer the world. I hope to disrupt our current case law and cut a path for other small businesses and female founders.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Going through a meeting while calling a person by the wrong name. The person didn’t correct me, and I was very embarrassed to learn of my mistake afterwards. This taught me that you need to be prepared for your audience — whether it be a customer, press/media, or any professional relationship. Do your research. Try to get as much information as possible to prepare yourself and go into these meetings knowing who’s sitting in front of you. It helps make the engagement you’re having with that audience more substantive and meaningful.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My Grandma Avie. While my grandfather was serving in World War Two, my grandmother worked nights at a bakery and attended college at Fresno State University during the day to get her teaching credential. She was the primary breadwinner of the household. Subsequently, my grandfather got polio, and while raising two kids and caring for her husband, my grandmother was able to hold her family together. She was the cornerstone of building our family legacy that I’m so proud of today. Education and knowledge were very important to her, and I attribute my love of reading and learning to her example. She was a woman of grace and integrity with a fierce work ethic and passion for her family. I hope that my life and legacy will be as important for my children as hers has been for mine.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I would call our justice system an industry. It has become mechanized to serve the powerful and wealthy in order to advance their stronghold on the marketplace. Strong and aggressive reforms are needed in our judicial system, and aggressive accountability measures are needed for the judges and courts that preside over our judicial system. We must create disruption so the elite and powerful can no longer use our justice system for their benefit.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Keep going. My father tells me this daily. Despite what I’m facing, from difficult to impossible circumstances that I’m not sure I have the strength to overcome, my dad will simply say “keep going.”
Boss. Our society often associates the term boss to characterize masculine identity. Women are now taking ownership of the ideas and concepts that they can and will be boss. I am boss. Boss is powerful. Boss is aggressive. Boss is dominant. Boss is strong. When we make statements like that, they have a positive connotation for men but have negative connotations for women. Women are taking back the positive attributes of all that it means to be a boss.
Grace. Grace to me is the feeling that you get when you’re in the pocket. When your circumstances and surroundings come together with the synchronicity and seamlessness that feels right. I strive for grace in all of my engagements, which comes from a place of offering grace and in possessing the continence of grace.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Follow our journey with our current trademark litigation. Watch as we sit at tables we’ve never sat at. We’re going into rooms and realms we’ve never been in. The learning curve is very steep. Trademark law, antitrust, and general civil and federal litigation have historically been reserved for men, and as female founders, we are entering into a season of disruptive change for the benefit of every woman that has come before us and who will come after us. (LINK TO OUR OPEN LETTER ABOUT OUR TRADEMARK LITIGATION).
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Men have not been told and have not been exposed to how exhausting sexism and misogyny is in a woman’s everyday experience. I do not blame men for this. Our society must bring awareness to the fact that women are marginalized in every system today. Therefore, when women come to the table with their concerns and experiences, it is my experience that men lack understanding. This requires more comprehensive conversations between men and women about how to create disruptive change that in time, I believe, will greatly benefit our society as a whole.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Book: The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. I am an avid reader with a particular fondness for old books, and I am a collector of old literature. Kahlil Gibran is a poet from the early 19th Century, and his book The Prophet is broken up into short segments of topics related to our human experience. His use of language and ability to convey the deepest of human emotions through his construction of words is profound and illuminating.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Equality for women across the globe. In every society. In every culture. In every system. In every government institution. In every family system. In every home. In every marriage. Feminine and masculine equality.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You are enough.” When I am feeling overwhelmed with the daily demands of life, I have a practice of pausing and paying attention to my senses to center and ground myself. I pause, pay attention to my breathing, notice what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing, what I’m feeling, and in that moment, I remind myself that I am safe, I am held, and I am enough. Many of us may not have been told this as children or as adults. I have found this practice of awareness and self-acknowledgment to be very healing and beneficial in my journey as a woman, mother, and female founder.
How can our readers follow you online?
Instagram: @theboxyboss and @boxygirl
Facebook: Boxy Girl
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us
