How ‘Good Sam’ and ‘One Tree Hill’ Star Sophia Bush Uses Her Celebrity Status to Help Women in Business
When we launched First Women and when we launched First Strides, whenever I see people re-sharing those things online, sharing to feed and posting, it really does make a difference. When we create enough noise on social media, we can really drive a lot of eyeballs toward these initiatives and towards these incredible people. So, my goal is to continue to try to do the best I can to spend the privilege of my platform supporting all of these other women who are doing such good things in the world. And also, to remind people that whether your platform is five or 500, you can do that too.
Fresh from her primetime medical drama Good Sam and several recent movies, Sophia Bush continues her focus on improving the world for women in business.
In connection with American Business Women’s Day, (September 22), the actress, producer, social activist, and philanthropist is showing ongoing support for women interested in business and rallying her social media followers to support them.
Along with her continuing partnership with Johnnie Walker, she is highlighting the company’s IFundWomen to pay for $1 million in grants for women-owned businesses by 2030. She relishes being able to support women-owned businesses, especially as we head into the holiday season, the ideal time for gift-giving.
As a passionate trailblazer for equal rights, Sophia Bush has been working with Johnnie Walker since 2020 to bring forward more firsts for women through the First Women campaign, and now she is joining the brand for its First Strides initiative to help bring IFundWomen closer to their goal of issuing $1 million in grants for women-owned businesses. This is an open grant program to which women in business can still apply.
Bush is best known for her role as Brooke Davis in the fan-favorite WB/CW drama, One Tree Hill (2003–2012) and Erin Lindsay in the NBC police drama, Chicago PD (2014–2017.) Most recently she had the leading role of Dr. Samantha “Sam” Griffith in the CBS medical drama, Good Sam. The show ran for one season.
Her other roles include the movies, John Tucker Must Die, The Hitcher, The Narrows, Chalet Girl, Marshall, Act of Violence, and Incredibles 2.
Bush became involved in the First Women Campaign because of the inequities she saw that she believes needed to be rectified. It is clearly a passion project for her.
“When you look at how many businesses are started every day in America, largely by women, but we are fighting for such a small amount of investment dollars, we all look at that and say, ‘It’s unacceptable,’ ” Sophia Bush exclusively told Medium.
“So it’s been so incredible to fast-forward from our initial launch and to look at all of these arenas that we get to touch together. Not only to highlight the reality but to do something about it. And that’s what our partnership with IFundWomen is all about.”
There were many of us who wanted Good Sam to continue and were heartbroken when it was not picked up for Season 2!
Sophia Bush: Oh, I know. We all were. We all were sad. But also, I’ve got to be honest, it’s a pretty incredible thing to spend a year doing something that you really love.
I spoke to your co-star Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter franchise) on the last day of shooting and he said what an honor, privilege, and delight it was working with you. He called you a great model for everyone on the set.
Sophia Bush: He’s so lovely and very British, and so you have to pry compliments out of that man with a pair of pliers. Oh, thank you so much. This means a lot to me.
Today we’re talking about women-owned businesses and Johnnie Walker’s IFundWomen, and a bunch of other stuff. How you’re showing support for women who are interested in business and getting your followers to support the cause and to see you as a role model in this.
Sophia Bush: Well, you know, it’s amazing, I think back initially to our first venture together in 2018, raising funds for Johnnie Walker’s She Should Run to ensure that more women get elected to office.
All these years later, as we’ve looked around and continued to expand our work, the reality is that women are underrepresented everywhere. We’re underrepresented in the halls of government, we are underrepresented in tech companies, we’re underrepresented in academia, and we are certainly underrepresented in business, and particularly underfunded.
To us, we know that women need to be funded so that they can launch their businesses and make their dreams come true. And in any vertical that they want to work in, we believe that you’ve got to have a first in order to have a second, third, fourth, and fifth, and all the women who will come after her. So for us, on Women’s Equality Day, to be working as a team.
Lilly Singh, me, and everyone at Johnnie Walker, everyone at She Should Run, and everyone at IFundWomen, to be launching this First Strides initiative, the next phase of the first strides initiative feels really major.
Tell me about the video you created with Lilly Singh. What was that like?
Sophia Bush: Lilly is so amazing. I’m such a huge fan of hers and we just had a blast working together. We essentially wanted to create a short video that would make every woman we know go, “Yup, been there.”
We took so many of our own experiences in corporate spaces. We took stories from so many women who have chatted with us and chatted with so many of the women we work with about their experiences when they are in rooms where they are largely outnumbered and underrepresented. And we just thought we can do something that’s really funny, but that is also really true, and create an upbeat rallying cry to get so many people to join us in this call to action to support parity for women as business leaders.
Can you talk about the $1 million in grants and the support means to women who are starting businesses?
Sophia Bush: Yeah, it’s a wild thing, I know I mentioned it earlier, to realize how categorically underfunded women are. We are still so significantly underrepresented across the corporate ladder, and women who decide to start their own businesses are then less likely to receive funding. So it feels like we’ve got these barriers around us no matter what direction we turn in.
For us to be able to work with an incredible partner like Johnnie Walker, which is obviously under the umbrella of Diageo, so they can really move some money around. And to have them say, “We’re going to give you a million dollars,” it’s hard to fathom. It’s really not lost on me that we’ve been able to create programs like this together over the last five years because Sophie Kelly is in charge. Because for me and Lilly, we have a woman we get to reach out to, and call and text and say, “Have you heard this?” “Did you read this article?” and “Did you see what these women are facing?”
And her response is always, “Let’s do more. Let’s do better.” It’s a pretty incredible thing to realize what happens when women are in positions of power, especially when those positions of power mean that they have the ability to move financial capital around. We need more of that.
Please talk about some of your favorite women-owned businesses to support.
Sophia Bush: Oh, my goodness, especially now with the age of Instagram, there are just so many. There are women who, when I’m designing my home or helping friends design their homes, there are women across the country who I’m buying paintings from and quirky little antiques and tchotchkes that I found on Instagram. And then there are women like some of the folks who we’ve given grants to, who are changing their industries.
We gave a grant to these women at Green Buffalow who are making firefighter uniforms that are cut for women. All of these women who work to save our ecosystems have had to wear men’s clothes all this time. That’s wild. And you would think in 2022 that that wouldn’t be an issue, but it is.
I believe I’m allowed to talk about this because it’ll be announced tonight. We just gave a grant to some incredible women, also Pasadena locals like me, who started a company called Locatora Radio. That is a podcast network focused on women and focused on uplifting women of color, particularly the experience of Latin women in our society. And every show that they do, everything they work on, I’m just utterly in love with.
As a fellow podcaster, I know the work that it takes to do that and I’m so honored to be able to support them. And the list goes on and on. And I just think because there are so many businesses run by women that I love when people tell me they can’t find women to do things I go, “You’re just not looking hard enough, because we’re here.
So how can your fans, and followers, support some of these women-owned businesses? Especially during the holiday season when people are tending to buy more gifts and spend more money.
Sophia Bush: Yeah. Truly, IFundWomen is the go-to marketplace for women-owned businesses and the people who want to support them. With everything from access to capital, coaching, and connections. I would highly recommend checking them out and giving them a follow on Instagram. Obviously keeping tabs on what Johnnie Walker and I are doing together is super exciting whenever we launch a campaign.
When we launched First Women and when we launched First Strides, whenever I see people re-sharing those things online, sharing to feed and posting, it really does make a difference. When we create enough noise on social media, we can really drive a lot of eyeballs toward these initiatives and towards these incredible people. So, my goal is to continue to try to do the best I can to spend the privilege of my platform supporting all of these other women who are doing such good things in the world. And also, to remind people that whether your platform is five or 500, you can do that too.
Did you do anything fun or vacation after such a rigorous shooting schedule when things slowed down for a little while after Good Sam?
Sophia Bush: Oh, yeah, after the eight straight months of 17-hour days. Those were wild. I came home and had a couple of weeks of planning and then got married. So, it was a pretty incredible celebration and definitely a real pause from work. It was absolutely wonderful.
Did you go on a honeymoon?
Sophia Bush: Yes, we did, it was really lovely. I still owe people some updates from that, but we’ve just got a little too much going on at the moment. I’ll get around to posting honeymoon photos eventually.
Tell me about your little reunion on Good Sam with your One Tree Hill pals, Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton. That was fun.
Sophia Bush: It was wonderful. Hosting a podcast with Hilarie and Joy is such a highlight for the three of us. It felt like so much fun when we had this opportunity to have them come up and play with us. It was such a no-brainer. And that’s part of the fun of being an executive producer, is really at moments being able to say, “Hey, I think I know who we should cast in these two parts,” and people will actually take you seriously. It’s great.
After seeing all of you in other things, getting you back together again, that was really sweet.
Sophia Bush: Yeah, it was very sweet to feel all of that love, for sure.
Do you know what your next project is or what you have in mind?
Sophia Bush: Yeah, I do. Actually, I just wrapped a film called Junction, and I’m leaving in two weeks to go to Atlanta to shoot a film, and then I go up to Vancouver to shoot another film. So I’m pretty stacked through the end of the year but I’m trying to read television scripts and pilots when I can in between prepping for the films and doing the podcast.
Are there any more doctor roles in your future?
Sophia Bush: Oh gosh, I don’t know. I certainly loved it but it’s definitely not a requirement while I’m reading scripts; that’s for sure. I think one of the coolest things about working on Good Sam was just learning that we are alive in the greatest time for medicine. And what a relief that is, certainly.
For more information go to, First Strides campaign.
