Megan Grassell

Women in WyomingWyomingWyoming is a U.S. state, the ninth largest by area, with its capital at Cheyenne. Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890, as the 44th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 576,851 residents.Open the full entry writes that she grew up on a ranch in Pinedale, Wyoming, and later lived in Jackson. Big Life Magazine writes that she moved from Pinedale to Jackson Hole in middle school to continue ski racing; Pinedale Online! described her in March 2015 as a former Pinedale resident whose family then lived in Jackson; KIFI Local News 8 called her a Jackson Hole native in 2014.⁠[1][2][3][4]

In the 2019 Mixergy interview she said that she grew up in Jackson and on a ranch, worked on the ranch in summers and also bussed and waited tables. Fortune wrote in 2014 that she had saved money from summer jobs since sixth or seventh grade, first pumping gas and later bussing tables and waitressing at a restaurant called Nora’s.⁠[5][6]

From 2002 to 2014 she was in the alpine program of the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club. In the Mixergy interview she said that she had given about 15 years of her life to competitive ski racing, with the goal of making the U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry ski team and going to the Olympics. Fast Company describes her as a nationally ranked FIS ski racer; Big Life Magazine writes that in 2014, as a high school senior, she was Wyoming’s state champion in slalom and giant slalom, beating both boys and girls in her season’s last ski race.⁠[7][8][5][9][2]

Fast Company writes that she gave up her Olympic dream to focus on Yellowberry; Big Life Magazine writes that as a senior she had an Olympic dream; she said, “I loved ski racing so much, I didn’t want to stop.” In the Mixergy interview she said that Yellowberry filled the “massive void” left when her ski racing career ended; Ski Racing wrote in 2016 that she said ski racing taught her that things “don’t happen overnight.”⁠[9][2][5][10]

At 17, as a high school junior, she took her younger sister, Mary Margaret, shopping for her first bra and found that the options for girls of that age were either padded or push-up styles; she said, “Nothing was realistic to her body. It all just looked the same – padded and push-up.” CTV News places the trip “last March,” and Pinedale Online! in 2013. CTV News, Fast Company, The Middlebury Campus, girlshealth.gov, Teen Vogue and Big Life Magazine give her sister’s age at the time as 13; in the 2019 Mixergy interview she said 12.⁠[11][1][12][9][13][14][5][3][15][2]

Women in Wyoming writes that the only choices for her sister were a leopard-print push-up bra or a sports bra. Teen Vogue writes that the trip reminded her of her own first bra fitting: she recalled that a woman had measured her and then sent her into a dressing room with a box of bras, and that she later watched the same thing happen to her sister.⁠[1][15]

CTV News writes that a week after the shopping trip her father gave her, as a gag prize, an expensive women’s bra that he had won in a downhill ski race; she liked its soft fabric and its lack of underwire and back clasp, and said, “I had an epiphany,” deciding to make bras for girls. In the Mixergy interview she said that her father had won the bra in a raffle at an adult ski league.⁠[12][5]

She does not sew; she made the first patterns with a seamstress in Jackson, using paper patterns, with her sister and her sister’s friends as fit models. CTV News writes that she and her mother began working with the local seamstress in April, and Forbes writes that her mother helped turn her sketches into samples. Fast Company writes that the earliest prototypes were made of sailing fabric and that she obtained fabric and strap samples from companies in Los Angeles and Seattle; in the Mixergy interview she said that she had ordered the sailboat fabric by mistake.⁠[14][5][12][16][9]

Yellowberry’s website states that she started with a hand-drawn sketch and $4,000 saved from bussing tables; in the Mixergy interview she said that the $4,000 was her life savings, enough for 400 bras at $10 a unit. ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry writes that she first funded prototypes with money earned pumping gas and waiting tables, and that retail shops turned her down because they did not want to work with a “high school kid.” Fast Company names her mentor as Steve Sullivan, founder of the Jackson-based outdoor apparel company Stio.⁠[11][5][16][9]

On the year the company was founded, Aerie’s 2015 press release, the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club’s profile and Honest Ecommerce’s episode description give 2013, while Forbes’s 2017 article and Raising a Powerful Girl’s episode description give 2014. Total Retail’s podcast page says that she started the online brand at age 14 from her home in Wyoming, Pinedale Online! says that she started it at 18 as she was finishing high school, and Yellowberry’s website, Fortune and others give 17.⁠[17][7][8][18][19][20][6][3][11]

In the Mixergy interview she said that she found a factory through GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry, which made the first 400 bras in two styles and two colors each, arriving in January 2014, and that the website went live about a year after she had the idea. Teen Vogue writes that she found small manufacturers in Los Angeles through Google and began selling through her website in January 2014; Ski Racing also dates Yellowberry’s online launch to January 2014. Fortune, for its part, writes that she found the Los Angeles factory through a contact in her hometown of Jackson Hole, that her mother vetted it, and that it had a low minimum order and could scale up with demand.⁠[5][15][10][6]

She said in the interview that her father bought the first bra about 30 seconds after the site went live; early buyers were mostly family and friends, and before the crowdfunding campaign she had sold only about 10 bras. She said the prices on the website, including shipping, were $38 and $42, with a target margin of 50 percent.⁠[5]

CTV News writes that her 30-day Kickstarter campaign went live on March 7 with a goal of $25,000, reached the target within a week and raised nearly $42,000 in total; Fortune calls it one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for an underwear or lingerie start-up. KIFI Local News 8 writes that the campaign raised $25,000 in three days in March; Teen Vogue writes that she reached the $25,000 goal within weeks. Fast Company writes that a Lingerie Talk post about the campaign went viral and that the first stock sold out in days.⁠[12][6][4][9][15]

In the Mixergy interview she said that the campaign raised nothing in its first four or five days (Forbes in 2017 gives about $100 in the first several days and full funding within 24 hours of a post going up); she emailed about 200 people, one of whom shared it with the A Mighty Girl community, and the campaign was then fully funded within a 24-hour period. She said that the campaign offered nothing different and the bras were actually more expensive than on her website, which was “textbook what you’re not supposed to do.”⁠[5][18]

CTV News writes that she learned of the campaign’s success on a school trip to Guatemala, received hundreds of pledge emails and cried on the hotel floor; in the Mixergy interview she said it was a 10-day Habitat for Humanity trip and that when she landed the total stood at about $15,000.⁠[12][5]

Fortune’s article of April 22, 2014 states that she, then 18 and a high school senior, offered four bra styles, two of them named “Bug Bite” and “Tiny Tetons,” in a cotton-spandex blend with no underwire, meant to bridge the gap between children’s undershirts and adult bras; the product had completely sold out and she was filling back orders. The article calls it a one-woman company; she said her mother had recently been helping her and that her biggest challenge was still being a full-time student; she said, “Yellowberry gives girls the idea that they don’t have to grow up so quickly.” The article compares her to Rookie editor Tavi Gevinson and Spanx founder Sara BlakelySara BlakelySara Blakely (born February 27, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist who founded the shapewear brand SPANX and footwear brand SNEEX. She launched SPANX in 2000, sold a majority stake while retaining ownership in 2021, introduced SNEEX in 2024 and entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2026.Open the full entry.⁠[6]

CTV News writes that the “Tweetheart” style came in blue/green or pink/yellow and the “Tiny Teton” in solid blue or purple, with prices of about $30 to $43 on the website and shipping to Canada available; the original order of a few hundred bras had tripled, the website was expected to be fully restocked by May 15, and the company planned nude, mocha and white bras and two new styles. Some critics called the price of about $40 too high; she said that it was hard to avoid because the company was young and the product was made entirely in the United States, and that she hoped to lower prices eventually: “I want Yellowberry bras to be available to everyone who can afford to buy a bra.”⁠[12]

Fast Company writes that the products sold for $29.95 to $42.95 and were made in the United States, with the “Bug Bite,” “Tiny Teton” and “Tweetheart” styles available for pre-order to ship in May. She designed and photographed the products herself, using friends of hers and of her sister in Jackson as models; she had hired someone to help build the website, worked on the company early in the morning and after school, had moved production to a facility in Los Angeles with a professional pattern writer, and planned underwear as the next step. The article also notes that Madison Kimrey, a 12-year-old from North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state in the South Atlantic region of the United States; its capital is Raleigh and its largest city is Charlotte. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on November 21, 1789, becoming the 12th state, and its population in the 2020 census was 10,439,388.Open the full entry, named her as a feminist role model for her generation in an open letter to Phyllis Schlafly.⁠[9]

In the Mixergy interview she said that the company had “thousands of back orders,” that orders piled up in the family living room and that her mother began packing boxes; the Today Show, Good Morning America and The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American morning daily newspaper published in New York City. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company.Open the full entry covered her, and she said none of that coverage was paid for. Middlebury College also mentions The New York Times article.⁠[5][21]

Fortune wrote in April that she had been accepted to Middlebury College and might defer for a year; Fast Company and CTV News wrote that she was deferring her admission to the VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital is Montpelier and its largest city is Burlington. It joined the Union on March 4, 1791, as the 14th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 643,077.Open the full entry college for one year. Forbes wrote in September that she had just graduated from high school. girlshealth.gov writes that Yellowberry began in her last year and a half of high school and grew into more than a hobby in her final semester, during which her grades dropped from almost all A’s to Bs and Cs; she said, “I chose to try really hard to do one thing really well.”⁠[6][9][12][16][14]

Jenny Walton, the author of the Big Life Magazine article, writes that she first met Megan Grassell at the Pitch Day of Silicon Couloir, a Jackson nonprofit that fosters entrepreneurship in the Tetons, in the summer of 2014. KIFI Local News 8 writes that she spent 12 hours a day in the office that summer while her friends enjoyed their last summer before college, that in seven months the company had grown into a staffed office, and that her mother, Lynn, and Jenny Francis, who handled marketing, design and customer service, were part of the company.⁠[2][4]

Forbes contributor Cheryl Conner writes that she met Megan Grassell, then 19, at an energy summit in Jackson Hole; Grassell declined to share revenue figures and said she wanted to take the venture “as far as I possibly can.”⁠[16]

In October 2014 TIMETIMETIME is an American newsmagazine and media brand founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, which published its first issue on March 3, 1923; it is headquartered in New York and known for its Person of the Year selection and the TIME100 list. Since 2018 it has been personally owned by Marc and Lynne Benioff; its current Chief Executive Officer is Jessica Sibley, and its Editor-in-Chief is Sam Jacobs.Open the full entry named her, then 19, to “The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014”; Wyoming Public Media notes that the list also included Malia Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, and KIFI Local News 8 also mentions Lorde. She said, “It’s really humbling, because I haven’t thought of myself as being influential in any way.”⁠[22][4][21]

Wyoming Public Media writes that Yellowberry’s products then included styles such as “Tiny Tetons” and “Ladybug,” that it had a full online store, and that she hoped one day to expand the line into underwear, loungewear and swimwear; she saw bras as a good starting point for building girls’ confidence at a time of great physical and emotional change.⁠[22]

Middlebury College wrote on October 15, 2014 that she was an incoming student who would start in February. The Middlebury Campus lists her as “’18.5” (a Febmester, starting in February) and writes that she was then working full time on the company’s marketing and branding, planned to keep working in some capacity after arriving and to hire an employee to manage social media and new projects; Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles said her application stood out to the admissions committee and that “She had Middlebury written all over her.”⁠[21][13]

The Middlebury Campus also writes that Yellowberry’s styles then included “Junebug” and “Sugar Cookie,” that she was working with several department stores to carry the line for the 2015 back-to-school season, and that in October 2014 she finalized a first licensing agreement with Aerie, a brand of American Eagle Outfitters.⁠[13]

girlshealth.gov, a site of the Office on Women’s Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published an interview with her, then 19, in February 2015; it states that she planned to attend Middlebury College in Vermont and was taking a gap year to develop the business, that she handled the company’s social media, marketing and branding, and that Yellowberry’s products had been made by a manufacturer in CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry from the start, with the company then moving to larger facilities. She called starting a company “completely addictive,” said she wanted Yellowberry to be the brand younger girls turn to when buying bras, and calls her customers “Berries.”⁠[14]

On March 26, 2015 Aerie announced Aerie for Yellowberry, a limited-edition collaborative bra collection for girls aged 11 to 15, in the styles “Lil’ Sis,” “Fresh Picked” and “Freebird,” priced at $29.95 to $34.95 and sold only on aerie.com. The release describes her as a 19-year-old entrepreneur and Yellowberry as a start-up intimates brand founded in 2013 through a Kickstarter campaign; Aerie brand president Jennifer Foyle said that “every girl should be confident and comfortable,” and that proceeds from the collection would support Megan Grassell and Yellowberry’s entrepreneurial spirit and their message of positive body image.⁠[17][3][2]

In the Mixergy interview she said that the partnership came about a year after the first wave of press coverage, through an email from Aerie president Jen Foyle, that it covered nine products over a six-month term, and that the trip it brought was only her second time ever in New York City. Teen Vogue writes that she said being contacted by Aerie felt surreal, that her biggest challenge had been being too young to be taken seriously and having no support system at first, and that her long-term vision was for Yellowberry to be where girls buy their first bras and stay until they are ready to move on, possibly much bigger in 15 years.⁠[5][15]

Big Life Magazine writes that she was living in ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry in March 2015 and that by August she had moved to Brooklyn to run the company from there; she described sharing a “tiny, teacup apartment” in Brooklyn with a roommate. She said that she launched the company’s new website by switching it to ShopifyShopifyShopify is a commerce software company that originated in Ottawa, Canada, providing merchants with tools for online stores, physical retail, payments, orders and inventory management. The business began with Snowdevil, an online snowboard store founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke and others, and the standalone e-commerce platform launched in 2006. The company went public in 2015 and now trades under the ticker SHOP on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange.Open the full entry at 1:00 in the morning. Ski Racing writes that until August 2015 Yellowberry sold only four bras.⁠[2][10]

In January 2016 Forbes named her, then 20, to its “30 Under 30” list for retail and e-commerce; Latin Post writes that she was the youngest person on the list and that Yellowberry’s anti-Victoria’s Secret aesthetic had led to the collaboration with Aerie.⁠[23][2]

Ski Racing wrote on May 20, 2016 that she would turn 21 in August 2016, had recently moved to New York City, and had received Wyoming’s 2016 Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration; it states that she chose not to attend Middlebury College in order to focus on her business.⁠[10]

The article states that Yellowberry then offered 15 bra styles, three underwear styles, leggings and loungewear, had sold only through its own website, and had moving into wholesale accounts as its main goal for 2016. She said the original question had been, “Where do girls go to buy their first bra? There wasn’t really a place for that.” She said that customers often describe their first bra shopping as overwhelming and negative, which makes her sad.⁠[10]

The Thiel Foundation announced the 29 Thiel Fellows of 2016 on June 21, 2016, chosen from more than 6,000 applications from around the world, each receiving $100,000 “to learn by doing.” The list gives her as “Megan Grassell (Jackson Hole, WY),” with the project Yellowberry in the category Apparel; the announcement states that she founded Yellowberry in high school when she realized that tween girls lacked age-appropriate options for a first bra, and that three years later the company had expanded beyond bras to underwear, loungewear and activewear.⁠[24]

Her Campus published an interview with her, then 20, on August 8, 2016. She said that she ran the company alone in its first year while learning how to build a business, and that about three years in the company was growing, with a fast pace and daily change. She said she had had no prior interest in fashion or retail and had not realized how long prototyping takes, about a year for a single bra; the lesson she drew was to listen to customers, especially when a marketing campaign or product does not perform as expected.⁠[25]

Forbes wrote on April 17, 2017 that as chief executive and founder she focused on the company’s vision, building the team and fundraising; the company had locations in Jackson and New York City, the team held daily video check-ins, and its first “real” office was in Chelsea, New York. It was working on a new website and a brand refresh and preparing for a Series A round; its products included bras, underwear and lounge and athletic-inspired apparel. She summed up the mission as “We’re the brand girls want to grow up with,” and said that her age was a challenge she dealt with every day.⁠[18]

In the Mixergy interview published on August 14, 2019 she said that Yellowberry had launched Yellowberry GO, an activewear line that included jackets for the first time, on the Monday of that week; its customers were mainly girls aged about 8 to 16, and its products included bras, sports bras, seamless styles and everyday basics. She said the company was in its sixth year, with a team of about 10 people, many working remotely, and that she was in Wyoming, where hiring was difficult.⁠[5]

She said that the first factory remained an important partner and that production also took place in Los Angeles, El Salvador, Vietnam, Israel and Peru, with some Asian factories through an agency; the first offshore shipment came with the wrong fabrics, colors and sizes, worth tens of thousands of dollars, lead times could be about six months, and inventory planning was a constant challenge. Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s came from her cold calls.⁠[5]

She said the company had no venture capital and had had private angel investors since about the time of the Kickstarter campaign; she would not share revenue figures, but when the host, Andrew Warner, asked whether it was a “multimillion dollar business,” she answered, “Absolutely. Yes.” She said about half of each month’s customers were returning customers.⁠[5]

She said that two or three years earlier a redesign of the website and logo with an outside team had moved the brand toward blue and away from the natural feel she wanted; at that time she could not sleep, lost weight and felt anxious, and she decided to stop the launch, calling it “an expensive learning curve.” She said that early on she had to work out basics such as the difference between marketing and branding, and that she was often the youngest person in the room by more than ten years.⁠[5]

Honest Ecommerce’s episode description of July 4, 2022 calls her the founder and chief executive of Yellowberry, whose products include bras, underwear, loungewear and activewear designed for girls; the episode covers being a teen entrepreneur, the challenges of moving past crowdfunding, the company’s software, inventory and cash-flow practices, supply-chain relationships, its marketing stack, its experience during COVID, and the challenges of being a young female founder.⁠[8]

Her mother, Lynn, was her partner in the early years; Big Life Magazine writes that the two worked 18-hour days together, and in 2019 she said that her mother was still her partner. She has described her mother as a realist who wanted her to have a backup plan for her skiing; Big Life Magazine writes that her father had predicted that she would forgo college. She said in 2014 that her parents are entrepreneurs.⁠[2][4][5][16]

In Teen Vogue in 2015 and in the 2019 Mixergy interview she spoke of losing her younger sister Caroline long ago; she said that after Caroline died, Caroline’s godparents wrote a list of ten phrases that captured her, which later became the mantras on Yellowberry’s tags.⁠[15][5][16]

Big Life Magazine writes that she faced mean-girl treatment in high school and, as a founder, patronizing remarks from older businessmen; on not going to college she said, “It was my decision; I made it, and I stuck with it, and my parents supported it.” In the Mixergy interview she said that she did a lot of barrel racing and pole bending in her day.⁠[2][5]

She says the company name comes from the yellow stages berries pass through before they ripen, which “happen naturally, often awkwardly, and shouldn’t be rushed,” like girls growing up. Fortune gives the company’s motto at the time as “From the bunny hills to the Tetons, we have you covered.”⁠[13][14][6]

Yellowberry’s website lists six mantras sewn into its products: “Water the flowers every day,” “Love the outdoors and nature,” “Go barefoot,” “Love all creatures,” “Seek and find a hug when you need one” and “Campfires are rare; eat as many marshmallows as you can.”⁠[26]

Big Life Magazine writes that she shot the company’s first catalogue with the family friend and photographer Kristina Loggia, using friends as models, and chose to shoot all of the girls from the back; she said it was “the best way to photograph and portray a young girl in a conscientious and age-appropriate way” that is not exploitive.⁠[2]

Besides the honors from TIME, Forbes and the U.S. Small Business Administration, she was named one of The Huffington Post’s “14 Most Fearless Teens” of 2014 and one of Yahoo’s “24 Millennials to Watch” of 2015. The Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club lists among the outlets that have featured her the TODAY Show, The New York Times, Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, Seventeen and Teen Vogue; Women in Wyoming writes that she has also appeared on Good Morning America.⁠[7][11][1]

She is an alumna and board member of the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club, served on Mattel’s first-ever Barbie Global Advisory Board, and is an active member of Pulse, the newly created St. John’s Youth Hospital Board.⁠[7][8]

She was interviewed by Total Retail editor-in-chief Melissa Campanelli in episode 79 of Total Retail Talks, recorded at the Total Retail Talks Live! event in New York City; the episode page states that the company had grown by double digits every year. On October 9, 2017 she was the guest of episode 37 of Joanne Wilson’s Gotham Gal podcast, which covered what inspired the business, the decisions she had made and her plans for the company; on April 25, 2018 she was a guest on Maria Fuller’s podcast Raising a Powerful Girl.⁠[20][27][19]

On the Women in Wyoming podcast she said that Wyoming fosters the traits it takes to become an entrepreneur, saying, “When you grow up in a place where there are no rules, there are also no boundaries.” The episode page gives her age then as 22 and states that Yellowberry had partnered with American Eagle and had recently been picked up by an unnamed, well-known nationwide retailer.⁠[1]

She advises girls who want to start businesses to start now rather than wait for the perfect time, education or product: “Do not let any excuses stop you.” She also recommends seeking advice, asking questions, accepting criticism and surrounding oneself with smart advisors. She said in 2016, “You should always ask for help. The worst answer someone can give you is ‘no.’”⁠[14][25]

Forbes writes that she sees leadership as taking “Optimism and grit,” and that in decisions one should “Listen to your gut because if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.” Teen Vogue writes that she advises teens starting businesses to stay true to their vision and trust their instincts. Comparing ski racing with business, she said, “You can win three days in a row and on the fourth day, you’re 20th,” and she said that she is “definitely not the smartest person doing this,” so she stays humble and eager to learn.⁠[18][15][10]

Yellowberry: Official website: https://www.yellowberrycompany.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[28]

Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club: Official website: https://jhskiclub.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]