How HelloGiggles' Founder Is Making the World a Positive Place

MYDOMAINE: Tell us about HelloGiggles and why you decided to build it.

SOPHIA ROSSI: We founded HelloGiggles in 2011 on the idea of establishing a safe little uplifting corner of the Internet that really catered to female audiences. At the time, the Internet was feeling very gossipy and snarky. It’s really easy to put negative thoughts out there on a medium that feels so anonymous, and we wanted to counteract that.

MD: Who is your target audience?

SR: We have a growing audience of 18 million unique monthly visitors. To put that in perspective, our new sister brand People magazine has an online audience of 20 million—so we’re big. Right now our audience is mostly young women, ranging from 18 to 34, averaging 26. She’s highly educated, highly mobile.

MD: How do you differentiate yourself from other female-oriented content platforms?

SR: As mentioned before, we’re really focused on positivity and on reflecting real women’s interests—beyond the obvious marketable areas of fashion and beauty, we try to be socially responsible—discussing positive body image, sexuality, gender studies, and the like.

Another major difference is our contributor-based model, which we expect to evolve in the future, but that model really allowed us to grow into what we are now. A lot of our best content comes from our readers. We’ve offered these voices a platform, and through doing so, we’ve established a solid community of writers and ideas.

Sophia Rossi is motivated by positivity. What are you motivated by? Share with us in the comments!