Sophia Michaels
Martha Stewart is a woman of all trades, but you already knew that. Before her meteoric rise to becoming a household name, she was already quite the hustler, having put herself through college by modeling. Vogue noted that she secured a steady gig that earned her $50 an hour modeling for brands like Chanel. After graduating from Barnard College with a degree in history and architectural history, she then scored a job as a stockbroker at Wall Street, which helped a great deal in honing her business acumen.
Stewart told People that she valued that experience as it allowed her to thrive in a traditionally male-dominated environment. She probably wouldn’t even have left that industry if she didn’t follow her true passion. “The most important of my early jobs was being a stockbroker, and I lasted in that business for about eight years, working in a firm of all men. Only one woman-owned a seat on the [New York Stock] Exchange at that time,” she recalled. “I had a very successful career in the stock market, and I sometimes regret not staying in that business, because becoming an investment banker would’ve been pretty fabulous. But I was lured to the home.”
