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Netflix's Girlboss Will Tell the Stories of "Beautifully F---ed-Up Women"

Watch the first teaser

liz-raftery.jpg
Liz Raftery

Netflix's new comedy Girlboss, based on the best-selling memoir by Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, will premiere April 21, Netflix announced Wednesday at a press event.

While the show is based on Amoruso's memoir, the story it tells will speak to flawed females of all walks of life, executive producer Charlize Theron said during a panel at the Wednesday event.

"Audiences are very much connecting with the truth about who women really are ... how beautifully f---ed-up we are," Theron said. "The days of living in the Madonna/whore complex are gone."

Girlboss stars Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland) as the central character, who is based on Amoruso, as she progresses from selling clothes on eBay to building a fashion empire. However, while Amoruso is serving as an executive producer, she's adopting a hands-off approach to the project. "If a show is being made about your life. I think the smartest thing is to kind of stay out of the way," she said Wednesday.

The comedy landed at Netflix after Theron and creator Kay Cannon, who also wrote the pilot, shopped it around to other outlets, meeting with mostly male executives who offered them suggestions such as changing the title and making the show more appealing to men. But they refused to budge, resolving to "let the show live in its authenticity and not be stifled by trying to fit into some type of formula." They decided to partner with Netflix, in part, because as Theron says: "We never had a moment where we were told, 'Revisit the language, don't let her sit with her legs open.'"

Theron said she was immediately drawn to the project after reading the book. "I'm a true believer that the future is female. We are over half the population, and yet ... we are treated as second-class citizens. I think we need more stuff like this out there," she said. "I love that there's something like that out there for young girls to watch. ... The young girl in me was kind of envious, and wished like she had something like that when she was in her 20s."

Girlboss premieres April 21 on Netflix.