Sara Blakely

About

Sara Treleaven Blakely (born February 27, 1971) is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded Spanx, an intimate apparel company with pants and leggings, in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2024, Blakely created the footwear brand, Sneex.
In 2012, Blakely was named in Time magazine’s “Time 100” annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014, she was listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

== Early life and education ==
Blakely was born on February 27, 1971, in Clearwater, Florida. She is the daughter of Ellen (née Ford), an artist, and personal injury lawyer John Blakely. She has a brother, artist Ford Blakely. She attended Clearwater High School and graduated from Florida State University with a communication degree, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

== Early career ==
Although Blakely planned to become an attorney, she reconsidered after scoring very poorly on the Law School Admission Test; she instead accepted a job at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she worked for three months. She also occasionally worked as a stand-up comedian during this period.
After her short stint at Disney, Blakely accepted…