Queer Women We Love, Red Hot Entrepreneurs, Wonder Women

Workin’ It 2011

September 19, 2011 Liz Gold

The Real L Word fans know Romi Klinger from her spot on the Showtime reality series, but this Pasadena, Calif.-born jewelry designer has lived a best-seller life since growing up in the care of two mothers and a father. Our cover girl has been a successful makeup artist, an apothecary buyer for Kitson, a co-creator of the famed lesbian event company PYT and a blogger at tenderomi.com. This year, Klinger and Vanessa Salazar founded HIJA Por Vida, a jewelry and accessories line exclusively sold through Love and Pride. Now solo, Klinger is moving forward with Casa Por Vida, her own jewelry brand inspired by Mexican and Native American designs. Her Web site, casaporvida.com, launches this month. “The best part of owning my own business is that I’m my own boss and I get a chance to do what I love,” Klinger says. “We make all these items by hand on our living room floors. So far, we’ve lost a lot of sleep—but, we’re hustlers and hard-workers. The fact is, when you believe in your product, work is a pleasure.”

2011’s Red Hot Entrepreneurs

After working as a network engineer in Oakland, Calif. for more than 10 years, Nenna Joiner was ready for a major career shift. “I worked for a few Fortune 500 companies. After several layoffs, I knew it wouldn’t hurt to do something for myself,” Joiner says. “When you decide, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ then you put everything and more into its success.” She saw the city’s downtown area, in the throes of “retail death,” as the perfect opportunity to open an adult novelty store. Joiner first conducted market research by selling adult products from boxes on street corners, bars and parking lots to find out what customers truly wanted. After developing a business plan, researching more than 20 spaces and working nonstop for five years, Joiner opened Feelmore510 Adult Gallery last February. Also an adult filmmaker (her first film Tight Places: A Drop of Color won a Feminist Porn Award in 2011), Joiner strives to reach people of color, a demographic she believes is overlooked in the adult industry. Her motto: “You must work your ass off, ‘cause you can sit on it later!”