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

“If you don’t swing the bat, you’ll never hit a home run,” says Hannah Lavon. “Life is too short. No regrets.”Keeping it sunny side up is the mantra at Hooray Hoopla, Lavon’s fun product development and gift company based in New York. Founded in 2007 with her then-girlfriend (now business partner) Ashley Connors, Hooray Hoopla began with a line of kitschy-cool paper products. But an overly-amorous guy at a bar gave Lavon the push to go after her next creation (after she rejected his advances, of course): the popular Predator vs. Prey animal mittens. The whimsical pairs of dueling animals—for example, Whale vs. Fish or Lion vs. Gazelle—has taken off; maybe you’ve seen the mittens featured on CNN Money, Daily Candy and AOL Small Business. This winter, Hooray Hoopla is launching a highly anticipated kid’s product line and just launched a new Web site, vsmittens.com. What’s the secret to her success? “Always be friendly,” says Lavon. “If people think you are a genuine person and like what you do, they will have no problem hooking you up with a friend to help out.”