Intermountain Ski Racer Solves Tween Activewear Troubles

Many successful entrepreneurs choose to launch a company over pursuing a college degree. Mark Zuckerberg famously dropped out of Harvard University and found incredible success with his startup. Who hasn’t heard of Facebook?

That’s what Megan Grassell, founder of Yellowberry, has decided to do, opting out of attending Middlebury College to focus instead on her rapidly growing business. The former Jackson Hole Ski Club racer – who turns 21 this August – recently moved to New York City to further develop her niche company.

Yellowberry sells training bras and other activewear items designed specifically for teen girls, an idea that Grassell hatched after she took her younger sister shopping for her first bra and noticed how young girls were being sold underwear that catered in style more to grown women than someone in junior high school.

“I’ve never really felt as proud as I do about Yellowberry with the exception of probably some accomplishments in ski racing,” Grassell says. “Because it’s really cool to have started something that didn’t exist three years ago. Where do girls go to buy their first bra? There wasn’t really a place for that.”

Grassell was named one of TIME Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Teens in 2014 and received Wyoming’s 2016 Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. She talks freely about how her experience as a ski racer has played into the development of her business savvy.

“Ski racing taught me that things
don’t happen overnight.”

“When you’re ski racing, whether you’re working out and going to the gym or maybe you’re being intense about your nutrition … it ultimately comes from you and how much effort you want to give. I think the same thing goes for the business. There are a lot of long nights in the office that no one else is ever going to see, but that doesn’t matter because things have to get done and there’s a lot of work to do,” says Grassell. “Also, ski racing taught me that things don’t happen overnight. Whether it’s ski racing or something that happens at Yellowberry, it might look like, ‘Oh, look at that. It just sort of came,’ but there were years of work and so many hours of effort that went into that one run or that one day.”

Yellowberry was launched online in January of 2014 alongside a Kickstarter campaign. “Until August of 2015, I had been selling four bras. There (were) a couple of different colors and things like that, but a very small assortment, which was challenging in terms of really growing,” admits Grassell. “If you go to yellowberrycompany.com now, there are 15 styles of bras, three styles of underwear, leggings and lounge. … A big focus for us this year is to move into wholesale accounts because previously everything has just been sold through the website.”

Customers of Yellowberry frequently describe the overwhelming and negative experience of trying to purchase a first bra before they stumble upon these products. “Those stories just make me so sad. We really need to continue making girls excited about wearing bras, or at the very least, not regret it,” notes Grassell.

Grassell on the Today Show back in 2014. Yellowberry

While the former Jackson racer has adapted lessons from sport to help her succeed in business, she realizes there’s still a lot of learning ahead of her. “Someone once told me, If the worst answer someone can give you is no, then you should always ask the question.’ That’s been really helpful especially being a young entrepreneur just trying to seek help or seek advice. … I think always staying very humble and always wanting to learn more is very important. I’m definitely not the smartest person doing this.”

Yellowberry

Yellowberry continues to grow and Grassell leads in her own unique way, staying focused on her mission to make growing up a little less awkward and uncomfortable. She continues to stay humble and notch victories in this new challenge.

“You can win three days in a row and on the fourth day, you’re 20th. Just because you did really well doesn’t mean you’re entitled to win or that you should,” Grassell concludes.