“Total destruction of the media is the goal,” says Erin Bagwell, in a just-kidding-but-seriously fashion.
The WeWork Charging Bull member has many defining qualities, but reticence is not one of them. She is fiercely independent, endlessly passionate, a skilled producer, and the creative force behind Dream, Girl, a feature-length documentary charting the lives of female entrepreneurs, which premieres Thursday, June 9 at New York’s Paris Theater. Bagwell is an ardent feminist, committed to giving women’s stories a place in the cultural zeitgeist.
Speaking of feminism, Bagwell has an entirely new vision for the embattled term. She is ready to do away with the public’s often negative perception of what a feminist is.
“I love the feminist movement,” she says, “but I think we need a rebrand. A lot of the stories are centered around negativity, so I thought I would lend my design skills to add a little bit more humor and a little bit more love to feminist issues—to focus more on sisterhood and to focus more on storytelling.”
Bagwell began her journey towards changing feminism through her popular blog, Feminist Wednesday. Fearlessly captained by the whimsical, lavender-clad Betty the Beaver, the blog shares daily stories of inspiration for kick-ass women as well as a weekly newsletter. Though the blog is cheerful, quirky, and positive, it was born out of a much darker place.
After months of facing off with male superiors at a large company, Bagwell came to realize what women truly deal with in modern corporate environments. Gender bias in the workspace shocked her.
“I felt very small, but then I felt very motivated,” she says. “I knew that I couldn’t change the culture of my current workplace…but I also felt like I had to do something, like I had to use the voice I had to speak up for myself and for other women.”
So she spoke up. With difficulty, at first—Bagwell struggled with ideas on how to monetize Feminist Wednesday, hoping to transform it into a full-time gig. The eureka moment came once Bagwell took a step back from other women’s stories and began to think about her own narrative.
“I had always wanted to create a feature-length film,” she says. “That’s my dream, and it just kind of clicked that if I myself was transformed by being around these women, then if we could get them on camera, that would be totally amazing.”
Since then, Bagwell has moved with impressive speed. After a successful Kickstarter campaign nearly doubled her budget, Bagwell began production, hiring an all-female team to assist her.
“I wasn’t really intentional about it in the beginning—I just happened to know a couple of female videographers I wanted to hire,” she explains. “But when I did hire them, and we started hearing these amazing stories on set, the energy just got elevated because the women [behind the scenes] were feeding off of that.
Her advice for young female entrepreneurs? Take risks religiously.
“Trust your intuition, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,” she stresses. “Even throughout this process, I’ve had people question what we were doing, saying, ‘You’ll never be able to raise that much money,’ or ‘You’ll never be able to hire an all-female crew—those don’t exist.’ People are always going to question what you’re doing, and you just have to follow your heart and do what you want to do.”
Photos: Dream, Girl