*Disclaimer - There will be spoilers about the movie "Joy" in this article. Also, the movie isn't completely Joy Mangano's story, but it's a compilation of many strong, inspirational women's stories compiled behind her rise to fame. It is, however, true on the side that shows her inventions and her successes.*
Movies are meant to tell a story - to take an idea and bring it to life. The best type of movies, however, are the ones that are based on true stories. They are the ones that tell the world about something that actually happened and relives the past, whether pretty or not. They spread the word about something important so we don't forget how and why it happened.
In 2015, the movie "Joy" came out, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano. Although not everything that happened in the movie actually happened to Joy in real life, it is still based on her story and still contains a brilliant message that is important to people of all ages.
Joy is an inventor and entrepreneur who invented the "Miracle Mop," or the mop that wrings itself out. Her product hit the big time, but it didn't happen overnight. Joy went through some struggles in her lifetime, and they all add to why her story is important and was immortalized in this movie.
Joy was the main breadwinner for her household, that consisted of her two children, her mother, her grandmother, her father, and her ex-husband. She was forced to take care of all of them by herself, with a little help from her grandmother. On top of it all, she worked at an airport as an attendant at the ticket desk. She was making very little money, taking care of everyone in her house, and living with the arguments between her father and her ex-husband. She had to keep checking on her mother constantly because she never left her room and never stopped watching her soap operas. The house needed work and Joy couldn't keep up with everyone. Needless to say, Joy was tired.
One day, Joy went out with her father and her father's new girlfriend on her boat for the day with their family. Unfortunately, the red wine they had been drinking fell over and shattered, leaving glass and red stains all over the wooden deck of the boat. Joy was left to clean it up, cutting her hands in the process because she had to wring out the mop. This is when the idea sparked in her brain: what if there was a way to make this all easier? So she worked and worked until she invented the self-wringing mop, a way to mop without getting it all on your hands. She created prototypes and began looking for ways to get it off the ground. So she asked her father's girlfriend. She invested with her ex-husband's money but she expected her to use it wisely and make a profit off it.
The product was a flop for a long while. Joy ran into debt issues, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to pay her father's girlfriend back. She ran into patent issues, seeing as the factory that she was using to make her molds stole her idea from her and continued to make her faulty parts and charge her for it. She went to QVC to sell the mop on TV, and couldn't make much profit from her first airing because the man selling it wasn't sure what to do with it. Joy was distraught, she felt like she was at the end of her rope, and all the signs were pointing down for her. She thought she would have to file bankruptcy.
Until she realized that the fate of her product - and her life - were all in her own hands.
Joy didn't rest. She went on QVC herself and explained how to use the mop and sales started skyrocketing. She chopped off her blond mane and became edgier than ever. She met with the man who stole her molds and demanded that he give her the money for it, and she got it because she threatened him with legal charges. She didn't stop until she made it to the top of her industry, and she went on to become the head of her own entrepreneurial company. She created hundreds of more inventions after the "Miracle Mop."
So you're probably asking yourself, why exactly is this important? Well, because this movie sends out a message to every person who has ever felt beaten down. Life is hard, that's no lie. It will kick you while you're down and keep kicking, and Joy is such an excellent example of that. She had so much passion and so much heart and she continued to get nothing in return for her labors.
But she didn't stop.
She didn't give up. She went out there and knew her worth and continued to fight for this product that she believed in, and low and behold, she made it to the top.
Hard work and dedication are all it takes to get to where you want to go. When the world is tearing you down and it feels like you won't be able to put yourself back together again, look at Joy. Look where she is now. Look at all the struggles she had to go to, and she became such a big name in the entrepreneurial industry.
She faced so many hardships through her early life, before she even thought about creating this product. It could have stopped there. She could have given up before she even started. But she didn't. She created without boundaries. She didn't give in. She didn't listen to all of the opposition.
If she can do it, you can too. Be your own Joy.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." -Alfred Lord Tennyson
