15 May Camila Alves: The Serial Entrepreneur

You may know Camila Alves as the fashion model wife of actor Matthew McConaughey. She’s fine with that—as long as people also recognize her multiple business ventures.

When Alves came to Los Angeles from Brazil at 15 to visit her aunt, she fell in love with the country and decided to stay. After four years of cleaning homes and waiting tables, she moved to New York City to pursue a career as a fashion model. But Alves, now 36, was just getting started. An entrepreneur by nature, she first teamed with her mother, an artist and designer, on a line of handbags. In 2010, she parlayed that into a role as the host of the Bravo series Shear Genius, a reality TV show about hairstyling.

Next, Alves launched a lifestyle website and blog, Womenoftoday.com. Full of lush photography, it covers food, crafts and decor, beauty and fashion, and fitness and health. The website features practical tips for busy working women (Alves is the mother of three children between the ages of five and ten) and sells affordable products.

But she still wasn’t finished. In 2016, Alves teamed with Agatha Achindu to bring to market Yummy Spoonfuls, a line of frozen, organic baby and toddler food created by Achindu and sold at Target.
Alves says the theme running through her products is her mission to make life easier and enjoyable for busy women. “I love anything to do with cooking, decorating, kid activities, beauty, and fashion, [and] if I can teach something that I have learned and make anyone’s life easier, as it did for me, then that makes me happy!” she told People magazine.