Searching for a watch-worthy reality show? We’ve got just the ticket. “Born For Business,” a new documentary series by Bunim/Murray Productions, the creators of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “Born This Way,” premieres on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock and CRAVE on August 23. “Born For Business” is also presented by Shopify Studios, a comprehensive commerce platform that helps users to start, run, and grow a business.
The 10- episode show features four entrepreneurs with disabilities trying to run their small businesses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They are:
- Qiana Allen, owner of Culture’s Closet, one of the nation’s most successful clothing stores for plus-sized women. Qiana has lupus but she doesn’t let that slow her down. Allen told RespectAbility, a disability advocacy nonprofit, “Culture’s Closet is about more than fashion. ‘We teach plus-sized women how to love themselves.’” Allen said she chose to appear on the show and to share her personal story because “she recognized how important it is to show people with disabilities and plus-size women in ways that they are not often typically seen. She saw “Born For Business” as the perfect opportunity to do just that.”
- Collette Divitto, founder of Collettey’s Cookies, who lives with Down syndrome. After Divitto graduated from college, she was unable to find a company that would hire her. A talented baker, Divitto decided to start her own company. What’s more, she hires other people with disabilities to work in the business. According to Disability Scoop, so far, she has sold over 300,000 cookies!
- Chris Triebes, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy and runs a concert production company, two concert venues and a music festival ticketing service. Triebes told RespectAbility he wanted to share his story on “Born For Business” because of “the lack of representation of people with disabilities in media … especially when it comes to portraying stories of proactive business owners making their own opportunities and succeeding.” Triebes, a single father, “laments the often-repeated tropes of pitied people with disabilities who are painted as helpless or unresourceful.”
- Lexi Zanghi, who has a debilitating anxiety disorder, launched a designer clothing business called Always Reason that recently opened its first brick and mortar location on Long Island, N.Y. Zanghi chose her business’s name after the old saying “Everything happens for a reason.”
Jonathan Murray of Bunim/Murray Productions told RespectAbility he was compelled to create the series because “for too long, people with disabilities have been shut out of the workplace. With ‘Born For Business,’ we are showing how people with disabilities have long been using entrepreneurship to create an economic livelihood for themselves.”
