Founder of Giggle App: Meet Sallie Grover

Meet Sall Grover. She had a dream to move to Hollywood and become a screenwriter however, her time in Los Angeles turned into a nightmare when she witnessed ten years of harassment, abuse, and misogyny. During this time she experienced everything that the #MeToo movement represents. It wasn’t until she moved to New York and lived with a group of girls, that she remembered how much better life can be. She returned home to Australia to recover and chatted with her mum about how much safer and better her life would have been if she could have privately and securely connected with groups of girls. That conversation inspired what’s known today as Giggle.

Similar to Tinder or Bumble. Girls swipe, match, and chat. A giggle is formed by a girl selecting girls who appeal to their profile and category of interest. If there is interest a girl swipes right and if not she swipes left to look at the next profile. You can form multiple “giggles” at a time with 2 to 5 girls per Giggle.  I had the chance to chat with Sall about the giggles behind Giggle (get it)?

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself. Occupation?

I am what I call a “retired writer”. Writing was all I ever wanted to do. I studied it, I read everything I could, I got on a plane to go to LA after handing in my philosophy thesis because I was determined to write novels and movies as soon as possible. I was 24. 

I actually had a relatively easy entrance into the industry, I had a girl-writing partner and together we were quite indestructible for a while. But then she left and I was on my own. This is when the harassment, abuse, and assaults began. I had men grope me in meetings, at work drinks, leverage sex, call me unprofessional when I wouldn’t deliver on a spec after an assault, say I was hysterical.

Q: What inspired Giggle App?

Being completely over the fact that girls can’t express a simple thought, look for a room to rent, do freelance work, work, speak up or just exist online and in the real world without misogynistic abuse. Like, can we please tell a joke without a rape threat, find somewhere to live with a threat of sex, or work without abuses of power? 

When I was trying to work out a name for the app, I just Google’d “collective noun for a group of girls” and I found it was “giggle”. I did a bit of an eye roll at first, like “Ugh. Of course, that’s what they call us” – but then I realized it was an amazing opportunity to reclaim that concept of “giggling girls”. In reality, a giggle of girls can do a lot of things. The girls of 2020 are where we are because of the giggles before us. 

Q: How do you see this app impacting young girls and women on a local and international level?

I honestly don’t know. They will tell me. If they want something changed, we’ll change it. If they want something added, we’ll add it. I don’t have an agenda of, “this is how giggle must be used!” Empowerment, self-love, all of these buzzwords, are very personal and subjective and so I basically just want any girl on giggle to get what she wants or needs. It’s her choice. 

Q: If you could have a conversation now with your 22-year-old self , what would you say?

“The love of your life is a twenty percent evil Pekinese-cross-pomeranian fluffball named Puck and you couldn’t be happier about it. Stop wasting your time with douchebags and focus.” 

Q: As an entrepreneur, what is one key takeaway you wished you knew prior to launching your app?

I’ve had to deal with a lot of men during the course of developing giggle and it has without a doubt been the biggest challenge. There are other challenges, of course, as there just are when starting something new. But navigating the male ego, in the context of a girls-only company, has been… bewildering. 

I try to be very clear, “This is what I know” and “this is what I don’t know”. Like, I don’t know much about business – I’m a humanities girl. When I’m in a room full of men, who may be brilliant at business or finance or whatever, I try to make it as clear as possible that I am aware of what I can learn from them, and then say, “I’m the expert here on being a girl.” But I’ve had girls explained to me. I wish I knew how much energy I would need to deal with that before dealing with everything else that running a business entails. 

Q: The #Metoo movement has shed so much light on Hollywood, misogyny, harassment, etc. What do you want younger girls to learn from this movement?

Trust every instinct you have and group together. 

Q: Any plans on expansion?

Oh definitely. I’m just in launch mode at the moment. There are still so many different giggle categories to launch throughout the year. We’re going to be working with organizations to ensure giggle is a tool to get girls to vote. We’re going to be launching our Giggle Gift charity, which supports girl-owned businesses and girl-orientated charities. We’re working with some amazing girl voices in the US, Australia, and the UK to have bigger conversations about misogynistic abuse on and offline. We’re currently very much at the starting line. 

Q: What are you looking to see more from women in media, tech, and film?

I want to see every different culture, every different journey, every different version of a girl. That’s all. I know me, I’m bored of me. I want to learn more from girls who are different from me, who know things I don’t know, who help me see the world in a different way. 

I’m actually talking to a girl from India on giggle at the moment, and she is amazing. Her instinctual responses are so different from mine that it creates some of the best new conversations I’ve had in a very long time. And, you know, the great thing about giggle is that you can rest easy knowing that at no point during the riveting chat is a dick pic going to suddenly appear. It’s lovely. 

Q: Favorite thing about New York?

Walking down streets I’ve read about in books. 

Download Giggle available for IOS and Android. For more information visit https://joinagiggle.com/



No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>