MadameNoire Featured Video

by Evette Brown

You might not know her name or face, but her brand is the future.  Arielle Patrice Scott is a 22-year-old powerhouse.  Using her undergraduate thesis from the University of California at Berkeley as the foundation, Scott created GenJuice, a network that connects 20-something bloggers with other 20-something bloggers, advertisers, and successful brands.  With a re-launch of Genjuice on the horizon and a vision that includes being the creator of the next digital MTV (which she might have already accomplished), Scott stops here to discuss her past, the present, and her amazingly surreal future.

It is well-known that the concept for Genjuice began as an undergraduate thesis. How exactly did that thesis develop?

I used to invite my friends over for these get-togethers.  We would meet-up and discuss how to start building personal brands.  The meet-ups began to grow, but it wasn’t meant to be much of anything.  Eventually, a group of friends and I decided to empower gen Y [generation Y] to become innovative through a national tour.

Two of my friends quit their jobs to go on this tour with me.  We had nothing, but we rented a car and set out on this tour.  On 10/10/10 we announced what Genjuice was and by then, we had over 100 contributors.

How different is the original concept of GenJuice from what it is now?

Genjuice now is very different than what Genjuice was.  Originally, I wanted to build a blog network to help bloggers develop a personal brand.  The more traffic the site received, the more revenue would be generated.  Now, Genjuice is going to be re-launching in the summer.  It is going to be a site that has all of the pop-culture content that is important to a 20-something.  Users will be able to get everything they need from fashion to music.

You have built a very successful career on technology and innovation. What inspires you to be innovative?

Empowering generation Y to create good stuff.  Inspiring them to go out there and build something.  Being able to touch as many people as possible and encouraging and empowering them to create good stuff in that short window of time they have before real life kicks in.  Helping the next generation of leaders inspires me to be innovative.
