She used to spend her days in the fast-paced world of fashion sales, but her true passion is dismantling the idea that investing is only for “men in suits.” For Mia McGrath, taking control of your financial future is the ultimate power move.
By day, 24-year-old Mia McGrath navigated the chic, high-stakes world of fashion sales. But meanwhile, on TikTok, she’s was focused on tackling a different, historically opaque industry: finance. Mia is part of a new guard of women who are not just investing, but talking about it, determined to pull back the curtain on a world that has for too long felt exclusive.
“I first got interested in investing when I saw my male friends at university show me their portfolio,” she recalls. “And I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is something that I really want to get into.’”
That initial curiosity, however, was laced with a familiar cocktail of emotions. “I feel like I was very nervous and I definitely thought I was going to lose money,” she admits. “When I started investing, I was just really experimenting, not really understanding that investing should be for the long term. That was actually something I didn’t understand for a really long time.”
“There’s no such thing as what an investor should look like. I think we all have the power to take control of our finances and our financial futures.”
The steepest learning curve wasn’t just understanding the market; it was overcoming the cultural and psychological barriers. While Mia dove into learning, she says the real challenge emerged when she decided to speak up.
“It was more when I posted on social media that I kind of felt a bit of imposter syndrome,” she explains. “There’s lots of qualified people, financial advisors on these platforms that are experts… And you kind of feel like, as a beginner or as a young woman learning about investing, that you shouldn’t be able to talk about these things if you’re not an expert.”
This is precisely the misconception Mia is on a mission to dismantle. “I think as long as you give the context that you’re learning too, that’s perfectly fine,” she asserts. “There’s such a misconception that you need to be an expert to invest […] It’s more simple than a lot of people make it out to be.”
Her passion for making content about investing was born from a simple, personal need. “I never felt like I had anyone to talk to about it with,” she says. “I think representation is really important, especially when it comes to finance and investing.”
This lack of visibility is, for Mia, the root of the problem. The exclusive imagery that surrounds the world of investing is what she’s actively fighting against, even when it means facing critics who try to put her in a box.
“I have had comments saying that I don’t look like an investor, or I don’t look like someone that would be talking about stocks,” she reveals. “It’s so easy to give in to that imposter syndrome, especially as a woman, because it’s such a male-dominated space. But it is so important as a woman to be interested in finance and investing because it’s your financial future.”
Mia champions the power of openness. The silence surrounding money, she argues, is what keeps women in the dark. “Personal finances are such a personal matter that they’re not spoken about,” she says. “And therefore, because of that lack of openness, you really don’t know what’s normal or what you should be doing. Talking about this subject openly helps to inspire others to take action.”
She also gets refreshingly candid about the anxiety that often stops beginners in their tracks. “When I first started investing, I had so much anxiety. I was checking my portfolio every day, multiple times a day. I was overthinking my investing decisions. I was panic selling sometimes.” Her hard-won wisdom? “To not give in to every single bit of bad news,” she says. “It’s always good to do your own research and figure out what’s right for you.”
Ultimately, Mia’s mission is a call to action for women everywhere: to occupy the space, ask the questions, and hold the door open for others. “It’s important for women to have role models when investing,” she states. “Because if you don’t have anyone to look up to, how are you supposed to know that you are capable of doing that?”
In a world that tried to tell her she “doesn’t look like an investor,” Mia has discovered the power in proving them wrong. Young, multi-faceted, and, above all, vocal, she’s not just sharing her story; she’s inviting others to write their own too, telling eToro “I invest loudly because I want to share my story and inspire others to invest.”
Watch Mia’s full chat with us below:
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