Grace Bonney
Grace Bonney
Grace S. Bonney is an American writer, blogger, author, and speaker based in Accord, New York. [15] She is the founder of the Design and Art blog, Design*Sponge. [6] Grace has been heralded the "Martha Stewart Living for the Millennials" and has been featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur. She has also written two books. [6] [22] [10] [13]
Her Instagram posts reflect her elegant yet approachable creative advice, and nearly a million users follow her account for her bright and charismatic feed.
Early Life and Education
Grace was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia and attended First Colonial High School. [15] Growing up, Grace was an only child and since she had no siblings around her, she was creative out of necessity. [11] Her parents were creative as well, with her mother being an amateur interior designer and her father who appreciated photography and architecture. [11] After finishing high school, Grace went on to attend New York University as a student in their journalism program. [11] She transferred in William & Mary to pursue a more artistic path and became a member of her campus radio station during her time there. [16] Grace earned her degree in fine art and art history in 2003. [16]
Career
Artwork of Grace Bonney
Grace moved to New York City after graduating college in order to work at a record label for a summer. [11] She hated it, and after her internship ended she took a design PR job. It was during this time in 2004 that Grace started Design Sponge as a hobby. For the next four years, Grace became a freelance contributor to several media organizations in the design field including Home & Garden and Domino magazine as well as a newspaper column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. [11] [16]
In 2008, many print publications were cutting jobs and going out of business.
Realizing that her blog could become a stable source of income, Grace decided to focus on the Design*Sponge full-time. [11] She met with a financial advisor, an accountant, and a bookkeeper to explore what was financially feasible and started off hiring 3-4 part-time editors covering topics such as DIY, food and drink, design, and more. [11] Design Sponge became hugely successful and in 2017 has over 2 million readers a month. [6]
Female entrepreneurship is a topic close to Grace's heart in 2008, she started a national series of meetups for women running creative businesses called D*S Biz Ladies Series. The series has since evolved into a weekly column on her blog where she gives advice to business owners on how to succeed in the creative industry. [6]
Authorship
Grace is the author of two best-selling books.
Her first book, DesignSponge at Home* was published in 2009 and has over 120K copies in print.
In 2016, Grace wrote the New York Times Best Seller In the Company of Women and has over 100k copies in print. [6]
Media Appearances
Grace Bonney: #1 Top Influencer on Forbes' Home list
She has also been a featured guest on Good Morning America, The Nate Berkus Show, The Martha Raye Show, NBC’s The Chew, Martha Stewart Living Radio, and American Public Radio and has been a keynote speaker with a wide variety of organizations such as design schools, trade organizations, design guilds, and corporations. [6]
From 2013-2015, Grace hosted the radio show, After the Jump, which explored bigger issues and topics in the creative community. It became one of the highest rated design podcasts and drew an average of 500,000 listeners per show. [6]