Ripped Bodice
I have a secret infatuation.
It’s one that if revealed, I know I would have to defend; one that I know is unanimously looked down upon. It’s a pre-occupation that I carry with me when I’m in the bath, when I’m when I’m lying in bed and always conceal when I’m by the pool on holiday.
I am an ardent romance novel reader and an addict to the happy ending.
I would rather read about a trophy wife’s passionate love affair with her sister’s lover than read Chaucer. Falling into a book is a time to decompress and fall into the romance, drama and sex. It brings my mind away from essay deadlines, boys who won’t text me back and the day in, day out routine of college life; it thrusts me into a world of someone else’s romance whilst requiring very little brain power to do so.
Despite being a far more profitable genre, romance has somewhat been neglected. Instead, I have watched the proliferation of comic book stores and science fiction around me. Whether this is due to an erroneous belief that romance novels are restricted to erotica or whether people are just too scared of love, I wanted to learn more about women encouraging us to engage in light reading with relatable characters, an easy-to-follow plot and a healthy dose of naughty.
Located conveniently opposite the Tuesday farmer’s market in Culver City, Ripped Bodice is the only bookstore in the United States that exclusively sells romance novels. Having stumbled across the space online, I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon in the shop with Leah Koch who co-founded Ripped Bodice along with her sister, Bea.
Walking into the store, I was immediately taken aback by the vast number of books. Who knew there were this many raunchy books to discover? With fairy lights, cosy corner sofas for reading, stairwells covered in torn book pages and a bathroom filled with empowering post-it notes, the sister duo successfully re-imagined a “traditional bookstore” to fit into a nascent age of social media.
It has always been a “we” for the two sisters, who conceptualized the idea of Ripped Bodice together four years ago after recognising a gap in the market for a store devoted to their favourite genre.
“Romance can be whatever you want, it just needs an essential love story and a happy ending”
As we sat on a sofa adjacent to the gift section dedicated to supporting independent, female-owned businesses, Leah explained how she and her sister have come to revolutionise the way we read, “We want an environment where people feel comfortable talking in graphic terms to our staff and a place where there is something for everyone.”
The shop has recently noticed a huge expansion in the LGBTQ section of romance and has committed to accommodating these emerging communities.
“We are seeing loads more asexual and gender non-binary characters now and we love it,” Leah said, as she gestured to a section of the store.”
In addition to such diverse book options within one genre, Ripped Bodice also encourages a community driven space, including a Queer Voices event for young authors and their monthly book club. From hosting a pie making workshop on Valentine’s Day with “the woman we became friends with at the farmer’s market” to accommodating some of comedy’s newest female talent every month, Ripped Bodice epitomises a true collaborative store and redefines the shopping experience we’ve all grown accustomed to.
However, the store’s development has not come without its difficulties. In order to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible, the sisters opened the store four months after their successful $91,000 crowdfunding campaign whilst Leah was still finishing her undergraduate degree.
“We didn’t want to get a loan and we certainly didn’t want to prove our model to dudes in suits when we could prove it to our potential readers,” Leah explained.
The duo knew that it would be difficult in the initial stages. “We were the genre that no one gave a shit about,” Leah told me. “And those who knew about romance seemed to have an issue with it. Oh, we’ve definitely had people come into the store and give us a hard time, but it’s about making women feel comfortable, not men.”
It bewildered me how two women, one of which is only three years older than myself, have been able to create something so novel and so fearless in such a short period of time. Leah attributes their success to ‘bootstrapping,’ a concept her professor had once discussed in a lecture at the University of Southern California.
“You need to start your business before you’re 100% ready. You don’t want to wait to rise 100% to make the store of your pristine and perfect dream. Instead, you can build your brand, get your card in people’s hands and earn your own money towards your dream. If you keep waiting for the day to be 100% ready, it will never happen.”
It’s this dedication to providing a safe space for women to read and engage in the genre that eventually earned Ripped Bodice the 2017 RWA Steffie Walker Booksellers of the Year from the Romance Writers of America.
Leaving Ripped Bodice with a couple of discounted books that I began reading in their bathroom, I felt optimistic and hopeful for the future of young female entrepreneurs. Leah and Bea have proven that how women can work together to create a supportive and diverse community.
Grabbing a free cookie sample from a stall at the market on the way back to my car, I held my newly purchased romance novel in hand, no longer ashamed for it to be seen.
By Sophia Parvizi-Wayne
Duke Student, leader of national campaign on mental health, Cross Country All-ACC, fashion alchemist, Huffington Post writer, and all-around world-runner