Jenny Leung and her family emigrated from China when she was just three years old, squeezing into a small apartment on top of a steep Daly City, California hill. "I always wanted to succeed," she says, "but I knew nothing mattered more than family." It was their perseverance to overcome poverty that inspired her to become the first college graduate in her family. With a steady job and determination to make her family proud, Jenny began to climb the corporate ladder.

From answering guest requests and translating for tour groups at the Hilton when she was 19, to overseeing contracts for Fortune 500 clients a decade later, Jenny delighted in the innerworkings of every business. But she also felt the pressure of being a working woman—to choose between motherhood and a career. This itch only grew stronger and a few years later, Jenny found herself asking ‘Is this it? It can’t be. I want to build something that can make a difference for working women.’ With that she applied to UCLA’s business school and took her first leap into entrepreneurship.

A few months later, Jenny heard a voice come through on the radio: "15 million tons of textile waste are produced from clothes and other fabric goods every year." Jenny was stunned—and her attention was piqued. "We throw away 75 pounds of clothing annually," he continued. "That’s so wasteful!" Jenny exclaimed. She thought about how much fashion she and her friends consumed. These days, most of their complaints were about maternity clothes and justifying the price of clothing you’d only wear for a few months. "I know there’s something here" she thought "what about a rentable wardrobe!" BellaNové (beautiful nine) was born.

There were entrepreneurship classes, there were pitch competitions, there were fellowships, there were accelerator resources. One by one, she applied, but when she heard back, they were all variations of the same story: she wasn’t ready yet.

But that didn’t stop her.

Read the full article by Anuja Khemka about this entrepreneur from Forbes