Sarah Neill talks about her new body positive app – welcome to Mys Tyler.
Mys Tyler is the first social-commerce platform to serve up body-relevant fashion content. By doing this, we are creating a place where all women can feel represented, see clothing on women who look similar and by doing so turn fashion inspiration into something that is also accessible and actionable.
When you think of fashion now, you will likely (and rightly) conjure up a mental image of a tall, size 6-8 model – the aspirational American “size 0”. However, if you look at the data we’ve collected from over 50,000 women globally, less than 20% of women actually fall into that size, and then it’s far less when you account for height – with the average height of a woman 4 inches shorter than the typical modelesque 5’8” minimum.
This has meant that when shopping, women have had to look at clothing on bodies of women that likely don’t look like them, and had to imagine how it will fit. The reality is you don’t really know until you try it on, and that has meant for online shopping that women are unsatisfied with the fit of 91% of clothing, and as a result 30-40% is returned (and that means we’re still left with a chunk of our wardrobe that doesn’t fit quite right). Not only is this a demoralizing inefficient process of trial and error – but the inefficiency of returns takes a huge toll on the industry economics and the environment!
I began thinking about the concept for Mys Tyler years ago when I was living in New York. It’s such a great city for fashion as it’s so diverse, people have multiple events a night – so when someone turns up in a cocktail dress to an event where others are wearing tracksuit pants, no one blinks an eye, they just assume you’re coming from/ heading to somewhere else where that outfit is more appropriate. As a result, you can be really experimental without feeling as self-conscious. I was keen to have more fun with fashion, but I simply don’t enjoy the discovery that’s involved in shopping, and so I much prefer to be able to look to more fashionable people for inspiration. But given things look completely different on different bodies, I’d wish I could filter Instagram to find influencers that were my same height and size. Back in 2014 I registered the domain mys-tyler.com (a play on My Styler), and then at the end of 2019 I left my corporate job in New York, moved back to Sydney to start building it full time!
You can think of Mys Tyler like an “Instagram for fashion” except that as you onboard, we ask you some questions such as your height, size and colouring, and then we serve up influencers (we call them “Contributors”) in order of relevancy, body-doubles at the top!
Now it doesn’t matter what you look like, you can see clothing on women who look like you, who are body confident, and love doing the discovery part of fashion, so they can do the trial and error and just serve up for you the wins! From there, users can shop their favourite looks and styles directly through the app.
We launched our first version of the app in August 2020 using celebrities in the place of Contributors – so we had something to start testing with, and building our marketplace. We would literally sit at our computers and search “Jennifer Anisten bra size” and populate a database to facilitate this. Then a month ago in February, we introduced our amazing Contributors to the app. Now you can head to Mys Tyler, match with real women from around the world, and start enjoying body-relevant fashion content.
It’s been a labour of love for me and our startup team. But the feedback we’ve received from women has been so heartwarming. The majority of women have felt like minorities in the world of fashion, and now we’re turning that around. We celebrate every body and the women who have signed up as early Contributors and users are bringing a body-positive supportive mandate with them.
Find out more via www.mys-tyler.com.au or download the app on The App store or Google Play for free.
About Sarah Neill
Sarah is the Founder and CEO of VC-backed Sydney startup Mys Tyler, the body positive app that is set to solve the $1 trillion “fit” problem by creating a more empowering and personalized shopping experience for all women.
Sarah is a technology and startup powerhouse with more than 15 years driving marketing and innovation for major consumer technology brands across in-house and agency settings in the USA, UK and Australia. Over the course of her career, Sarah has held senior leadership roles at mobile disruptors Boost Mobile and Mint Mobile, led multi-million-dollar agency accounts for marquee companies Telstra, Vodafone and Samsung, and as a serial entrepreneur founded companies Doodad, A Relatively Unique Inc and Mys Tyler.
In 2013, Sarah launched DOODAD, a travel tech company which saw her raise more than $1 Million USD to disrupt the global roaming industry. She then joined the executive team of Ultra Mobile, the fastest growing private company in the US (ranked #1 on the Inc. 5000 in 2015). During this time, she led corporate development, launched the IoT department and ultimately held the post Chief of Staff.Sarah left Mint Mobile – and New York City – to return to Sydney and build Mys Tyler. In doing so, she hopes to create a space where all women feel welcomed, supported and represented, and where self-love and body positivity are at the core.
Sarah’s education includes an MBA (International Business) from Griffith University, a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) from Macquarie University and a Certificate in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard Business
