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Credit: Twentieth Century Fox 
Mornings can make a slave to the snooze button out of many of us, but not Joy Mangano. “I can’t wait to go to sleep so I can get up in the morning,” the 60-year-old inventor, entrepreneur and businesswoman laughs. As eager as a child anticipating Christmas, she’s bright-eyed and smiling as she sips from a Starbucks cup through a straw. “I know that sounds ridiculous, but I know what excites me in life.”

Somehow I don’t think the assumed caffeine in Joy’s takeaway cup is the source of her boundless energy, the genuine enthusiasm that has seen her sell millions of dollars’ worth of product on HSN (the Home Shopping Network, the New York City headquarters of which we have met for this interview). This eternally optimistic outlook is undoubtedly one of the reasons a once struggling single mother from the ‘burbs of Long Island, New York has carved such a remarkable path that she is played by Jennifer Lawrence in a movie based on her life. Joy also stars Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, and is directed by David O’Russell, the director of hit films Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.

Joy is the Hollywood-ified version of Mangano’s inspiring rags-to-riches tale – a divorced mother of three doing it tough who turned an idea into an empire. Today, as one of America’s most successful inventors and the founder of consumer product business Ingenious Designs LLC, Mangano is thought to be worth about $50 million.

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But it all started with a mop. As depicted in Joy (which Mangano explains is a mix of true tales from her life blurred with “genius” creative licence from O’Russell), Mangano came up with the idea for the first ever self-wringing mop back in the late eighties. For those too young to know life prior to her invention, a mop had to be rung out with bare hands, which was unhygienic, and not to mention sometimes dangerous. (In the film Joy has her light bulb moment after she ends up with cut, bleeding hands from wringing out a mop she’d used to clean up broken glass).

Joy drew the designs, sought and secured investment money, had a protoype made, and wound up pitching her idea to a TV executive at shopping channel QVC (played by Bradley Cooper in the film). The executive agreed to give the Miracle Mop a spot on the air, but the presenter tasked with doing the live demonstration didn’t understand it, and as a result the mop was initially a flop. It was at this point that Joy’s unwavering self-belief kicked in – she demanded that she be given a chance to sell the Miracle Mop on television herself. She was allowed to, and when this moment plays out in Joy, it’s one of the most suspenseful scenes in the film.

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Credit: Twentieth Century Fox 

As the movie reveals, Mangano had to dig deep down into those reserves of self-belief countless times even after the Miracle Mop found success, rising up to overcome challenges and obstacles over, and over again. Like a lot of successful people, Joy isn’t able to explain exactly how she finds such seemingly unlimited motivation and drive, but being the generous person that she is, she’s willing to try. 

“It’s important to take the time in life to look within yourself and know what it is that drives you. It’s not just passion. People use the word ‘passion’ so often but it’s really whatever that thing or feeling is that ignites you, right?”

Getting into a flow, finding your groove. Mangano calls it “being in the right lane”.

“I truly believe that when you’re in that right lane in life, and you stay in that lane, you see the results.

“When you make that decision in life and you’re following through with it, everything becomes organic around you. It becomes very natural. Not everybody can do exactly that, but if they can find what ignites them in some way and satisfy that drive, it makes life so much more enhanced.”

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Credit: Twentieth Century Fox 
Joy Mangano with Jennifer Lawrence at the Joy film premiere

There’s no doubt Mangano is in the right lane. Inventing, creating, finding practical solutions to everyday problems does indeed come naturally to her. An often mentioned anecdote about Joy recalls how when working at an animal hospital as a teenager, she devised a fluorescent flea collar for cats and dogs to make them easily visible to cars at night. And following the success of the Miracle Mop, she’s gone on to conceive countless products – chances are you’ve got at least one of Mangano’s creations at home. There’s the Huggable Hangers, wardrobe hangers coated in velvet that save space and stop clothes from slipping off. The Forever Fragrant room deodorisers that last for two years. And most recently she reinvented the product that started it all, releasing an updated version of the Miracle Mop.
Credit: Twentieth Century Fox

“If for somebody the goal in life is to make a lot of money, there are many ways they can go and do that. It’s not the right intention. When I started I wasn’t thinking about the money, it was the inventiveness of it all.” You only have to watch Joy to know creating and marketing a product is a path inevitably littered with obstacles. But at the same time, if you have an idea, there’s never been a better time to try.

“It’s a different world now, compared to 30 years ago when I was drawing a diagram on a piece of paper,” she laughs shaking her head, clearly amused at what a slog it was all those years ago compared to today. “There are so many opportunities for inventing ideas and some of the most successful people in the world have carved a path where there never was a path before.” She lets her uber-professional demeanour relax a little, becoming more candid, and I feel like we’re sitting in the kitchen of her no doubt spectacular home with a glass of wine in hand.

“People don’t find it so bizarre that I’m an inventor anymore,” she says, reflective.

“Back then people would say ‘What are you kidding me? What do you mean? You’re a mum, you’re not an inventor.’”

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Credit: Twentieth Century Fox 

It must be gratifying to imagine the reactions of those people now. Joy has a Hollywood film based on her life with Lawrence, the darling of Hollywood portraying her. Not to mention that Mangano is a celebrity in her own right. Noting that the interview is for GRAZIA Australia, she reveals her close friendship with Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, describing them warmly as “the loves of my life”.

When asked what it feels like to have her life’s story portrayed on the big screen  for millions to see, Joy is somewhat at a loss for words. Who wouldn’t be? How is a person meant to fathom such a turn of events, especially one who wasn’t born into a Hollywood family, with no expectation of fame? It’s surreal in the truest sense of the word.

“I had such trust in everyone I was working with – David is a genius, Jennifer is so, so talented and wise beyond her years, Robert is just incredible – so I didn’t question it or worry about it for a moment. Isn’t that amazing?”

Amazing indeed.

Joy is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and DIGITAL HD. Check it out here on iTunes.

 Cover image: Twentieth Century Fox