o sits in a cozy armchair in

.Y., mansion

v -year-old mo- eat, just the way she likes it. , n kids would move one little thing ire home just to see how long e for me to find what was out ” she says, smiling. “It would er take long.” But then, all her life ano has had an eye for detail. As a en-story tree in her parents’ backyard com- te with “intricate little landings,” she ays. In middle school she transformed family’s toaster into a “superpow- d” appliance after carefully taking it and reworking it. “Those kinds of ngs just came very naturally to me,” . “Everyone said, ‘Oh, Joy is .’ But I always looked at world through product.” That way of looking at the world

Joy 2 she launched an empire by hawk- Mangano wn quirky invention on live levision: the now-ubiquitous Miracle op, a self-wringing contraption that allows you to clean the floor without getting your hands dirty. The rest is

MOP MOGUL Billio “When I’m designing a product, I dream about how it’s going to help someone,” says Mangano (at home with her Miracle Mop and, at right, Jennifer with her kids). Lawrence stars in Joy, a movie inspired by Mangano’s life.

FROM HUGGABLE HANGERS TO HOLLYWOOD: HOW A PLUCKY INVENTOR CREATED A HOME SHOPPING NETWORK EMPIRE AND INSPIRED A STAR-STUDDED MOVIE ABOUT HER LIFE By EMILY STROHM Photographs by JAKE CHESSUM

PEOPLE December 28, 2015 81 business history. Mangano has sold it was scary,” she says. She had met her more than $3 billion in products husband, Tony Miranne, as a student at throughout the course of her career— Pace University, but they split after 10 and now is playing years of marriage in 1989. She and her ex a character partly inspired by her in the stayed on good terms, and Miranne now new movie Joy, which opens Dec. 25. “I works for Mangano as a vice president have always been somewhat fearless, of her company Ingenious Designs. At and you have to be to a degree,” she the start, “as a single-mom female says. But millions and a movie are less inventor, there was no path, so really I important to Mangano than the pure don’t think people took me seriously for HER EARLY DAYS joy of inventing. “It’s so important to me,” she says “I would take over a really long time,” she says. “It was only after the of her knack for coming up with labor-saving de- the home section Miracle Mop that people started paying attention.” vices. “You want to make a difference for people.” of Kmart and demonstrate how to use the mop for shoppers,” says Mangano went on to launch several more success- In 1990 Mangano, who had worked as an airline res- Mangano (in 1989). ful products—and then, after spotting a thick vel- ervations manager, was newly divorced and raising vet hanger in a high-end couture store, she got the her three children, Christie, now 33, Robert, 32, and idea for her bestseller to date, Huggable Hangers.

Jackie, 30, when she developed the prototype for “I started dabbling with the idea of that velvety TOP: SLEEVELESS SILK YORK; NEW 148 LAFAYETTE VEST: SUEDE CREDITS) STYLING PAGE (PREVIOUS TRICOLA; STEPHANIE STYLIST: THOMPSON; D’ANGELO MAKEUP: HAIR; YAROK PRODUCTS YAROK USING ALVOW MORDECHAI HAIR: LETHR;PN:31PILPLM OTE TLAMCRNY PEIU AE EI ESILRWLAETETEHCNUYFX RMTP OREYJYMNAO POUT)CUTS USIESACHS(4) SUNSHINE COURTESY (PRODUCTS) MANGANO; JOY COURTESY TOP: FROM FOX; CENTURY WALLACE/TWENTIETH WEISMILLER MERIE PAGE) (PREVIOUS MCCARTNEY; STELLA BOOTIE: LIM; PHILLIP 3.1 PANT: TAHARI; ELIE her Miracle Mop. “I was always creating something surface, and I realized that was just perfect to hold and had little projects,” she says. “There was no the clothes,” she says. More than 700 million Hug- such thing as a self-wringing mop way back then.” gableHangershavebeensoldintheUnitedStates. She sold nearly 20,000 mops in under 20 minutes “Joy solves the problems we didn’t even know we on QVC, but Mangano admits her first big success had,” says HSN CEO Mindy Grossman. “Her mind wasn’t an easy feat. “I had no support system, and never shuts off. Any meeting or discussion creates

MIRACLE MOP Joy’sBestsellingProducts The self-wringing cotton mop was Mangano’s first successful COMFORT & JOY invention and MEMORYCLOUD PILLOW launched “We sold almost half a her career on million in a little over six television. hours,” says Mangano of the HUGGABLE HANGERS temperature-regulating The fuzzy, grippy pillow. “It’s insane!” hangers are the bestselling product in the history of electronic retailing. “There’s a science to hangers,” says Mangano.

MY LITTLE FOREVER STEAMER FRAGRANT Mangano created The scented sticks the portable are designed to steamer as an neutralize odors for ironing-board up to two years. alternative. ‘I don’t have to balance work and home life— it meshes together really beautifully’

a whirlpool of energy and ideas.” Her children all NEXT Cooper as a shopping-network exec. “It’s nothing work closely with Mangano: Robert and Christie GENERATION short of amazing,” says Mangano, who spent Mangano in as vice presidents at Ingenious and Jackie as a her whimsically hours on the phone with writer-director David O. style expert for HSN. They remember Mangano decorated yard Russell as he researched the script. “It’s surreal.” as den mother for all their friends. “People would with kids (from Despite her success, Mangano hasn’t forgotten literally call the house and ask for her,” says Chris- left) Jackie, about the struggles she faced at the start. So Christie and Robert tie. “Boy advice, life advice, which college to go to. Miranne. “We are she created the Foundation to She just has a magic touch.” all connected to help empower other entrepreneurs. “I think, Still, the family was stunned when they found the family business,” ‘If I had somebody there to wrap their arms out her life helped inspire the movie Joy, which says Jackie. around me and say, “Here is a little help” ’—if I can stars Lawrence as a single-mom entrepreneur just do that for one person or for multitudes of (MANGANO PUMP) PRADA along with as her dad and Bradley people, that’s amazing.” •

PEOPLE December 28, 2015 85