Debbi Fields

  b. 1956 | American entrepreneur

At The Bottom

— 1976

"I was blonde, and people figured I had no brains. Growing up, my sisters nicknamed me Stupid."

Debbi Fields was starting to hate being around other married couples.  A native of Oakland, Fields had recently married a Stanford graduate, and she felt self-conscious about the fact that she – unlike most of the women she met through her husband — had never gone to college and did not have a career or much of a life outside her home.  As a kid, she had never had many hobbies (aside from baking cookies), and she was never a strong student in school. As Fields recalled in 2004, “I was young, had no college credentials, and came from little means.  I was blonde, and people figured I had no brains.  Growing up, my sisters nicknamed me Stupid.'” Now, Debbi Fields was young and married and eager to prove that she could make something more of herself. “When people asked me what I did, I’d say, ‘I’m a housewife’ and they’d walk away. I decided right then that I never wanted to feel that way again.” She wanted to open a small shop and sell cookies, but everyone in her life warned her that her lack of education and business experience would lead to quick failure.