Humans of Khmer America

Angelica Anpelica

Khmerican: Introduce yourself.
Angie: I’m Angie Ortiz. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m the founder of Frillwit® For Real With It®, a beach and athletic lifestyle apparel company based in Gardena, California.

Khmerican: When did you get into fitness?
Angie: I’ve been into fitness forever. The word “fit” means staying in good health. I liked being healthy. I grew up breakdancing, which gave me a lot of upper body strength. I did moves like windmills and head spins, hand stands, swipes, handsprings and never can get the flare but loved dancing. Fifteen years ago I got into lifting weights. I started working out with one of my co-workers who was a body builder and we practiced on building muscle memory. I just loved building strength. I fell in love with feeling good.

Khmerican: What inspired you to create FrillWit?
Angie: I grew up drawing, painting, writing music, and doing everything that involved art. I was an aspiring rapper. I loved making music and staying active. But I got involved in the auto industry to pay bills and was doing the same thing everyday for years. I stopped doing what I loved. I found myself not having a real day off at the current place I was working at because I worked so much. I fell out of shape. I got depressed and felt trapped. I was lucky enough that I wasn’t on autopilot though because I started thinking of a plan.

I used to get coffee every morning with the internet manager at my job. And he’d talk so much about hating his job and wanting to get out. And I was thinking, why don’t you leave then? But he never did. He is still there to this day. Anyways, I didn’t want to be one of those people that talked so much and didn’t do anything about it so I talked to my brother about getting Frillwit® going. And he gave me the best advice. He said do it. So I did.

Khmerican: How has your life changed since becoming an entrepreneur?
Angie: I am smarter than I was yesterday and everything I do is for the benefit of the company. I’m doing what I love and it brings me so much joy to be able to be creative again. I feel like I reversed my aging just because I am so much happier. I’m always thinking of a way to become better and its definitely been worth it.

Khmerican: Where do you see your company and yourself 10 years from now?
Angie: I don’t know. I really just go with the flow. I’m opening a store in one of my favorite malls in the South Bay. If all goes according to plan, I’ll open more stores. Spread the vibe. But will definitely be on the grind of something that matters to me. The hustle won’t stop.

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