An Interview with Julia Macmillan

Founder of ToyBoyWarehouse.com

Julia Macmillan is an artist, sculptor and entrepreneur. In 2007 she set up the dating site ToyBoyWarehouse.com in an attempt to challenge the traditionally held view that women should have relationships with men older than themselves. The site has attracted thousands of feisty independent women looking for fun, and even more good-looking men who appreciate intelligence and a decent conversation.

Although the site was started in the UK, Julia plans to expand into other countries - great news, both for women who want to meet partners whose interests extend beyond the golf course, and for men who are bored with dating irritating airheads.  

The Basics

1. Name

Julia Macmillan

2. Web/Blog address

www.toyboywarehouse.com

http://dontcallmeacougar.com

3. Where do you live?

   a. Are you from there originally?

   b. Where else have you lived?

a. London

b. Rome for 8 years

4. What is your living situation?

   a. Partner?

   b. Kids?

a. No - I am allergic to co-habitation.

b. No, never wanted them.

5. Job?

   a. How long?

   b. What other jobs have you had?

Self-employed all my life. Fashion designer, costume designer in the Italian film business, artist and now internet entrepreneur.

The Tough Ones

1. Summarize your entire life in 10 words or less.

Adventure, risk, original ideas, seeing things afresh, breaking the mould.

2. Tell us what your typical day is like currently.

Seeing geeks, seeing media and PR people, planning our VIP launch.

3. Tell us about the person that has had the most profound impact on your life:

   a. During the last five years

   b. From the very beginning

The answer to both of those is my mother. She is almost 80 and has a toyboy 20 years younger. She's never been bothered what other people think of her and has forged her own path. She's highly intelligent and a role model for me. Plus at 79 she told me she's having the best sex of her life! Can't be bad!

4. What is the greatest trauma you have ever experienced in your life and how did that impact you?

When my first business collapsed after 5 years hard work.

I was in my late twenties and had set up a fashion business and put all my inheritance into it. I was too young to understand the way to make a business fly and lost everything. It was the darkest period of my life as I had lost everything and felt a failure, as most of my contemporaries were earning great salaries and I had gone down the do-it-yourself route and it hadn't worked.

It was only later, in retrospect, that I really understood how useful that experience was and how much I'd learnt from it.

5. What is the greatest joy or achievement you have ever experienced in your life and how did that impact you?

My first art exhibition was a sell-out and that was a total joy. People were buying pictures from cabs on their credit cards seeing them in the window of the gallery. It was the most enormous ego boost and encouraged me to continue with my art.

6. Let's pretend your life is a blank slate for 1 year - no partner, kids, job, baggage of any sort. You can reinvent yourself completely and take a year to do exactly what you want without any consequence to your current life. How would you spend that year?

I actually am doing exactly what I want to be doing and couldn't imagine anything better.

7. What (if anything) are you able to do better now than at any other time in your life?

I've become a geek and love the way the internet changes our lives. I'm fascinated by tech stuff and having started a dating community without any knowledge of how things work, which was a steep learning curve. I now use my creativity and my technical knowledge to try and do things that other people aren't.

Rapid Fire

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