Last weekend, I binged the new Mindy Kaling–created Gen Z workplace comedy, Not Suitable for Work, on a whim. (Don’t judge.) In one scene, an enterprising first-year investment bank analyst badly wants in on a deal fronted by Sara Blakely, the real-life founder of Spanx who, in the show, is seeking to acquire an intimates company for $50 million. The surprise cameo reminded me that it’s been a full generation since Blakely founded Spanx with $5,000 and a proto-girlboss outlook that often saw her hawking the creation—a footless control-top pantyhose that sculpts the body and doesn’t bulk—to department stores, herself. Pretty quickly, Spanx became the national metonym for modern shapewear and made Blakely a billionaire by the age of 41.