Team Brilliant

A LITTLE PERSONAL STUFF, BECAUSE WE LEAD BUSY, FUN AND INSPIRED LIVES.

Be Brilliant Bags is a luxury handbag company that designs handbags with a purpose. With your purchase, you are fueling the dreams of entrepreneurs with 10% of each sale supporting initiatives to help women succeed in business. By funding scholarships, in partnership with the National Association of Women Business Owners and our own Be Brilliant Foundation, we are contributing to the growth of others. There is success in the sisterhood. Women for women, promoting achievement, creating opportunities to lead and inspire. Through our company, we have grown our own dreams to design purses with purpose to empower other women to succeed. We created Be Brilliant Bags with a $1 ruler, a spiral notebook, and creative vision -- birthing this company with sheer moxie and determination. And we believe if you can dream it, you can achieve it, too.



Founders & Designers, Andrea (left) & Marsa (right)

Our Story

So we tried to purchase a bag that would solve that problem. A tote that looked elegant — pretty even — and also allowed us to neatly and conveniently carry all of the things we need to get us through our busy days — our laptops, smartphones, a change of heels, perhaps, and even our workout wear.

And what did we discover?

From shopping trips to New York City's Fifth Avenue, to multiple boutique visits across the country, nothing in the marketplace paired function and fashion in the way we wanted or could envision.

So we have manufactured our dream bags to help all women like us organize their day seamlessly — without compromising style. And with support from powerful mentors and some very detailed research, our company, Be Brilliant Bags was born.

As seasoned travelers and businesswomen, we created our line from our experiences as discriminating shoppers and astute consumers — using our passion and determination to carry this vision through.

Heard the saying "If you can dream it, you can achieve it?" We're absolute proof that indeed, building something from the ground up is not only possible but a wonderful challenge.

It's our hope that in carrying our bags, it will inspire you to "Be Brilliant."

Andrea Billups

Andrea is a native of West Virginia — and yes, a proud Southern belle. Her grandmother was a horse-back riding midwife, and rode through the hills for decades delivering babies. So a little derring-do determination is rooted deeply in her genes. Her personal Twitter page notes: "Please underestimate me" - and that's both dare and personal superlative. Andrea — her closest call her "Miss Andrea" and you should, too — has had a long career as a journalist, reporting from Congress, the White House, on the campaign trail and around the nation. Her media experience has put her in the center of a hurricane and on celebrity red carpets. She's also worked as a media consultant, advising businesses on how to tell and sell their stories, and as a professor, teaching communications and journalism students how to dig up the truth and share it. Miss Andrea loves God, pink, DVF, her rescue dog Labby Sue, along with all things weird and unique — especially smart people and creative risk-takers who love to share the gifts of their wisdom.

Marsa Truscott

Marsa “She packed up her potential and all she had learned, grabbed a cute pair of shoes and headed out to change a few things,” pretty much captures Marsa's vibe. She has had a wide array of career experiences, traveling the worlds of politics, music, image consulting and retail product manufacturing. One would not expect someone in the field of design to have had worked for a senator, a governor, a President and toured with a major music act. Marsa has her finger on the pulse of marketing, branding and sales in today’s world. She brings varied career experiences and rock solid business acumen to Be Brilliant. Marsa is as much about working hard as she is about having fun. She loves to travel, and loves to travel even more with her famous circus dog sidekick, Mr. Cooper. Marsa peppers her life with window shopping, entertaining new and old friends and giving the unexpected gift. Creating new concepts, reframing existing products and satisfying the needs of today's woman is definitely Marsa's sweet spot.

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