Check Out These 4 Businesses Started by Girls with Impact Grads During COVID-19
We are living in a time of change and opportunity. While COVID-19 has rocked all of our worlds, there is very much a desire amongst our grads to push forward and find solutions during the pandemic. The graduates of our live, online Academy are making incredible strides by turning their passions into businesses while offering services and products that are only currently in the market. We are thrilled for their strides, which was even recently featured in The New York Times and CNN!
Check out more about some of our recent graduates who part of the change during COVID.
Interview with Girls with Impact Grads
1. Amira Archibald, 15, New York – Melanin Magic
What was your entrepreneurial experience like?
When I was 9, I started taking entrepreneurial/financial classes at The World of Money, which then inspired me to create a mini couture line, Amira's Creations.
Tell us more about your interest in fashion?
I began to take fashion design classes after learning to sew at 8. I've always been interested in fashion but I started to become more creative with clothing after I learned how to create my own clothes.
What organizations are you looking to donate to?
I don't want to donate to only Black Lives Matter, but several organizations on a monthly basis using 10% of my profit.
What kind of clothes are you selling through Melanin Magic?
I plan to start off with shirts, hoodies, and hats (maybe eventually branching out to more) with pro - black messages.
What's the story behind the name?
Since I wanted to create a pro - black line, I wanted to have a name associated with blackness. Since melanin is what makes people darker, and one of the features many black people have, and take pride in is having melanin. From there, I came up with "Melanin Magic" because I've heard of Black Girl Magic, and I wanted to put a twist on that including different types of Black people, and not just women/girls.
2. Neha Shukla, 15, Harrisburg, PA – CEO, SixFeetApart
Tell us more about your venture!
When the Covid-19 pandemic was getting worse, i noticed people outdoors. Through my window I could see people weren’t following social distancing guidelines. They didn’t realize they weren’t staying six feet apart. I thought it would be interesting to just be 100% sure you’re being safe.
How does it work?
The sensor detects when someone or something has crossed the six-foot marker line.
What’s your hope for your venture?
I want to make it a household thing -- easy to use and everyone has it. It could even be marketed by big medical companies to prevent the spread of the virus. As we re-open, a lot of us might not be following social distancing.
Read more about Six Feet Apart in The New York Times!
3. Kristen St. Louis, 17, MirrorMe Diversity
Tell us more about Mirror Me Diversity and when it’s launching?
Mirror Me Diversity is part passion project and part social justice initiative. Over the past three months, Mirror Me Diversity has progressed from a mere business plan on paper to an actual organization impacting real people. M.M.D has not launched officially, but we have begun establishing it within the Connecticut community through a book drive partnered with the educational enrichment program for Hartford youth called Horizons at The Ethel Walker School.
With donations from around the state, we collected over 500 books and $500, all of which were donated to distribute diverse children's books to the young girls in Horizons. Since I am still 17, I will be gathering my Advisory Board and teen reader volunteers so that we can officially launch Mirror Me Diversity as a legal not-for-profit next March (you need to be 18 in New York State to legally own a not-for-profit). Until then, we will be gathering diverse book reviews, updating our website, and preparing for the big launch in March of 2021.
What are your hopes for Mirror Me Diversity?
On a grand scale, Mirror Me Diversity hopes to allow the youth of today, as well as those who care about youth (like parents and teachers), to expose themselves to diverse characters and storylines that will prepare them to be the inclusive leaders of tomorrow. On a more personal scale, Mirror Me Diversity hopes to help youth maintain interest in reading throughout their adolescence and beyond. After all, diverse and interesting stories promise a more intrigued reader.
As for the business itself, my ultimate hope is to have Mirror Me Diversity become a widespread resource for youth, educators, and families nationwide. I want to have partnerships with schools where they get consistently updated lists on age appropriate diverse books and are truly able to help their students read about worlds greater than their own. I want teenagers to have the website bookmarked on their google accounts so they can check for new reading lists often. I am eager to have two to three book drives per year for various youth orientated organizations. Lastly, I hope authors and publishing companies heed the call to write and release more diverse books by diverse authors, so we have a cycle of more books being written for more children to read them. Those are my hopes.
Check out her feature on CNBC!
4. Kayli Joy Cooper, LA – Girl Well
How did seeing homeless kids in your neighborhood make you feel?
While I didn’t grow up in a neighborhood that had. Growing up in Atlanta where there is a high density of homelessness I always viewed them through a lens of confusions and something to fear. But that all changed when I went on a mission trip into the heart of the city where I got the opportunity to serve and see that the homeless are just like you and I. They are real people with real stories and the only thing that separates us is 1 or 2 paychecks. From that point on a fire grew inside of me to not only learn more but to serve a population that is oftentimes overlooked.
Why did you decide self-care kits were the best way to support them?
We are in this day in age where mental health, wellness, and self care are at the forefront of many conversations, but the way we talk about self care is only accessible to a certain group of people. Every girl deserves the opportunity to experience the benefit of self care. Every girl deserves to be well.
What are in the kits?
Everything in the self care kit promotes either physical, mental, or emotional wellness. Our goal for physical wellness is to provide comforters with items like soothing face masks and comfy fuzzy socks. Our goal for mental wellness is to provide a sense of calm. To do that we include items like a mindfulness journal. And our goal for emotional wellness is to provide a sense of support by including items like handwritten notes from me as well as a list of organizations that can provide support and care that meet many different needs.
How does it inspire self-love?
Self love starts with wellness and wellness begins with acceptance. In a world that is constantly telling you you're not good enough, you have to find those things that make you feel happy and whole and erase the negative narratives that swirl among you. Being a teen is hard, especially now with the internet, by providing these items it’s my hope that the Girl Well self care kits would help teens in tough situations value and love themselves a little bit more.
How do they get distributed?
Short term my goal is to prove how powerful Girl Well can be to those that it’s trying to serve. I am currently waiting for some responses from shelters with high youth populations around LA to see if their teenage girls can benefit from Girl Well kits. If so, specifically with COVID I would most likely be dropping off the Girl Well kits in bulk at the shelters. Long term I picture a day where anyone in the country that wants to sponsor Girl Well kits will be able to through a subscription service, also partnering with big beauty brands to sponsor a month's worth of bags with products from their lines, thus being able to reach girls all throughout the US.
Check out her feature on CNN!
Our girls are learning the tools that they need to make an impact in the world! Join us for our next live, online session (Starting on September 14th) where girls ages 12-18 will learn how to turn their passions into a business!. Check out more here!