As it’s International Women’s Day, we thought nothing better than dedicating this month’s High Fives to a slice of the many (many) inspiring women and women-led companies out there making a difference in truly innovative, inspiring and practical ways.
Here are five who demonstrate that, yes, the needle is moving:
MAKERS
News-, history-, even trouble-, as its name implies, MAKERS celebrates women trailblazers who are making it happen. A hub of over 4,500 videos, 400 interviews, an app, a podcast and a Billboard No. 1 song (“This Is For My Girls”), if you want to #RaiseYourVoice, consider makers.com as fuel for your fire.
DOT
Launching, fittingly, today, Dot helps to empower women in developing countries through the use of a menstrual cup. Via their 1-for-1 model, for every cup purchased, a cup is donated to help a woman prioritize her education, work and community involvement without monthly interruption. (PS. If the idea of a cup is new for you, then check out dot’s helpful use guide here.)
KRISTEN BELL
We featured her back in Darling Issue No. 9, but we’ve long known that Kristen Bell has a pulse on using her influence for change. We’re excited to see her stepping into a new role as the very first global advocate for the Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), a United Nations and civil society partnership supporting women to prevent crises and build peace around the world.
CAUSEBOX
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfevKNTFAJf/?taken-by=causebox
In a quest to use our own influence for good, we came upon CAUSEBOX. They make it easy shop consciously by sending one box a month filled with beautiful and purposeful items that employ and empower women globally. Previous items include earrings that employed 358 artisans in Kenya and invested $23,000 in the local community, a custom-designed kimono that employed more than 150 artisans through the process of dyeing, printing, stitching and finishing, and handmade tea towels that employed 52 women and provided an education for 100 girls in India.
DRAKE’S “GOD’S PLAN” VIDEO
If this seems like an outlier on this list, stay with us. When we first saw this video, like most, we loved it. It’s a timely reminder of the power of service and connection in a world where we don’t see it enough — but then our Supervising Producer on self.i.e, Autumn Hymes, mentioned that the producer behind the scenes of this video was a woman, actually her own mentor, Fuliane Petikyan.
Through Autumn, we reached out to Fuliane to get her first-hand perspective on how this project came together. We think it’s such an amazing example of drive, resourcefulness and talent by an incredible woman who was able to bring together such an impactful piece of work in such a short amount of time:
“Its not everyday you get a call that says, ‘Hey would you like to help me give away 1 million dollars to the people of Miami? You only have two days to find all the people, lock locations, get permits, crew up and get releases for countless minors.’
Of course, I said yes. I was really blessed to have an amazing team of people including the city mayors, police and fire departments that came together to help make this happen. Every person that was part of this video had a backstory and had been through some sort of trauma; it was so amazing to see them being uplifted and inspired. This project made me realize why I love doing what I do and how blessed we are to be able to touch the lives of people.”
Have a great brand or project that you’d love to see shared? Be sure to tag #DarlingHighFives on social to keep us in the know!
Feature Image via Nick Glover
