A N Etwork to Empower an D Cel Eb Ra Te Femal Es From
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The Empowerment Project |ISSUE01 A NETWORK TO EMPOWER AND CELEBRATE FEMALES FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE WOMEN Are 7 OUR MISSION 8 WOMEN ARE... 15 WOMEN IN HISTORY 21 WOMEN WITH WINGS 40 WOMEN IN THE ARTS 60 A TOOLKIT 70 ADVICE TO MY YOUNGER SELF 72 RESOURCES The Empowerment Project CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS CONTENTS 2 3 NEVER STOP HYPING UP Dedicated to my Mam who has always pushed me to grab STRANGERS IN every opportunity and taught me the value of hardwork. WOMENS BATHROOMS 4 5 THE EMPOWERMENT PROJECT The empowerment project is a movement to raise awareness and empower all women. This edition features female philanthropists, female designers, a toolkit to a more positive & empowering outlook and advice from women of all walks of life. OUR MISSION We are here to celebrate women everywhere. For all the women who have been told they are not good enough, for women who have ever doubted themselves & their ability. For women who basically need a some positive vibes and a reminder that they are KICK ASS! WOMEN Are 6 MADE BY : SUNDAY GIRL MAGAZINE 7 A YEAR OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT created a place where girls from the newer generations can educate themselves to become more inclusive, I don’t mean to sound like the speech by outspoken, confident and equal in the world we live Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Beyoncé song, in today. Gurls Talk sets a good example for younger Flawless, but girls have always been taught to generations of the future within women’s culture. compete with each other when we should be lifting and helping each other climb to the top. Now more Another platform bringing girls together is creative than ever, us girls need to stick together and the only agency, Baby Face. By using the tool of networking, way we are going to succeed and be the best we can founders Claire Burman and Nellie Eden created a be, is through girl empowerment. website to showcase undiscovered, talented women. Baby Face started in 2014 and the females’ work ranges Recently in London and New York there have been from music, art, fashion, journalism, activism, DJ-ing, women’s marches protesting for equality for all sexes make-up, photography, creative directing and more. and gender identities, and looking through social By bringing these female creatives all together, they media and seeing women stand together fighting for are able to collaborate and support one another within something so passionately, is what we need more of their industries, making it an all-inclusive space where in 2018. With platforms on the Internet, it is easy to women are able to work as one and create wonderful find inspirational people and brands whose ethos stuff together. So far they have worked with brands involve, ‘by girls, about girls, for girls’. What better such as Urban Outfitters, River Island, Hello Kitty, Nike way to start the year than to get rid of the people who and Dr. Martens. After finding the female talent and the make you feel shitty when scrolling through your support of brands like these, they produce everything feeds, and instead replacing them with people who from look books, zines, exercise classes, video content are here to empower and spread a positive message. and even have a regular podcast on NTS Radio. Their goal is to find as many women as possible to share First up is Gurls Talk - a movement created by their ideas and work and inspire other females to reach 2017’s model of the year, Adwoa Aboah. They strive the goals they want to within their creative spaces. to create a platform where girls can openly share their experiences in a safe and trusted environment. One fashion brand that stands for equality and oozes Their website is a space where issues are addressed feminist qualities, from their choice of seamstresses and shared about what it means to be a girl in to the models they choose to for advertisements, is A YEAR the 21st century. Girls can submit articles, stories, Birdsong. They are an online fashion brand set up poems and illustrations, expressing and embodying by Sophie Slater and Sarah Beckett in London. Their empowerment in society. In 2016 Adwoa made a tagline is, ‘no sweatshop, no photoshop’, making sure set of documentaries, using her experiences from every part of the design process is fair and equal. Their depression and addiction to get girls around the ethos is all about making a change for the women that world talking about mental health, body image and work in the design processes within the fashion and sexuality. The three-part documentary was filmed textile industry, particularly working with women who OF FEMALE in America and talks to women who are trying to have been treated unfairly in the past. All of the clothes break down the boundaries that society has put in featured on the website are made by various women’s place for us as females. The stories involved the ‘free groups, including migrants and old women who have the nipple’ movement; stigmas attached to being rare skills, giving them a platform to showcase their a stripper; a female biker group invading a ‘mans talent and work. What makes this brand even more so world’; and how menstruating should no longer empowering is their choice to not photoshop or edit be kept a secret. By sharing stories like this, they any of their images. This gives the brand’s consumers EMPOWERMENT have gotten huge recognition and have ultimately a more truthful and real portrayal of beauty for the 8 9 modern generation of girls and women to look up to that young girls and women have always had to put and admire. Beauty standards and fair trade within up with but is rarely spoken about, but thanks to the fashion industry is constantly being criticized, Cheer Up Luv, brave women now have a place to share and it’s refreshing to finally see brands like Birdsong their stories and spread awareness world wide. responding to these problems in a positive and successful way. All of these platforms and women involved have used a different part of the creative industry to react to Another female creative spreading awareness of the issues within women’s culture, responding to women’s issues, through the form of imagery, is negative aspects and creating a space for awareness founder of Cheer Up Luv, Eliza Hatch. This personal to turn into positivity. Historically women haven’t project was created in 2017 and was inspired by an been given the same opportunities and visibility experience she had when a man in the street told as men but 2018 is the year where feminism and her to ‘cheer up’ – something she got told frequently girl empowerment grows stronger, making sure we to do by strangers. The photojournalism series as women are educating ourselves in the best way, shares women’s stories of street harassment along buying clothes that are supportive of other women, with a photo of them at the location of where the and aiming to be apart of industries where girls can street harassment took place. With the claims and help each other out instead of compete against each stories coming to light within the media about other. sexual harassment, Cheer Up Luv has huge relevance towards women’s issues in modern culture. Recently Words by Natalie Blaine Eliza has been on BBC News to talk about her project, spreading awareness and breaking down the stigma about this very common and relatable matter that has been somewhat normalised for women to endure in the streets when it should be stopped. Wolf whistling and harassment in the streets is something IMAGES : CHEERUPLUV.COM 10 11 I Always Knew I Was A Feminist. It’s not really a in a position where many men and women have word or a label I have ever had to put on myself. wanted to debate this topic with me and sort There wasn’t a shining, light bulb going off of ‘prove me wrong.’ I am happy to have healthy moment when I thought, ‘yup that’s it I’m a discussion but in some cases I have found it rather feminist now!’ My parents brought me up in a difficult to get my point across and heard and I feminist way and I’m not even sure they knew have found that I want something in my armoury. that’s what they were doing either; I just consider Something to back up my arguments, more than them good people with good values. They certainly just centuries of oppression and patriarchal made me believe that I was capable of doing society, I mean perhaps I’m just making that up anything I set my mind to and that I was no right!? I find that often people respond well to different to any man or woman. But then out in facts, cold, hard, undisputable facts. Even science. the real world, that’s not always what I found. I mean almost everyone agrees that science just I’ve found that this social construct that we call states the facts right!? Wrong. It seems that the patriarchy is so entrenched in peoples minds it latest research, in Angela Saina’s incredible book can really get in the way and feel incredibly sharp, Inferior- How science got women wrong and new painful and nasty to be on the receiving end of research that’s rewriting the story, suggests that sometimes. Chances are that most people reading women have been screwed over by science in more this piece will know what I’m referring to through ways than one.