Miss EmpowHer Blog

Celebrating the Miss EmpowHer Intern Team

The Miss EmpowHer internship program aims to provide interns with professional experience in the areas of business they are most interested in and passionate about. The internship program encourages teamwork as well as individual professional development and gives students the opportunity to creatively explore skills and potential careers in marketing, graphic design, public relations, and more. Here we highlight some of our interns’ most impactful projects and important findings in their work at Miss EmpowHer. We are grateful for our intern team and all the hard work they do to make Miss EmpowHer a product of their diverse interests, specialties, and visions. Becca Riopel, our Marketing Manager, recently focused on market research, designing a survey to gain insights about Miss EmpowHer’s target market that could be integrated in the strategic marketing plan for 2021. Becca’s research first identified Miss EmpowHer’s core values and how they establish our Target Market. She then conducted secondary research about the target market’s self-care interests and social media use and conducted a market research survey, which provided insight into consumers’ feelings towards advertising targeted to women as well as market trends. Read more about her project here. Alicia Robbins, a design intern at Miss EmpowHer, focused on drafting and designing new email campaigns using Klaviyo and Canva, including campaigns for Miss EmpowHer’s Black Friday hoodie launch and other sales that improved email marketing performance. Alicia also worked on designs for Miss EmpowHer’s embroidered hoodie collection and the Miss EmpowHer Pinterest account. She currently is working on video editing for our TikTok and Instagram accounts. Read more about her projects here. Samantha Casolaro, our Social Media Marketing Manager, recently created a brand guide for the Miss EmpowHer Instagram account. Her goal was to base the brand guide on the company’s goals, competitors, and inspirations. She used data about what practices had proved successful on the Miss EmpowHer website in the past as well as insight from customer interactions to develop the brand guide and plan social media feeds. Her project involved examining the Miss EmpowHer logo in the context of new color palettes, creating mood boards, researching feed inspirations, creating post templates, and establishing Instagram best practices. Read more about her project here. We are so proud of our wonderful intern team!

5 Black-Owned Fashion Brands to Support During Black History Month (& Every Month)

February is Black History Month, and with every purchase you make at a black-owned business, you are telling the world that it matters to support these businesses. There are SO many black clothing brands out there with beautiful, high-quality products and a great mission to empower people of color. Not only will you be supporting these brands if you purchase from them, but you will be providing opportunities for young Black entrepreneurs, designers, and employees.

Announcing the Black History Month Buy Black Challenge!

February is Black History Month, and you can celebrate by participating in the Buy Black Challenge. The Black History Month Buy Black Challenge encourages you to focus on supporting black-owned businesses during the month of February and beyond by familiarizing yourself with black-owned businesses, especially local ones. Start taking note of how often you are supporting black-owned businesses, and be intentional about buying from some of the many black business-owners and entrepreneurs that deserve your support. Supporting black-owned businesses during Black History Month and throughout the year helps close the racial wealth gap in the United States and allows small, black-owned businesses to flourish. It also encourages representation of black business-owners and entrepreneurs and increases familiarity with their businesses’ cultures and missions. By being intentional about supporting black-owned businesses, you can contribute to job creation that combats high unemployment rates for black Americans and closes the racial unemployment gap in the US. Supporting local black-owned businesses can foster local job creation and financial stability in communities near you, and Black History Month is a great time to start. Participate in the Black History Month Buy Black Challenge by placing an order from our black-owned business! Shop the Miss EmpowHer waist bead collection.

Miss EmpowHer Success Story: UNC Hussman School Graduate & Former Miss EmpowHer Intern lands full-time job at Top PR Firm during Covid-19

@ziruiyan "What I love about Miss EmpowHer is the freedom to choose what I wanted to work on. Through my internship, I honed my skills in digital marketing and public relations, as well as helped develop initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion. These experiences enabled me to have amazing stories to tell at job interviews. Moreover, Caitlyn can offer lots of career advice and opportunities that are truly helpful. You’ll also have the chance to meet and network with the smart and diverse team at Miss EmpowHer. I will cherish the lessons I learned during my time at Miss EmpowHer, which led me to my career at FleishmanHillard today"- Jerry (Zirui) Yan

Why #BUYBLACK Friday?

Support black-owned businesses this Black Friday! Facebook’s Buy Black Friday initiative aims to support black-owned businesses like Miss EmpowHer during the holiday season. Facebook’s new app has features that encourage users to post when they support these businesses and highlights small business owners. The Buy Black Friday initiative also provides toolkits and resources for black-owned businesses like Miss EmpowHer. Most of your holiday shopping might be done online this year, but you can still find ways to support black-owned businesses, which have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook is promoting #BuyBlack Friday as part of a 3-month long “season for support for small businesses”. Miss EmpowHer is a woman-owned and black-owned brand that you can support during #BuyBlack Friday and throughout the holiday season! We appreciate all of our customers’ support for small business and our mission of women empowerment. Use your gifting this season to spread Miss EmpowHer’s message of empowerment and of body positivity to the women you love and make a difference while you get your holiday shopping done or treat yourself! Help make this season prosperous for your favorite socially impactful businesses!

Miss EmpowHer supports women's groups through new Fundraising Initiative

Miss EmpowHer wants to help women’s groups and organizations meet their fundraising goals during COVID-19. We know how challenging fundraising can be during these difficult and unpredictable times. In the spirit of our brand’s mission to celebrate and empower women, Miss EmpowHer created the Women Supporting Women Fundraising Initiative to collaborate with women’s organizations and support their fundraising efforts. We work with groups such as sororities, women employee resource groups, women-focused mentoring programs, and women-focused non-profits to support their goals and members, especially now when it is especially difficult to raise funds in the wake of the economic impact of COVID-19. Here’s how it works! If your organization is interested in fundraising with us, email missempowher@gmail.com. Decide on a fundraiser date. We’ll send you promotion flyers so you can build awareness and support for your fundraiser, and then your group will receive 25% of the proceeds from the fundraiser. Join our growing list of participants such as The National Council of Negro Women, Inc. at UNC-Chapel Hill in our Women Supporting Women Fundraising Initiative!

How to Achieve Your Goals

We all have things that we want to achieve in both our personal lives and careers, but taking the first step towards those achievements can be the hardest part of reaching them. The key to getting that dream job, getting back on track with your fitness routine, or whatever achievement you want to work towards is goal-setting. Especially in the midst of a pandemic, it can be hard to get in the groove of working towards a goal, and it is easy to feel distracted and unmotivated. Here are our tips to help you reach your goals, whether they’re professional ambitions or just something that is going to make you feel your best self. Accountability is key! One of the most important parts of goal-setting. Tell your friends about your goal and keep them updated on your progress, or write down what you want to accomplish and how. Make note of the progress you make, too! Find a healthy way to measure progress. It’s important to track the hard work you’re putting in, but it’s also important to be patient with yourself. Achieving your goals, big or small, will take time! Figure out a positive way to keep yourself on track without being too hard on yourself. Harsh ways of tracking progress will make you feel less motivated in the long run. Be patient with yourself! Understanding that you will have off days and forgiving yourself for those off days is one of the only ways you’ll be able to stick to your goals long-term. Treat yourself with the same support and positivity that you would show a friend working towards their goals. Celebrate your successes! Whether it’s patting yourself on the back or sharing your achievements with your friends, acknowledging your progress along the way will help you stay motivated long-term. Keeping your focus requires rewarding yourself for how far you have come and celebrating your progress will make you want to work even harder for the next milestone. Remember what you’re working for. While you’re working towards your goals, it is important to keep in mind what you want to gain from your hard work and why. Maintain a healthy relationship with your goals by prioritizing what made you set the goal in the first place. This will add meaning and a sense of fulfillment to all the progress you make! Set milestones. It’s easy to set high expectations for ourselves that seem overwhelming. Setting clear milestones along the way can turn a mountain of a process into small, manageable hills that will lead you to your end goal! Remember that there’s no time like the present to set goals that will make you feel like your best self. Go get ‘em!

60 Days and Counting: Miss EmpowHer Turns 2-Months Old

The 2-month mark is only a beginning for us. We’ll continue the journey and come up with newly developed products, whilst sticking with our purpose to empower women and build a community to uplift underrepresented groups. As we go back to school, we’re looking to welcome more people to join Team Miss EmpowHer for the Fall semester. You can apply here!