On Dec 5th, L’Oreal will reveal the winners of its 13th annual Women of Worth Awards.
These awards -given by one of the biggest beauty companies in the world, are given to women empowering other women. It is great to see such a big beauty company like L’Oreal which not only has its L’Oreal Paris line of makeup, skincare, and haircare products, but owns such beauty companies as Maybelline, Redken, Lancome, YSL Beauty, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, Giorgio Armani Beauty, NYX Cosmetics, Garnier, Essie Nails, Keratase, Matrix, Pureology, Decleor, IT Cosmetics and others, making an effort to support women who empower other women like those mentioned below.
Some of the amazing young women nominated this year include:
Shreya Mantha Age: 17
FOUNDATION FOR GIRLS
At just 13 years old, Shreya Mantha was tutoring sex-trafficking survivors to help them get their GEDs. Before her grandmother passed away from cancer, she told Shreya that many girls around the world need help and she wished Shreya would continue to support underprivileged girls. To fulfill her grandmother’s wish, Shreya set out on a mission to empower girls in crises and started making a difference in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, where the need is abundant. Charlotte is at the bottom of the list of major cities for economic mobility. Also, there is a 4.4% probability that a child reaches the top quintile of the national income distribution starting from a family in the bottom quintile in Charlotte. To do her part, in 2014 at just 13 years old, Shreya established Foundation For Girls, a youth-led social venture to change the life-trajectory of at-risk girls through a network of “caring coaches” and programs in Digital Literacy, Financial Wellness, Leadership, and Health and Wellbeing. Shreya partners with local community organizations, students, and professionals to coach girls in shelters, crisis centers, and afterschool programs. Working with trafficking survivors, teen moms, homeless, and refugees she gives them hope, aspiration, and scaffolding so that they can take charge of their futures. Shreya gives them access to coaches and tools they need to realize their full potential, find their passions, and become strong, confident, and self-reliant women. By June 2018, Foundation for Girls has reached 1,480 girls and youth since inception while conducting 298 workshops and investing over 14,000 hours in changing the life-trajectory of girls in crisis.
Alisha Zhao Age: 20
KIDS FIRST PROJECT
When Alisha Zhao first volunteered at a family homeless shelter at age 14, she was surrounded by children who shared hopes of becoming dancers, doctors, and even the president of the United States. While these dreams were inspiring, they opened Alisha’s eyes to the unmet needs of youth experiencing homelessness and led Alisha to found the Kids First Project in 2015 to help bridge the gap between a child experiencing homelessness and the resources they need to help them reach their full potential. Through a unique approach that brings extracurricular programs directly to kids living in shelters, Kids First Project offers peer mentoring, physical activities, arts and crafts, tutoring, life skills classes, monthly field trips, and themed programs from puzzle to poetry nights. Kids First Project also supports parents and gives them time to relax, find housing, and focus on themselves through enrichment programs that offer civic and government programs to educate adults about their rights as a homeless individual.
Today the Kids First Project serves 10 locations with more than 400 volunteers in the Portland and San Francisco Bay areas – serving approximately 500 families who are experiencing homelessness each year.
Hannah Dehradunwala Age: 25
TRANSFERNATION
Growing up in Pakistan, Hannah Dehradunwala was accustomed to a culture that never let anything go to waste. When she returned to the U.S. as a student at NYU, Hannah was struck by the amount of excess food that was being discarded after catered on-campus events. After an unsuccessful search for organizations that would help her donate leftover food, she was inspired to create Transfernation, a platform for companies and corporate hospitality groups to donate extra food through on-demand pickups, and provide healthy, fresh food options to those in need of food assistance. The platform uses trusted independent contractors, including ride-share drivers and bike messengers, to pick up leftover catering and deliver it to community-based organizations that then feed hungry New Yorkers.
Transfernation created a new pipeline for the rescue and use of much-needed food resources in New York City by empowering community organizations, reducing their overall environmental footprint, and decreasing food waste in the process and with the use of their mobile app, donors are quickly able to donate food to a community in need. To date, through partnerships with 28 contractors and 16 community organizations, Transfernation has rescued 530,000 pounds of food and provided 510,000 meals to those without reliable access to food sources.
Holly Jacobs Age: 35
CYBER CIVIL RIGHTS INITIATIVE (CCRI)
Holly Jacobs’ life was turned upside down when nude photographs of herself she shared privately with someone she was in a relationship with surfaced on the internet in 2011 without her consent and exposing her identity. Desperate for resources to protect herself, Holly wanted run and hide from the world. Instead, she channeled her strength and chose to fight back — for herself and other victims of nonconsensual porn (NCP, AKA “revenge porn”). In 2012, Holly launched the End Revenge Porn campaign, which started as an effort to gather signatures in favor of creating a federal law against NCP. Her initiative evolved into the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a nonprofit organization serving thousands of victims around the world and advocating for technological, social, and legal innovation to fight online abuse and discrimination.
Today, CCRI serves thousands of victims around the world, and of the 41 states and DC that currently have laws against this, CCRI advised legislators on drafting NCP legislation in 30 of those states, DC, and the federal government. Since the establishment of the CCRI Crisis Helpline in 2014, it has served an average of 100-200 victims of NCP or online harassment per month. In 2017 alone, CCRI’s Crisis Helpline served 2,609 callers.
To vote: go to https://www.lorealparisusa.com/women-of-worth
