In early 2013, Bobbi Brown and cosmetics company launched a campaign called ‘Pretty Powerful’ which was aimed at celebrating women’s empowerment and teaming up with various non-profit organizations to elevate women in society.
Bobbi’s mantra is that all women are pretty without makeup, but with the right makeup they can be pretty powerful, making the best of what you’ve got.
In the newest phase of the PP campaign they are directing their focus a little younger and aiming to empower girls to help them get educated, and break the cycle of poverty. How are they going to do this? By teaming up with another non-profit, Girl Rising.
Yes, they are the organization behind the popular documentary of the same name, which you can watch on Netflix.
“65 million girls around the world do not attend school. Two-thirds of the 792 million illiterate adults in the world are female. 14 million girls under 18 will be married this year. That’s 38 thousand today–or 13 girls in the last 30 seconds. When girls marry, their education almost always comes to an end,” says the campaign home page.
“Educating girls can break the cycle of poverty in just one generation. An educated girl can empower herself, lift her family out of poverty, help her community prosper, and change her country.”
“Pretty Powerful is a campaign that focuses on confidence,” said Bobbi Brown about the next phase of the campaign. “Nothing makes a woman or girl feel more confident than being educated and gaining the knowledge and skills to better her life and the lives of her family and community.”
Where the cosmetics company comes in is with their product line. They plan to roll out a series of events and makeup products in an effort to create increased awareness about the barriers to education that millions of girls around the world face each day that boys do not.
At a recent event in Los Angeles to celebrate the new phase of Pretty Powerful, Bobbi told Forbes’ Sarah Boyd that the message of the campaign is closely aligned with the mission and philosophy of her cosmetics empire.
“As a brand that empowers women…it’s all about education.Girl Rising educates girls globally and I believe that giving them the best education will get them independence.”
The notion of empowering women where they are in life, through their appearance, and through external values such as education and finance seem to go hand in hand for Bobbi, and it is certainly something to think about for all of us. When we talk about female empowerment, why should it just focus on one particular aspect of life, when it should be all en-compassing?
We love supporting campaigns like this which not only aim to elevate women and give them a hope for a future, but also show society that women are multifaceted, complex and capable human beings.
