Toward the Stars: Empowering Girls

It’s not often you come across a person who so believes in their vision so much that they are willing to put it all on the line to make it a reality. Ines Almeida, the creator of Toward the Stars, is such a person. Her journey to create a global marketplace for empowering gifts for girls has been one of determination and hard work. She quit her job and put all of her life savings into Toward The Stars because of her desire to create a venue with a single purpose: to help reduce all threats to girlhood that crush our girls’ true nature and potential.

The New Girlie-Girl Culture:

Best-selling author, Peggy Orenstein, writes about how the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as the source of female empowerment in her book Cinderella Ate My Daughter and how this is affecting our girls today. With the commercialization of pink and pretty we are seeing higher risks of depression, rising rates of narcissism, and premature sexualization. (Source: Cinderella Ate My Daughter). Last year when my daughter was five, we had to go to the “boys” section to buy any toys for her as she is into science kits, Hot Wheels and Lego’s. These are items you don’t usually see in the “girl” section. It is encouraging for me to see these women help bring to light this stereotyping of girls into pink and princesses.

Countering Stereotypes:

Ines Almeida is on a quest to change this and Toward the Stars welcomes products that counter stereotypes, gender neutral items, as well as items that contribute to the well being of girls all over the world. Every entrepreneur that joins Toward The Stars has to agree to a very strict and highly inspirational guidelines of what can be sold in the marketplace. Ines explains that “it is a shared space for our community, where we bring together parents, educators, entrepreneurs and activists, anyone can join, anyone can set up a shop, we are united by our commitment to create a better world for all of our children.” (Source: Toward the Stars website).

I had a chance to speak to Ines about her new venture. She talked about how the consumer can vote for the different products and the ones that have the most votes will be listed on the front page. It it is her desire to connect sellers and help promote them and their gender-neutral products who aren’t looking to stereotype boys and girls.

Our Purchasing Power:

Jennifer Siebel Newson, founder of Miss Representation, reminds us that 86% of the purchasing power in America is in the pockets of women, and there is not limit – or minimum- to consumer activism. She encourages us to use our influence to support gender-inclusive products and avoid those that limit us. (Source: Miss Representation newsletter).

Read More:

I encourage you to check out the Toward the Stars website www.towardthestars.com. To read more about how Ines came to this vision and the inspiration behind her work read her touching blog post here:https://www.7wonderlicious.com/3/post/2011/06/first-post.html

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