IWD: These women-owned businesses aim to empower other women

One For Women was founded by mother-daughter-duo Heidi Crable and Meg Wheeler to provide curated gift sets for every moment in life, the good and the bad. Beyond a small gesture, Heidi and Meg are empowering women-owned businesses. Each gift set features products sourced from women-owned or women-run businesses, and the unique products and companies, along with the women behind them, are included in promotional materials within the gift boxes and on their website. They also share a portion of proceeds to various women’s organizations.

Nudest is a company that helps women match their skin tone to the perfect nude products using artificial intelligence. Founder Atima  Lui was born to a Sudanese refugee father and Black activist mother in Topeka, Kansas where her dark skin tone never quite fit in with the standard of beauty in her community. Today, she is working on making the beauty industry color conscious instead of color blind and has started licensing her tech to other beauty companies.

City Girl Savings was founded by Raya Reaves with the primary goal of teaching women to reach financial independence. She sells, through her website, personalized budget worksheets and financial coaching consultations. “We’ve moved to a time where women are now the breadwinners, or at least equal to their partners (if they have one). However, women aren’t opening up about finance like they need to. Because women are focusing on their career, their dreams, and their goals, there needs to be more conversation around money and managing it. Women need to feel like they aren’t alone in their financial independence journey, and the reality is that they aren’t alone! There just isn’t an open dialogue around women and finances yet. I’m working to change that.”

Amaliah is a media company providing Muslim women all over the world relevant content, from fashion and food to culture. Founded by sisters Nafisa and Selina Bakkar, Amaliah aims to create a space for Muslim women to exist on their own terms. Nafisa, a science graduate and Selina, a mother of two, were hardly the ideal candidates in the startup world, but they had a vision. "We started with the desire to create impact in the community that we are from – the Muslim community. We launched in January 2016 — a ridiculously simple site, built after learning to code, with the aim of helping Muslim women find modest fashion easier." Fast forward three years and they now publish everything from opinion pieces, to articles about sex, recipes, relationship advice and news.

Sanity & Self is a guided self-care app designed to give women the meaningful self care they need. Founder Meng Li believes that if women focus on caring for their mind and heart, they'll be able to better interpret and navigate their busy world, connect with others and feel empowered to discover themselves. With searches for “self care hacks” up by 118%¹ by consumers on Pinterest, Sanity & Self is helping more women on their journey to self love.

Billie, the female-first shave and body brand, was co-founded by Georgina Gooley to provide women with everyday TLC from top to toe. As the first women’s razor brand to show body hair in their marketing campaigns, Billie is trying to change the stigma around hair on women. With searches for “body hair positivity” up by 158%¹ among Pinners, Pinterest is where Billie is helping women feel confident in the choices they make around their body hair.