My name is
Carolina and I am the creator of MissRizos.com, a community and online platform that celebrates and
promotes afro-textured hair! Miss Rizos’ vision is to change our societies
standards of beauty through facilitating individual self-acceptance for women and girls
through their hair. We’ve created this campaign to increase our social impact
by creating a physical space that will not only provide hair care services, but will allow
us to sustain our social impact initiatives. Your investment will help fund
the opening of this one of a kind multi-purpose space.
Background
Growing up in the U.S, I
thought my hair was malo (bad in Spanish) because it was what I learned from my mom, family, and society. I didn't see people that looked like me or with my afro-textured
hair on TV, magazine covers, or in movies. So for nearly 15 years I subjected myself to painful chemical
treatments that straightened my hair because it was deemed
ugly, unprofessional and not beautiful.
On July 2010, while living in the Dominican Republic, I
finally cut all of my processed hair. It took me nearly a year to feel fully beautiful,
free and comfortable in my skin. This radiated as I walked the streets of the
Dominican Republic and women began to stop and ask me how I made the decision to grow
my natural hair, my hair care regimen, and how I dealt with the challenging family
members, bosses, and friends who openly criticized this choice. I became
an example and resource, which led to the creation of MissRizos.com. My online
platform and content address these hair care questions, and simultaneously fight
the ongoing and deeply rooted discrimination that many people face because of
their afro-textured hair at work, schools, and other public and private spaces
here in the DR.
Our Impact
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Over three years later and Miss Rizos has:
- Reached over 50,000 followers, readers and subscribers from 79 countries
-
Hosted well-attended events in over 20 cities including Madrid, Port au Prince, Santo Domingo, New York and others
- Received coverage
in online, print and TV publications including NPR, Huff Post, Radio Caracol in Colombia, Viu Mag in Peru, and many
more
- Participated as keynote speaker and panelist at SUNY Albany, George Washington University, and Girl Power Day in Florida
- Hosted many identity, empowerment and educational hair workshops for young girls, including one for the Mariposa Foundation in Cabarete, DR and Peace Corps girl empowerment program, Chicas Brillantes in San Cristobal
- Sponsored fellow curly girl Yaritza Reyes, who was the winner of the 2013 Miss Dominican Republic pageant, making her only the third winner of African descent since it’s creation in 1927, keeping in mind that the Dominican Republic is 92% Afro-descendent
- Launched a campaign and t-shirt line called "Yo Amo Mi Pajón" (I love my afro)
-
Encouraged family members like my mother and three sisters to return to their natural hair. They celebrate
themselves and each other and spread the Miss Rizos message of self-love and
acceptance everywhere they go.
"I've
been wearing your t-shirt through my many months in Africa, and I get lots of
"what does that mean?" and when I explain, everyone loves it. Even
better, I get to talk a bit about the Afro-Latino experience, and my own
Dominican/Puerto Rican background, all because of your shirt. So, a very big
thank you! You’re making your mark in Africa." ~Diana, Puerto Rican-Dominican in Namibia
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What we need to make this happen...
We've been able to accomplish a lot of this with the little revenue we get from our t-shirts sales and sponsorships. But we've found that sponsorships have, at times, clouded our message. Your donation will allow us to create this space that will finally give us the financial stability to get our programs and services to those we cannot reach online, while we grow our mission and serve more people OUR WAY. This is our dream and we need your help to make it a reality.
We will create a unique and one of a kind store, salon and community center that will support and sustain our innovative projects for social change. Miss Rizos multi-purpose space will create:
- a space for workshops, meetings and gatherings,
- a one stop shop for natural hair care
- a fun and inviting safe space for all curly women, men and children in the DR
- and a mini studio/office for YouTube content for our MissRizosTV channel, our blog (MissRizos.com) and our social media spaces
We need $20,000 to:
-
Fund the initial legalization process for this space
- Cover plumbing, electric and construction services
- Furnish the space to accommodate a store, salon and community center
- Supply initial inventory
- Cover initial overhead for our first 3 months
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Expected Impact
The Dominican Republic
We will be organizing free monthly empowerment and hair education workshops for women in the campo and barrios of the Dominican Republic who don't have access to our online content. We will also collaborate with several local organizations who have solicited workshops and presentations in different parts of the country.
Our online and international impact
Currently we have an average monthly online reach of 50,000 people worldwide. One week we reached over 200,000 people just on our
Facebook page. One of the goals once the store is running, is to dedicate more
time to content creation for our YouTube channel and blog. This will allow us
to continue to grow this online community and provide information and resources to those women who
are not in the Dominican Republic.
We recognize that we have a very big and engaged following and
would like to take advantage of that to showcase other women and men who are
doing important work in their communities.
What you'll get...
By contributing to this campaign we’ll provide
you with updates leading up to our grand opening. As a blogger, I know a thing
or two about documenting and sharing things on the web and am committed to
sharing this life changing process with you. We'll upload videos and pictures
of each milestone right here on the campaign’s gallery.
Check out all of the awesome gifts we have picked out for our amazing supporters including two all-expense paid trips to the Dominican Republic for the grand opening of our store!
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Risks and Challenges
The truth is that nothing will hold us back from making this space a reality. We literally eat, sleep and breathe Miss Rizos and we are committed to making it happen. We'll face common business challenges, but what makes us unique is that we have been active and engaging consumers for over 3 years and have already built the base that will keep this business growing.
We also have a volunteer bank of over 50 people who are willing to lend a hand with many of our social impact activities and campaigns. There are so many people committed and invested in making Miss Rizos thrive that we are confident that we'll overcome any hurdles that come along the way.
What happens if we don't reach our goal or if we surpass our goal? If we don't reach our goal, we will use the proceeds to move forward with creating this space and will continue to be creative with other fundraising ideas. If we surpass our goal we will not only create this incredible space, but we’ll immediately begin many of the social impact initiatives that have already been developed, but are in need of funding.
Other ways you can help
Spread the
word by sharing our Indiegogo campaign with your family and friends and by sharing the link of
the campaign on social media.
http://igg.me/at/missrizos
THANK YOU in advance for your generosity and support!
About Miss Rizos’ founder
I graduated from Ursinus College in 2009 with a double major in Peace and Justice Studies and French. I love languages, traveling, food, and knitting. After graduating and spending a month in Dubai as a photography intern, I decided to return to the Dominican Republic, my native country and a place that I had only visited once before. I wanted to “rediscover my roots”. Recently I found an old tweet from September 14th 2009 when I was 22, while at the airport waiting to board my plane, “the biggest risk is not to risk at all, on my way to DR in search of my personal legend”. Pablo Coehlo defines a personal legend as your blessing, the path God has chosen for you here on Earth. He says that whenever a person does that which gives them enthusiasm, they are following their Personal Legend. My personal legend is Miss Rizos and I never imagined that I would come back to my native country to discover it!
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Expected Impact 
