29 Things Young Designers need to know...

Too bad there's not a handbook for making the shift from design student to design professional. To make that transition easier, Doug Bartow, principal of id29, and his colleagues share 29 things they think all new designers need to know. The list appeared in the January 2011 issue of HOW along with a limited edition poster designed by id29. 


Interacting with students and young designers has always been a fulfilling endeavor for all the working professionals at id29, one that has kept alive the notion that design education is a lifelong experience. Fostering design thinking through mentoring relationships at the local level is particularly exciting, as we get to see the designers we’ve helped nurture go on to fabulous careers in a variety of creative fields.

We regularly invite design students to tour our studio (in Troy, NY), and we participate in local student portfolio reviews and exhibitions; our involvement is a team effort.

Many of the questions and concerns young designers share today are the same we had as graduating students looking to make our mark in the professional world, with only a résumé and portfolio of student projects to get our collective feet in the door. There’s nothing different in the design industry today that makes getting—and nailing—that initial interview or client pitch any easier.

Throughout the years, I’ve collected these questions and have tried answering many of them as an ongoing personal project. Here are 29 of my thoughts on how to approach and interact with our culture as a young designer, in no particular order.

1. SWEAT THE DETAILS
You are a professional communicator; act like one. Carefully edit everything you publish: résumés, social media, e-mail, blog posts, letters, text messages, everything. Get a copy of “The Chicago Manual of Style” and keep it handy. Most potential employers and clients don’t appreciate text shorthand, so don’t use it. They won’t be ROTFL, and you will end up SOL.

2. PLAY NICE
People you work with and for will make your blood boil from time to time. Whenever possible, be a pro and take the high road. Avoid burning bridges, as people change jobs more often than they did a generation ago. Your paths may cross again in a much different situation, and having a good working history together will make rehiring you easy. Apply this to your online persona as well. Anonymous jabs are petty—be better than that.

3. DON’T FEAR TYPE; BECOME ITS MASTER
Often, being a good typographer means not making the simple mistakes. To accomplish this, you’ll need a working knowledge of classical typography. Go get one. “The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst, “Thinking With Type” by Ellen Lupton and “Grid Systems in Graphic Design” by Josef Müller-Brockmann are cover-to-cover must-reads. Repeat after me: “Free fonts from the internet are crap, I will not use them.” Keep saying that



4. DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE
Who are you speaking to and what is the objective? If you can’t definitively answer both of these questions about a project you’re about to start working on, go back to the drawing board. Graphic design is simply a plan that visually articulates a message. Make sure you have the message and its intended viewer sorted out before you start making. Communicate with purpose—don’t just make eye candy.

5. BE YOURSELF
Be confident in yourself as an author, designer, photographer, creative. Don’t work in a particular personal style. Rather, develop a personal approach to your creative work.
Your commissioned work should never be about you, but it can certainly reveal your hand as the designer. As your work becomes more well-known, you will get hired for exactly that. For your personal work, don’t be afraid to tell your story. No one else is going to do it for you.

6. LEARN TO SAY ‘NO’
Some of your best design business decisions will ultimately be saying “no” to clients or projects. Unfortunately, it usually takes a few disasters to gain the experience to know when to walk away from an impending train wreck.

Carefully measure the upsides of any project—creative control of your design work, long-term relationship-building and gross billing—versus the potential downsides—the devaluation of the creative process, being treated like a “vendor” and ongoing scope creep (where the volume of what you’re expected to deliver keeps expanding, while the schedule and budget don’t). 

7. COLLECT AND SHARE EVERYTHING
Find and save relevant and interesting things and pass them along to your friends, co-workers, followers and clients. Use the web and social media to share your own photos and work, as well as the work of others you find engaging. Be funny, serious, irreverent, businesslike, self-promotional, curatorial, whatever—just be yourself. For everyday inspiration, surround your workplace with the design ephemera you collect (see No. 5).


8. BE A DESIGN AUTHOR
Develop ideas. Write them down, edit them, share them and elicit a response. Poof! You’re a design author. Read design blogs and participate in the discussions. Have an opinion. If you find yourself spending hours a week contributing to other designers’ blogs, consider starting your own. The cost and effort for startup are minimal, and the opportunities are diverse.


9. BUILD YOUR BOOK
One piece of advice I give young designers looking to fill out their portfolios is to find the best local arts organization with the worst visual brand identity or website and make a trade. They get some great design work, and you get creative control and real-world projects in your book that other potential clients will recognize.


10. CLEAN UP YOUR ACT
Manage your online profiles carefully and be sure to keep all your listings accurate, consistent and (mostly) professional. You can count on co-workers, potential employers and clients to Google you, so make sure what they find won’t be too incriminating and sink your chances for that new job or project. Employers read social media posts, too—especially ones that include their proper names—so use common sense.


11. RESEARCH (AND DESTROY)
You’ll never know as much about your clients’ businesses as they do, but part of our job as designers is to try. Learn as much as you possibly can at the inception of a project about your client’s business space, their goals, their competition and their history. Dedicate a half- or full-day download session, ask a lot of questions, and then shut up and listen.


12. OBSERVE TRENDS (THEN AVOID THEM)
Keep current on the state of our industry by reading books, magazines and blogs, and attending conferences. RSS feeds will allow you to quickly skim design- and culture-related content. Avoid design annuals as a source of inspiration, as they’re a record of what’s already been done. Study the work of others to understand it, not to duplicate it.


13. DEFEND YOURSELF
One of the biggest benefits of a formal design education is the lessons learned in the crit room defending your work in front of your instructor and peers. If you can articulate your ideas and design process in that hostile environment, learning to do the same in client meetings usually comes easy (see No. 21).


14. THE PAPER MATTERS
Contrary to what you might read on the blogosphere, print is not dead. The beauty and tactility of a well-printed piece on quality paper cannot be appreciated or replicated on a screen, tablet or mobile device. Paper manufacturers, merchants and printers are doing a terrific job helping designers make sustainable paper choices to minimize the impact on our environment. Become well-versed with the Forest Stewardship Council certification program, and use this knowledge to choose your papers wisely. Clients are demanding it (see No. 28).


15. CONTENT IS STILL KING
Technically, Elvis is still the king, but for the sake of this argument, let’s put an emphasis on the message, and consider design as a plan for delivering it. The most effective and memorable visual communication almost always has the right mix of form and content, regardless of medium. Good design can engage a viewer, but interesting content will keep them reading, and thinking, past the headline.


16. REJECT PERSONAL STYLE
Picasso had his Blue and Rose Periods, Georgia O’Keeffe obsessed over flowers and animal bones. The difference between them and you? They were artists solving their own personal communication problems. We are designers, primarily tasked with solving the communication problems of others. Using one singular style or direction for multiple clients or projects will rarely be successful and, in retrospect, will look one-dimensional (see No. 11).


17. SAY NO TO SPEC WORK
Speculative work, or spec work, is a request by a potential client for uncompensated creative and design work at the inception of a project. Avoid this like the plague—it’s a devaluation of the entire design process and marginalizes our efforts as a whole. AIGA.org has great resources for dealing with spec work, including a sample letter that you can personalize and send to clients explaining why their request is unappreciated (see No. 19).


18. BECOME INDISPENSABLE
What are you really good at? Contrast that to the skill sets that could help you advance at the workplace. Could your studio benefit from having an in-house photographer, web programmer, video editor or screen printer? Follow your bliss and get the additional training you need to expand your talents and, ultimately, your role at work. Now, does the studio come to a grinding halt when you’re home sick for a day? Congrats. You’re indispensable.


19. JOIN AIGA
Founded in 1914 in New York City, AIGA is the professional association for design, representing more than 21,000 professionals, educators and students with 65 local chapters (find a chapter near you) and 200+ student groups. AIGA supports our efforts at the chapter and national levels through the exchange of design ideas and information, research, innovative programming and as a source of inspiration. If you’re missing that sense of design community you had in school now that you’re in the professional world, AIGA will help reconnect you for life.


20. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Build personal relationships with everyone you work with, not just your clients. Get to know your delivery people, paper merchants, printer reps, local politicians and business leaders. Attend Chamber of Commerce events, network and meet people. Get on people’s radar screens—they will be impressed with your well-designed business cards that prominently feature your website address. 


21. SEEK CRITICISM, ACCEPT PRAISE
As a designer, listening to your ideas being questioned and your hard work being ripped apart isn’t usually very pleasant. However painful, though, constructive criticism of your design work is the most effective way to grow as a visual communicator. Remember this when you leave the crit rooms of design school for the boardrooms of the corporate world. Build a network of friends, co-workers and mentors you can use to collect feedback on your work. Online sites (heavy with anonymous commentary) are not an acceptable substitute for this discourse.


22. NEVER COMPROMISE
Once you’ve built strong relationships with everyone you work with (see No. 20), strategically use them to get what you want. Convince your clients to use the offset printers or web developers you know that value design and will actively work with you on the final quality of your project. We work too hard as designers to accept compromise at any stage of a job, especially when it can usually be avoided with proactive planning. Timelines that detail every step of a project and outline responsibilities for everyone involved are required to accomplish this.

23. KNOW YOUR HISTORY
Learn as much as you possibly can about the history of graphic design—its movements, terminology and important figures. Understanding design’s cultural past will help you design in the present and future. Study typefaces and their designers, and share with your clients the significance and history of the particular typefaces you’ve chosen for their projects. In addition to being a go-to design resource, this knowledge will help position you as a trusted adviser moving forward.

24. VALUE YOUR WORK
A common mistake designers make early in their careers is undervaluing their work in the marketplace. The best design jobs aren’t always awarded to the low bidder—even a client with the smallest budget often values work experience and compatibility over price. Set an hourly rate for your services, and take a close look at the number of hours a job will take to accomplish, including revisions. Your estimate is simply your rate multiplied by the hours. Make sure you have a firm understanding of the entire scope of work you’re providing an estimate for. Trade? Sure, but don’t make a habit of it—this is your livelihood, not a hobby.

25. MAKE MISTAKES
Take a measured break from your comfort zone and experiment with an approach you’ve never tried before. Force yourself to take chances with form: Use a different technique or medium with text and image to create work you’re unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. Save and display your best piece as a reminder to think differently.

26. KEEP A SKETCHBOOK
You don’t need to be prolific at drawing to benefit from keeping a small book in your bag or back pocket. Ideas tend to arrive at the strangest times, and being able to record them on the spot will help you remember them later. When you fill a book, date, number and shelve it. Soon your bookcase will be a library of your best thoughts and ideas.

27. REMEMBER THAT YOUR MAC IS A TOOL
Twenty years ago, many people in our industry were sure that desktop publishing would mark the end of professional graphic design as we knew it. They confused the convenience of new technology with the skill and passion required to design with it. Take a good look at your design methodology and the role technology plays in your work. Can you select “Shut Down” and still be an effective visual communicator? Practice that.

28. RESPECT THE ENVIRONMENT
Make the everyday effort to create a positive environmental impact by integrating sustainable alternatives in your work. Start small by identifying the things you can do in your studio to save energy and resources, and build from there. Present a digital slideshow rather than traditional color output spray-mounted to mat board. Get creative with your consumables by investing in reusable kitchenware and cloth towels in place of disposable plastic and paper products. Consider adopting the Designer’s Accord—a global collection of designers, educators and businesspeople working together to impact the environment through positive social change.

29. TEACH OTHERS
Regardless of your experience, get involved with mentoring younger designers—or students who may be interested in design as a potential career path. It doesn’t require developing a curriculum to get involved. Find a local AIGA chapter, design program or arts center and volunteer some of your time. Participate in local student portfolio reviews, and share your knowledge and expertise with aspiring designers. You’ll find the experience rewarding for everyone involved.



Read more: HOW Design - 29 Things That All Young Designers Need to Know http://howdesign.com/article/29things4#ixzz1Gfq2eRFz
For great design products, visit our online store! MyDesignShop.com

How Visible Is Arabic Lit on the International Scene?

How Visible Is Arabic Lit on the International Scene?

By Yasmina Jraissati

As a literary agent specialized in representing Arabic literature for world translation rights, I am often asked how visible Arabic literature is on the international scene. This question most of the time translates into: “how many copies do books translated from the Arabic sell?”

Last time I checked, Salwa El Naimi’s novel Burhan el aassal (Proof of the honey) sold 80,000 copies in Italy*. This record-breaking figure is rarely heard of for Arabic literature in translation. Sales numbers commonly range from 500 to 2,000 copies in markets like France, despite the fact that French readers are historically well inclined towards this literature. Comparatively, in 2009, the 30th ranked best seller sold 201,000 copies** in France.

The number of copies sold is, however, not the only indicator of Arabic literature’s visibility. Considerations should also include the number or Arabic titles acquired, the number of houses that acquire them, and the number of countries in which they are acquired. In France, in 2009, translated literature represented 14.3% of the production. Most translated languages are: English (62%), followed by Japanese (8.3%), German (6.2%), Italian (4.3%), Spanish (4.0%), Scandinavian languages (1.8%), Russian (1.3%) and Dutch (0.9%, equivalent to 83 titles)**. In comparison, the number of Arabic titles translated per year can generously be estimated to a maximum of 20. Moreover, translations into French are mostly due to a single specialized house: Sindbad, currently directed by Farouk Mardambey, publishes approximately 10 titles a year.

Italy is today undoubtedly the most receptive market, with a growing number of houses acquiring rights to Arabic literature (at least five houses, small and large, have each acquired at least one Arabic title in the year 2008-2009*).

Surprisingly, given their geographic and cultural distance, Dutch and Scandinavian publishers are among the most attentive, especially if one compares them to culturally closer Spain, where good translators from the Arabic seem to be cruelly lacking. This tendency can however be explained by the fact that 34%*** of the Dutch production consists in translations.

In Germany, the activity continues although at a much slower pace, not to mention that the German market is characterized by a number of very small houses dedicated to Arabic literature, though unfortunately often ill-distributed.

Finally, the Anglo-American market remains the most difficult one to penetrate. English editions cover the entire Commonwealth. They are the most sought after and competition is tough; especially considering that only 3 to 4%*** of the English language production consists of translations. In each of the countries mentioned above, publishers willing to receive a reading copy of an Arabic novel amounts to an average of five, in the UK and US markets, interlocutors are even more rare.

We could conclude from the above data that Arabic literature is present on the main territories, but its presence is faint. Given the importance of the Arabic language in the world (320 million estimated speakers), the fact that this literature is still considered as marginal is unsettling. International publishers may be curious about this literature, but they rarely go as far as acquiring rights. This makes you wonder whether it is the quality of the Arabic literature that is at stake, or if there are external reasons to its marginalization.

One should bear in mind that ultimately, the presence of Arabic literature on the international scene depends on a single editor or two. And when each editor’s desk is flooded with books coming from all around the world, how can an Arabic book be set apart?

Publishers usually do not know, let alone master, the Arabic language, and they need external readers to get an approximate idea of a book’s content. Often, they do not have readers of Arabic with whom they regularly work. In this case, they will need to find them, learn to trust their taste, and give them the time to know their editorial lines.

Finally, the Arab market is completely opaque and publishers have little means to evaluate a book: Who is the author and what is the importance of an author in the Arab cultural landscape? What is the extent of his impact on the local press? How many copies has a book sold in its market of origin? How does it compare to other sales? How original or literary is its content and language compared to other books?

Hence, an international publisher ready to consider a particular Arabic title for translation is, most of the time, a publisher who wants to diversify his catalogue by adding Arabic Literature to it. Although this openness should be applauded as much as it creates new opportunities for Arabic literature, it results in a double-edged dynamic.

The Arab world is both familiar and unknown to the international editorial scene. Compared to other regions in the West, the Arab world is known through past colonial ties, intense media coverage and immigrated populations — or by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

Otherwise knowledgeable editors and readers have deeply rooted preconceptions that shape their expectations. On one hand, one wants to be astonished by a literature removed from easy clichés; on the other, one tends to be reassured by the confirmation of his or her prejudices. Arabs are, mostly in Europe, too well known to be surprising, and, when they do surprise, it is rarely as one might have wished they would.

Conversely, the local Arab scene is extremely sensitive to the international visibility of its authors. In Lebanon, readers measure an author’s quality by the number of contracts he has signed abroad. The more a book is translated, the more the volume of its sales grow in its country of origin. This mirror game takes unexpected turns as numerous Arab authors, hungry for acknowledgment, have chosen to address the international market directly, often offering a literature tailored to satisfy Western publishers’ appetites. In doing so, they give some reality to what originally was only an Orientalist fantasy.

Hence, except some determining external factors that are not impossible, though difficult, to overcome, the question of the degree at which Arabic literature is visible unavoidably brings us back to our local production, to the means devised to make it known and exist, as well as their impact on its quality. The absence of information in the Arab world prevents the establishment of quality standards, and our narcissism results in our literature being measured according to criteria that are essentially alien.

Is Arabic literature visible in the world? Sure. The question is rather what, exactly, is seen.

* Personnal communication

** Ministry of Culture and Communication, Reading and Book Services. 2010. Economie du livre : le secteur du livre : chiffres-clés 2008-2009, Paris

*** Heilbron, Johan. 2010. Structure and Dynamics of the World System of Translation, UNESCO, International Symposium ‘Translation and Cultural Mediation’, February 22-23, 2010, Paris.

http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/02/how-visible-is-arabic-lit-on-the-international-scene/

ACADIA 2011 > April

The ACADIA 2011 Annual Conference will explore integrative trajectories and areas of overlap that have emerged through computation between design, its allied disciplines of engineering and construction, and other fields, such as computer science, material science, mathematics and biology. The conference will highlight experimental projects in which methods, processes, and techniques are discovered, appropriated, adapted, and altered from elsewhere, and digitally pursued.

The aim of the conference is to project a fundamentally different attitude towards collaboration, one that needs not be limited to the professions and disciplines comprising the building industry. It will do so by featuring the work of designers and researchers who engage design as a broadly integrative endeavor by fluidly navigating across different disciplinary territories, and who deploy algorithmic thinking, biomimicry, computation, digital fabrication, material exploration, and/or performance analyses to discover and create processes, techniques, and products that are qualitatively new. Some take scientific and engineering ideas as starting points of the design investigation. Others are embracing mathematics and geometry as a rich source of ideas for articulating form, pattern, surface and structure in architecture. Many are increasingly looking for inspiration in nature to discover new materials and new material behaviors, which can enable an architecture that can respond dynamically to changing environmental conditions. They all rely on computational techniques for design explorations.

The conference will project integrative design as an emerging trajectory for architecture as it enters a post-digital phase and as it embraces ideas, concepts, processes, techniques, and technologies from elsewhere (just like before only more so).

Full papers can be submitted by April 1 even without the previous abstract submission.

http://www.acadia.org/acadia2011/

Leadership & Change

Leadership & Change

Posted on March 11th, 2011 by admin in Innovation, Leadership

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

First the bad news: If you’re not willing to embrace change you’re not ready to lead. Put simply, leadership is not a static endeavor. In fact, leadership demands fluidity, which requires the willingness to recognize the need for change, and finally the ability to lead change. Now the good news: As much as some people want to create complexity around the topic of leading change for personal gain, the reality is that creating, managing and leading change is really quite simple.  To prove my point, I’ll not only explain the entire change life-cycle in three short paragraphs, but I’ll do it in simple terms that anyone can understand. As a bonus I’ll also give you 10 items to assess in evaluating whether the change you’re considering is value added, or just change for the sake of change…

An Overview on the Importance of Change:
While there is little debate that the successful implementation of change can create an extreme competitive advantage, it is not well understood that the lack of doing so can send a company (or an individual’s career) into a death spiral. Companies that seek out and embrace change are healthy, growing, and dynamic organizations, while companies that fear change are stagnant entities on their way to a slow and painful death. 

Agility, innovation, disruption, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment, and above all else a bias toward action will lead to the creation of change. It is the implementation of change which results in evolving, growing and thriving companies. Much has been written about the importance of change, but there is very little information in circulation about how to actually create it. 

While most executives and entrepreneurs have come to accept the concept of change management as a legitimate business practice, and change leadership as a legitimate executive priority in theory, I have found very few organizations that have effectively integrated change as a core discipline and focus area in reality.  As promised, and without further ado, the change life-cycle in three easy steps: 

1. Identifying the Need for Change: The need for change exists in every organization. Other than irrational change solely for the sake of change, every corporation must change to survive. If your entity doesn’t innovate and change in accordance with market driven needs and demands it will fail…it’s just that simple. The most complex area surrounding change is focusing your efforts in the right areas, for the right reasons, and at the right times. The ambiguity and risk can be taken out of the change agenda by simply focusing on three areas: 1) your current customers…what needs to change to better serve your customers? 2) potential customers…what needs to change to profitably create new customers? and; 3) your talent and resources…what changes need to occur to better leverage existing talent and resources? 

2. Leading Change: You cannot effectively lead change without understanding the landscape of change. There are four typical responses to change: The Victim…those that view change as a personal attack on their persona, their role, their job, or their area of responsibility. They view everything at an atomic level based upon how they perceive change will directly and indirectly impact them. The Neutral Bystander…This group is neither for nor against change. They will not directly or vocally oppose change, nor will they proactively get behind change. The Neutral Bystander will just go with the flow not wanting to make any waves, and thus hoping to perpetually fly under the radar. The Critic…The Critic opposes any and all change. Keep in mind that not all critics are overt in their resistance. Many critics remain in stealth mode trying to derail change behind the scenes by using their influence on others. Whether overt or covert, you must identify critics of change early in the process if you hope to succeed. The Advocate…The Advocate not only embraces change, they will evangelize the change initiative. Like The Critics, it is important to identify The Advocates early in the process to not only build the power base for change, but to give momentum and enthusiasm to the change initiative. Once you’ve identified these change constituencies you must involve all of them, message properly to each of them, and don’t let up. With the proper messaging and involvement even adversaries can be converted into allies.

3. Managing Change: Managing change requires that key players have control over 4 critical elements: 1) Vision Alignment…those that understand and agree with your vision must be leveraged in the change process. Those that disagree must be converted or have their influence neutralized; 2) Responsibility…your change agents must have a sufficient level of responsibility to achieve the necessary results; 3) Accountability…your change agents must be accountable for reaching their objectives, and; 4) Authority…if the first three items are in place, yet your change agents have not been given the needed authority to get the job done the first three items won’t mean much…you must set your change agents up for success and not failure by giving them the proper tools, talent, resources, responsibility and authority necessary for finishing the race.

There you have it; the 3 pillars of change in three short paragraphs. Now that you understand change, here’s are the 10 points that need validating prior to launching a change initiative:

1. Alignment and Buy-in: The change being considered should be in alignment with the overall values, vision and mission of the enterprise. Senior leadership must champion any new initiative. If someone at the C-suite level is against the new initiative it will likely die a slow and painful death.
2. Advantage:  If the initiative doesn’t provide a unique competitive advantage it should at least bring you closer to an even playing field.
3. Value Add: Any new project should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing.
4. Due Diligence: Just because an idea sounds good doesn’t mean it is. You should endeavor to validate proof of concept based upon detailed, credible research. Do your homework – put the change initiative through a rigorous set of risk/reward and cost/benefit analyses. Forget this step and you won’t be able to find a rock big enough to hide under.
5. Ease of Use:  Whether the new initiative is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must be simple and easy. Usability drives adoptability, and therefore it pays to keep things simple. Don’t make the mistake of confusing complexity with sophistication.
6. Identify the Risks: Nothing is without risk, and when you think something is without risk that is when you’re most likely to end-up in trouble. All initiatives should include detailed risk management provisions that contain sound contingency and exit planning.
7. Measurement: Any change initiative should be based upon solid business logic that drives corresponding financial engineering and modeling. Be careful of high level, pie-in-the-sky projections. The change being adopted must be measurable. Deliverables, benchmarks, deadlines, and success metrics must be incorporated into the plan.
8. The Project: Many companies treat change as some ethereal form of management hocus pocus that will occur by osmosis. A change initiative must be treated as a project. It must be detailed and deliverable on a schedule. The initiative should have a beginning, middle and end.
9. Accountability: Any new initiative should contain accountability provisions. Every task should be assigned and managed according to a plan and in the light of day.
10. Actionable: A successful initiative cannot remain in a strategic planning state. It must be actionable through focused tactical implementation. If the change initiative being contemplated is good enough to get through the other 9 steps, then it’s good enough to execute.

Has this been useful? Have I left anything out, or got anything wrong? Sound-off in the comments below…

http://www.n2growth.com/blog/leadership-change/

blurring boundaries between reality and virtuality

32 Amazing Online Resources To Help Empower Girls

32 Amazing Online Resources To Help Empower Girls

Susan notes: I’m sure there are many more sites, blogs and organisations out there dedicated to empowering girls. I will be happy to grow this list with your input.

Please email me information formatted as the entries are in the list below, with the URLs for Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter accounts, and I will add them. Special thanks to @YasminMehbarand @NesimaAberra for helping to compile this list.

This video was produced by the Because I Am A Girl campaign. It's focused on the developing world. But the issues it briefly touches on are worldwide - they are what make all of the organisations below necessary. Let's hope that one day videos and lists like these won't be needed.

Did you know? 
An extra year of school for girls will increase their lifetime income by 10 - 20 per cent.

About Face

San-Francisco-based About-Face equips women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image. It does so through three programs: Education Into Action media-literacy workshops; Take Action, which enables girls and women to develop and execute their own actions; and About-Face.org, its web site.

About Face’s vision is to imbue girls and women with the power to free themselves from the burden of body-image problems so they will be capable of fulfilling their varied and wondrous potentials.

Twitter: @aboutfacesf

Facebook

AfricAid

AfricAid is a nonprofit organization that supports girls¹ education in Africa in order to provide young women with the opportunity to transform their own lives and the futures of their communities.

AfricAid was started in 2001 by a 16-year-old girl who believed that nothing is more important for girls in Africa than education. Since that time, AfricAid has supported thousands of students in Tanzania through scholarships, teacher training and vocational training. Most recently, AfricAid launched The Kisa Project, a girls' scholarship and leadership training initiative that connects girls in Tanzania with their sponsor families and student groups through the kisaproject.org website.Twitter: @AfricAid
Facebook

Because I Am A Girl

Part of Plan Canada, the global campaign Because I am a Girl was created to invest in girls in developing countries to eliminate poverty and create a better world and a brighter, safer future for girls, boys and everyone. 

The program's goal is to engage one million girls to raise money for projects such as clean water and food security, health care and education and livelihood initiatives, such as microfinance.

Because I Am A Girls says:

"We believe girls have a right to be invested in, a right to be acknowledged as an economic force to be reckoned with. It is time for us to really listen to the voices of girls - they are the key to change."

Twitter: @biaagcanada
Facebook 

Coalition For Adolescent Girls

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls is committed to creating lasting change for communities in the developing world by driving investments to adolescent girls. It’s a public-private partnership that brings fresh perspectives, diverse resources and concrete solutions to the challenges facing adolescent girls in developing countries.

Founded by the United Nations Foundation and the Nike Foundation in 2005, the Coalition has been joined by more than 30 leading international organizations, including its founding members, International Center for Research on Women, the Population Council and the International Women’s Health Coalition.

Empowering-Girls

Empowering-Girls is committed to  reducing all threats to girlhood that crush girls ' true nature and potential. 

They focus on overturning the gender stereotypes that  make girls obsess with body image, keep girls from taking leadership roles, limit girls' interests in sciences and maths and cause them to feel self-aware when playing sports. 

The first years of a girl's life are a crucial time when their identity and model of world are being shaped. Empowering-Girls mentors parents and educators to nurture a strong empowered identity and belief system in young girls enabling them to overcome all the challenges they face as they grow up.
Twitter: @girlempowerment
Facebook 

4 Girls Glocal Leadership

4GGL plants the seed of self-worth and leadership that are nurtured and passed on through a multi-generational women’s leadership model. The foundation is Sofias, women with expertise, wisdom, and compassion to be role models, mentors, and resource to our local partners and 4GGL.

The driving force is Young Leaders, college age women, whose leadership we cultivate to be the local girls’ leadership trainers, the catalysts for local social change, and future women leaders. With wisdom of Sofias and energy of Young Leaders, 4GGL makes leadership development possible for the world’s poorest girls. It is developing a sustainable model—a legacy of women’s leadership—to advance gender equity globally.Twitter Facebook

Girls Action Foundation

Girls Action provides spaces for Canadian girls to speak out, build skills, and create action on issues that are important and real to them. Its national leadership program offers long-term investment and support to young women who are change makers in their communities. It supplies publications, resources and practical support, and its programs include: coaching, training and networking opportunities that help develop community initiatives and girls' programs.

Twitter: @_GirlsAction

Girls for Gender Equity, Inc

Girls for Gender Equity is committed to improving the physical, psychological, social and economic development of girls and women. Through education, organizing, and physical fitness, Girls for Gender Equity encourages communities to remove barriers and create opportunities for girls and women to live self-determined lives.

Girls for Gender Equity will organize campaigns to achieve safety and equality in the social, political, educational, athletic, economic, health and media worlds of the smaller and larger communities in which girls and women live and work.Email

Girls Inc

Girls Incorporated is a non-profit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through a network of local organizations in the United States and Canada. With local roots dating to 1864 and national status in the U.S. since 1945, Girls Inc. responds to the changing needs of girls and their communities through research-based programs and advocacy that empower girls to reach their full potential and to understand, value, and assert their rights. In 2009, Girls Inc. reached over 900,000 girls through Girls Inc. affiliates, its website, and educational publications.

Twitter: @girls_inc
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Girls in the Game

Girls in the Game provides and promotes sports and fitness opportunities, nutrition & health education, and leadership development to enhance the overall health and well-being of all girls.

Twitter: @GirlsintheGame
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GirlStart

GirlStart is a non-profit organization created to empower girls to excel in math, science, and technology. Founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, GirlStart quickly established itself as a best-case practices leader in empowering, educating, and motivating girls to enjoy and become more proficient in math, science and technology.

Twitter: @girlstart
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Girl Up

Girl Up, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation, gives American girls the opportunity to channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for programs of the United Nations that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls. Through Girl Up’s support, girls have the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, counted, and positioned to be the next generation of leaders.

Twitter: @girlup
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Global Girl Media

Global Girl Media is a coalition of women broadcasters and journalists from around the world that has recognized that much mainstream reporting focuses on flash points of violence, celebrity or disaster, while the everyday experience and voice of the invisible majority, particularly young women, passes silently under the radar.  

GGM puts girls at the center of the story, training a future generation of female citizen journalists. It is dedicated to empowering high-school-age girls from under-served communities through media, leadership and journalistic training to have a voice in the global media universe and their own futures.Twitter: @GlobalGirlMedia
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Hardy Girls Healthy Women

Hardy Girls Healthy Women (HGHW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health and well being of girls and women. Its vision is that all girls and women experience equality, independence, and safety in their everyday lives. It creates opportunities, develops programs, and provides services that empowers girls; its resources and services are powered by the latest research in girls' development.

Twitter: @hghw
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I Am A Girl – documentary and online project

The simple fact of being born female means you are more likely to be subjected to violence, disease, poverty and disadvantage than any other group on the planet. “I Am A Girl” is a feature length documentary and online project currently in production and made possible through philanthropic support. The film will tell the stories of ten girls from ten different countries around the world and explore the realities of what it means to grow up female.

Twitter: @iamagirldoco
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Youtube
Director - Rebecca Barry 

iTwixie

iTwixie is a safe online social networking site for tween girls. The philosophy of the site’s founders is that girls are full of curiosity, smarts, ideas and beauty and they have the power to change the world. iTwixie challenges girls to express their unique talents, creations, natural beauty and true interests. It brings girls together to try new things; to explore tough topics; and to create a powerful bond between girls from all over the globe. (Sounds like fun to me!)
Twitter: @iTwixie
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Passion Foundation

Passion Foundation’s mission is to help young women achieve personal success in life by supporting each other. By providing opportunities for self exploration and positive role modeling it aims to decrease self harm and help young women to connect with their life purpose while being part of a community of success oriented peers; building on leadership and mentorship skills.
Twitter: @passionteams
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Related AWR links:
Grateful For Pain That Led To Passion
Powerful Words of Gratitude to Jackie from Alex

Perfectly Imperfect, Inc.

Perfectly Imperfect was created, designed, and founded Brandi N. Matthews. It’s mission is to  challenge motivate and empower the young women of our society, to promote education, life skills,  and social awareness.
 
Perfectly Imperfect’s main focus is to promote the “I.A.M. Our Tomorrows” Idea: Which implies that “I am Inspiring, Assisting, and Motivating our Tomorrows! “Inspiring” that inner self, that inner beauty, and that self worth which we all have within.  “Assisting” in teen pregnancy prevention, life skills, PSAT/SAT prep, career assessments, preparing for transition from middle school to high school from high school into college or workplace, counseling, and other peer group sessions. “Motivating” to believe it, achieve it, and set no limits.
 
Perfectly Imperfect  believes this concept  helps increase the knowledge and well being of our young women.
Twitter: @BrandiMatthews
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Pigtail Pals

Pigtail Pals was created by a mom who refused to accept the stereotypes and messages being sold to her young daughter. Creator Melissa Wardy decided to become the change she wanted in the girls’ marketplace. Pigtail Pals has set out to Redefine Girly, and believes we need to change the way we think about our girls. We use bold color and artful design to show girls of all ages that they can be smart, daring, and adventurous.  Pigtail Pals offers an online store, Redefine Girly Media Literacy Workshops, a blog about girls’ issues and marketing, and active social media groups.
Twitter: @PigtailPals
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Blog

Powered By A Girl

Powered By A Girl is a girl-driven activist movement that uses satire, humor, and a passion for social media to talk back to sexism and sexualization in media. The PBG team demands more creative, more diverse, and more positive images of girls and women. They are transforming the landscape of girls' media, one image at a time – AND they have THE coolest do-it-yourself-by-recaptioning sexualized ads gallery you’ve ever seen.  
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Reel Grrls

Reel Grrls empowers young women from diverse communities to realize their power, talent and influence through media production.

It offers a variety of hands-on workshops for teenage girls in specific skills including animation, cinematography, script writing and more. Reel Grrls mission is to cultivate voice and leadership in girls at a vulnerable age in their development. Its program has the high-level of support of female mentors. Participants develop lasting relationships with women filmmakers and learn skills that propel them to leadership roles in their community, college scholarships, and careers in the media industry.
Twitter: @reelgrrls
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Richard’s Rwanda

Richard’s Rwanda is a group of Seattle students who are working together to support Rwandan girls’ education. We provide financial support to low-income girls in the rural area of Nyamata to enable them to complete their primary education and six years of secondary school. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Markowitz, a freshman at Garfield High School in Seattle Washington, established Richard’s Rwanda IMPUHWE in October 2006 to help Rwandan girls receive the education they deserve.

The organization’s objectives include reducing the gender discrimination that prevents girls from completing primary and secondary education, developing an on-going cross-cultural exchange program between high school students in Seattle, WA and primary and secondary girls in Nyamata and Kigali Rwanda and supporting the mentorship provided by girls from Fawe Girls School in the Rwandan capital Kigali, to low income girls in the rural district of Nyamata. 
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SHARE

Many girls who attend primary school in East Africa struggle to become literate. They are expected to perform household chores, such as fetching water, collecting firewood, and planting beans, instead of pursuing their studies. SHARE is  edicated to addressing this problem by empowering girls in Africa through education. SHARE has created 4 libraries, equipped with a total of 23,000 books and serving more than 3000 students in rural Tanzania.

In Africa, SHARE:

• runs girls reading classes
• renovates schools & builds libraries
• trains teachers
• and more!

In the US, SHARE:

• spreads awareness & raise funds to support work in Africa
• conducts book and school-supply drives & ships donations to Africa
• operates a Pen Pal Program
• and more!

twitter: @SHAREinAfrica
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SheHeroes

SheHeroes wants kids to know that there are people like them who have worked hard and overcome challenges, so that kids today too can dream big and become tomorrow’s heroes. It uses new and traditional media as well as kids’ events to tell the stories of extraordinary women who are role models in diverse careers.

It aims to provide both girls and boys with broader potential visions of themselves, and to balance the imbalance of gender role models as seen in mainstream media. There are lots of cool video interviews with amazing women on the SheHeroes site.
Twitter: @SheHeroes
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She's the First

She's the First promotes the importance of educating girls, especially in the developing world. We sponsor girls around the globe by encouraging young women to unlock the power of their social networks and creatively fundraise, giving underprivileged girls the means to break barriers and become the "first" to achieve their special goals.
Twitter: @shesthefirst
Facebook 
Related AWR links:
Tammy Tibbetts (Activist/Leader/Founder of She’s the First)

Spotlight on Girls Television & New Media

Spotlight on Girls Television & New Media is a TV- video and film forum where the visionaries and the resilient tell stories that transform lives. Spotlight brings a distinct, authentic -girl's voice- to public discussions of issues that affect the lives of young women. 

Spotlight on Girls television crews in numerous cities invite viewers to see through the lenses of girls who convey powerful messages that can uplift millions. Shows expose and counteract the perpetuation of gender-based stereotypes in the media. The Spotlight advocacy framework prepares young women to become social change agents in their communities and within the broadcast communications industry.
Twitter: @SpotlightnGirls
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Starfish International

Starfish International’s mission is to establish a state of the art academy of excellence that will provide the Gambian girl-child an advanced education from pre-school to graduate school. By providing a diverse staff from around the world, experts in their respective fields, Starfish hopes to give the Gambian girls an unparalleled educational experience.
Twitter: @StarfishIntl
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Starfish One By One

Starfish One By One is a non-profit organization that empowers young Mayan women in Guatemala through education and mentorship to become leaders in their community. Starfish was founded on the principle of providing a high-quality program on an individual basis so that they in turn can promote the profound changes needed to break generational cycles of poverty for many.

Through a unique combination of a scholarship and mentoring, Starfish ensures a young Mayan woman¹s sustained access and success in middle and high school. These capable young women become empowered to change their family, community and country.
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YouTube
Blog

Story Scarves Goodwill Movement

A non-profit goodwill movement for girls in South Africa, Story Scarves offers hope-fueled friendships through arts-in-action and a cross-cultural Diaspora for girls that initiates international friendships. The Story Scarves girls are teenagers living in Soweto, South Africa. Most are in foster care or live with their guardians. Their sisterhood meets on Saturdays at a care centre to sew scarves, which help spread love and friendship throughout Africa and the world!
Twitter: @storyscarves
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10x10

10×10 is a groundbreaking film and a global social action campaign that will highlight the fact that investing in adolescent girls in the developing world creates a ripple effect of change that transforms families, communities and entire countries for generations.

The film, directed by Academy-Award nominated director Richard Robbins, will explore these young girls lives and the barriers they confront. The action campaign will bring together NGOs, corporations and individuals who share a common commitment to the empowerment of girls and young women around the world.
Twitter: @10x10act
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The Black Girl Project

The Black Girl Project provides tools, guidance and support for girls to prepare themselves physically, socially, emotionally and culturally for the responsibilities of young adulthood. It confronts the issues that most-impact girls head-on all within the context of being a Black female in an ever-changing world. It utilizes literature, the arts, individual and group work, along with a host of interdisciplinary modes to help bolster self-esteem, critical thinking and leadership skills.
Twitter: @blackgirlproj
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The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is the potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.

It’s an untapped force in the fight against poverty, and it’s driven by champions around the globe: the Nike Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, CARE, Plan, the Population Council, ICRW and the Center for Global Development – and many others.
Twitter: @GirlEffect
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Girl Effect Videos On AWR (they are SO cool!)

No Big Deal. Just The Future Of Humanity: The Girl Effect

50 Million Solutions: The Girl Effect.

The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) was launched in 2000 by the UN Secretary-General to assist national governments as they fulfill their responsibilities towards ensuring the right to education and gender equality for all children, girls and boys alike.

It has a challenging, focused and simple goal: “A world where all girls and boys are empowered through quality education to realize their full potential and contribute to transforming societies where gender equality becomes a reality.”
Twitter: @UNGEI
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7Wonderlicious

7Wonderlicious was created to provide young girls with great empowering role models that they can relate to and aspire to be. 

They have created seven amazing characters that guide and inspire young girls all over the world to play full out in life and fulfill their true nature and potential. 

The 7Wonderlicious girls will be soon featured in books and other educational products that will showcase them fixing and building things, applying maths, being active in sports and other activities that help reduce the impact of gender stereotypes that  make girls obsess with body image, keep girls from taking leadership roles, that limit girls' interests in sciences and maths and cause them to feel self-aware when playing sports.
Twitter: @7wonderlicious
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http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/take-action/25-online-resources-dedicated-to-empowering-girls.html