9-Year-Old CEO Creates Dolls with Curls To Empower Black Girls

• Zoe Oli has always questioned her skin color and curly hair.
• This has motivated her and her mom Evana to build a company that calls to empower girls.
• They created a company called Beautiful Curly Me, which creates a line of black, curly-haired braided dolls. 

A company creating a line of black, curly-haired, braided dolls is creating a wonderful buzz, screaming girl power for colored girls.

Nine-year-old Zoe Oli, along with her mom Evana, is on a mission to encourage acceptance, confidence, and most of all, self-love among many young girls of color.

Zoe, like most other girls of her kind, would often question why her hair and color are different. This has been the motivating force behind Beautiful Curly Me.

“When I was six years old, I did not like my hair and I wished it was straight like my classmates,” Zoe, the CEO of the company, said. “I asked my mom, ‘Why isn’t my hair straight and pretty like my classmates?’ And so when I told her about this, she wanted to do everything to help empower me.”

What made it more confusing for Zoe was that not only were her school mates have white skin color and blonde, straight hair, but also the dolls that she plays with. She then began to question and doubt herself.

“I asked [my mom], why doesn’t the doll have hair that looks like mine?” she would often wonder. “We should have dolls that have curls and braids, so other girls can see themselves and their dolls and feel beautiful.”

Evana, as a mother, was both concerned and compelled to do something about it. For her, it was an eye-opening experience.

“It was such an awful feeling,” she said. “What mother wants to hear their daughter doesn’t like their hair, doesn’t like what they look like naturally. And so, that really hurt me.”

That’s when Beautiful Curly Me happened.

Three years later, the company has grown to offer not just dolls, but also books, clothing line, and face masks.

According to Evana, apart from empowering her daughter through their company, they also look forward to making other girls like Zoe feel naturally good about themselves. The vision is no longer just personal, but transcends to every girl out there who feels unsure of themselves.

To serve this cause, their company has donated 10% of their proceeds to charities with the intent to empower young girls, too. They also plan to donate 5,000 dolls and books in the succeeding months.

CEO Zoe and Evana are not planning to stop anytime soon with their mission to inspire more girls, build their strength, and enable them simply because they want every girl to remember that “she can do anything she puts her mind into.”

Source: PEOPLE.com