Mindset & Milestones is committed to entrepreneurship education that supports and encourages innovation in everyone! And we don't just want students to see examples of entrepreneurship in Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, we also want students to see themselves in Beatrice Dixon, Melissa Butler, and so many other entrepreneurs that get so much less of the much-deserved spotlight.
To be clear, these female entrepreneurs deserve to be highlighted as inspiring examples of entrepreneurship every day of the year.
This is our approach to entrepreneurship education, so if you're thinking about introducing entrepreneurship and project-based learning that gets your students excited, we can help!
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- Who are the featured 15 female entrepreneurs?
- 3 ways to use this resource in your classroom!
Who Are These Female Entrepreneurs?
Meet Jennifer Martin!
She is the co-founder of Pipcorn, a food company that uses minimal, clean ingredients and revolutionizes traditional corn snacks with its staple ingredient heirloom corn. The idea originated in 2011 when Jen's brother, Jeff, was helping her move apartments. Having nothing to eat, they found a bag of mini heirloom popcorn kernels in the back of a cabinet & popped them up!
Meet Brittany Bosco!
As the Founder and Creative Director of Slug Global, she has created a team of young artists from diverse professional backgrounds and disciplines. They specialize in creating thoughtful visual experiences infused with music & culture. The business was developed in 2016 to elevate Black and brown voices in the art world, showcase the art of peers and provide professional opportunities within their creative communities.
Meet Khloe Hines!
She is the Founder of Hungry Bunny, a 100% virtual donut shop offering vegan donuts and more. Hines was inspired to create Hungry Bunny after being laid off due to the pandemic, and she saw the opportunity to serve the community with a healthier, baked donut alternative.
Meet Trinity Mouzon Wofford!
She launched her business, Golde, at the age of 23 with a clear mission: to make wellness accessible. "We wanted to strip away a lot of the concepts around wellness that tend to involve guilt," she tells. Golde celebrates superfoods to effortlessly boost your daily routine, from morning smoothies to skincare.
Meet Sheila Johnson!
She founded Black Entertainment TV (BET) in 1980. BET is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. Owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks. After gaining experience as a lobbyist for the cable television industry in the late 1970s, Johnson saw an opportunity to reach African American audiences through a cable TV channel.
Meet Rihanna!
The Founder & CEO of Fenty Beauty founded in 2017, a cosmetics brand that offers a wide range of hard-to-match skin tones for all skin types. She created Fenty Beauty to ensure the inclusion of all skin colors, more so ensuring the inclusion of deeper skin tones.
Meet Melissa Butler!
She is the Founder & CEO of The Lip Bar, a vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand that maintains the idea that beauty doesn’t have to compromise health. TLB is a luxury beauty bar that produces and sells cosmetics. Butler aims to limit harmful chemicals in cosmetics because she believes that balancing beauty with health matters. She also hopes to bring diversity, innovation, and creativity to cosmetic products and branding.
Meet Beyoncé!
The Founder of Ivy Park, an athleisure clothing line owned, managed, and operated by Beyoncé through her management company Parkwood Entertainment, created in 2016. Ivy represents her daughter Blue Ivy Carter, and Park represents Parkwood Park in Houston where Beyoncé used to go to exercise and find personal strength.
Meet Nancy Twine!
She founded Briogeo, to offer a full selection of clean, natural, and effective hair care products that are built to treat every hair type and texture. When moving to New York, Twine traded out her homemade essentials for the store-bought variety. She then realized that the natural hair care on the market simply did not live up to its performance claims.
Meet Lesley Thornton!
She is the Founder & Creative Director of KLUR, a skincare line formulated for diverse skin conditions and ethnicities. It is a skin wellness brand cultivated to reflect the values of clean, ethical, and inclusive beauty. As an esthetician and formulator, Lesley has always treated people with a holistic approach to skin health; prioritizing minimalistic regimens that deliver multiple benefits and long-term results.
Meet Chari Cuthbert!
The Founder & Creative Director of BYCHARI, established in 2012, produces effortless, unique, and modern handmade jewelry, designed for women who appreciate simplicity, but demand luxury-just as Chari does. There was no business model & it was more of a passion project. She needed an outlet to be creative & jewelry happened to be it at the moment.
Meet Chantel Davis!
She founded CASTAMIRA after her time as a Wilhelmina model when she had trouble finding high-quality swim options to comfortably enhance her own curves. She became fascinated with designing body-contouring luxury swimwear that would accentuate women’s most alluring features.
Meet Madame CJ Walker!
She founded her own cosmetics Manufacturing Company, incorporated in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1910. Walker suffered from hair loss due to a scalp condition, and she began to make cures for herself. She recognized an opportunity in the lack of hair products for Black Americans on the market at the time.
Meet Oprah Winfrey!
She founded Harpo Productions in 1986, an American multimedia production company in West Hollywood, California. It produces made-for-TV movies and mini-series. She focuses on stories that dive into difficult life spaces like shows depicting abuse and alcoholism, but also broader topics like building family relationships.
Meet Beatrice Dixon!
The Founder of The Honey Pot Company, plant-derived feminine care, ranging from natural washes, wipes, tampons, panty sprays, pads, lubricants, and other herbal products. After suffering from bacterial vaginosis for 8 months, Dixon decided to be part of the solution to heal herself and prevent the same issues from happening to others.
Here is a sneak peek at what this presentation actually looks like:
On each page, you can hover over the woman's image and learn more information about her!
3 Ways to Use This Resource in Your Classroom:
1. Entrepreneur of the Day!
You can use this presentation as a warm-up for your business or entrepreneurship class, for your after-school program, or even for your girl scout troop! Having "Entrepreneur of the Day" exposes your students to new and fun examples of female entrepreneurs in a bite-size form - ever expanding their memory bank of what an entrepreneur looks like and how many ways there are to start a business!
2. Classroom Poster Inspiration!
You can print out pages of this presentation and post them around your classroom for student inspiration! Invite them to read about the different black female entrepreneurs as they're coming in and out of class, and even make some time to go over the entrepreneurs around the classroom as a fun daily reminder of what entrepreneurs can do!
3. Student Project Presentations
Use this presentation as an example for students to create their own slides for a deck of female entrepreneurs and other role models! Each student/group can be assigned to do a slide on a person of their choosing, and then the class will have a full deck of entrepreneurs chosen by the students to draw inspiration from. Starting with this presentation will show the students what they're aiming for and make explaining the project informative and fun!
