“Community powered by positivity, passion, & electric idea sharing” from The Project for Women Founder, Lauri Levenfeld
Contributors include US Olympic Gold Medalist Simone Biles and Project Runway’s Ashley Nell Tipton; features include Francesca Capaldi
Press Release – SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, 2016 — Fashion photographer Lauri Levenfeld (Marie Claire, Seventeen, Sundance Film Festival), the founder of The Project For Women, announced today the launch of a new online editorial project geared toward young women: The Project For Girls.
A spinoff of its predecessor, The Project For Women, which pairs personal Q&A’s of entrepreneurial female leaders with Levenfeld’s signature photography, The Project For Girls offers inspiring content and interviews girls from all walks of life. In keeping with the site’s ethos, to be a “community powered by positivity, passion, and electric idea sharing, posts on TPFG are not only written for tweens and teens – they are written by tweens and teens.
Upcoming feature subjects include Francesca Capaldi of Disney’s “Dog with a Blog;” upcoming contributors include Simone Biles (US Olympic Gold Medalist), Ashley Nell Tipton (Winner, “Project Runway”), Ariana Greenblatt (star of Disney’s “Stuck in the Middle”), Olivia Rodrigo (star of Disney’s “Bizaardvark”), Lori Mae Hernandez (“America’s Got Talent” comedian), Natalie Hampton (16 year-old founder of the app Sit With Us), Gabrielle Begun (author, “Freddy the Penny”) and Alexa Ponciano (model + actress).
“Being a fashion and celebrity photographer, I have seen how girls often position themselves on social media,” says Levenfeld, herself the mother of a young woman. “There is pressure there to tear each other down, to tease and bully. The Internet can be a hostile and threatening place for girls.
But through The Project For Women, I’ve also seen how powerfully influential women can be in the opposite direction: they can collaborate online, they can mentor, they can celebrate each other’s successes. So I dreamt up The Project For Girls as a response to the all-too-common experiences girls have these days online. Like The Project For Women, I wanted to carve out a space for girls that felt inspirational and fun, uplifting and positive. Where they could be themselves, talk to each other, and feel the power of a larger, creative, and most importantly supportive community.”
“I am so honored to be a part of such a wonderful project, I feel that it is very important that girls have a place to go where they can feel safe and comfortable to speak out about their issues, and not feel judged by people,” says Capaldi. “Girls have a hard enough time as it is with friendships, relationships and being hard on themselves; we cannot continue to be so cruel to each other. I think The Project For Girls will be a great place for girls to be able to speak out and learn from others.”
Topics covered on TPFG include everything from bullying to teacher favoritism, social media to girl empowerment. Photos of each subject aim to capture each girls’ quirks and authentic self-expression, showing off their creativity and unique personality.
“Being a mom of a seven year-old, I can already imagine where she might go,” says Levenfeld. “Technology will be a part of her future, but it’s so important to me that it adds quality to her life, not diminish it. I want her to be able to engage in beautiful, meaningful relationships, and those include the relationships she discovers on social media. Our team at The Project For Girls aims to set a new tone for girls on the Internet, so that my daughter and young women like her can congregate online, and feel awesome about it.”
