For many people, Christmas is the most joyous time of year, and even at the tail end of this wild ride we call 2020, our team at Dea Studios is still determined to find joy and to celebrate. There have been plenty of reasons to do just the opposite. For example, a recent article on Inc.com stated that women owned businesses were among the hardest hit this year. While we know well enough to heed the facts and statistics, we can’t help but share how encouraged we actually are. Though there has been a great deal of loss this year, there has also been an increase in new business ventures and expansion for some existing companies - including for women-led businesses. With Dea Studios’ launch in August of this year, we can also claim a spot as part of the brave tribe that chose to create a startup in the middle of a pandemic (say what?!)
We have compiled a list of female-led business ventures that we are so excited to share with you. And the part we’re even more excited about? They are all women of color! We hope this all star list will inspire you and fill you with a sense of hope and possibility. Scroll down to see more…
Standrd Uniform
Founder: Denice S. Pigott
Notable: Denice attended legendary HBCU Howard University.
Standrd Uniform offers handmade, luxury candles and home goods. With names like “Juniper Fir + Balsam Spruce,” you can’t help but imagine your home filled with luscious smells. Wild about candles? This line of scents is a dream.
Check out Standrd Uniform’s best seller, White Sandalwood + Leather Travel Candle or a scent from their Limited Edition Holiday Collection Travel Candle Set.
FuzzyHead
Founder: Ivy Penn
Notable: Ivy is a double major in business and design at the University of California San Diego.
As the youngest entrepreneur of this bunch, Ivy Penn (what a name, right?) is leading the pack with her new business, FuzzyHead. FuzzyHead is a clothing, sticker, and home goods shop where every piece is made to make you smile. The brand is retro, warm, and handmade with lots of love. Ivy chose to introduce FuzzyHead to the world in 2020, because she believes it is crucial to find sparks of joy in tumultuous times. Ivy is hoping silly stickers and fun socks will brighten your day, even if just a little.
Check out FuzzyHead’s Have a Good Day Tee and the Garden Gang Sticker Pack on Etsy.
.jpg)
The Hope Collection
Founder: Dea Jenkins
Notable: Dea is an interdisciplinary artist who participated in her first international exhibition with CICA Museum earlier this year.
Dea Studios’s founder, Dea Jenkins, is expanding her art and design background to offer her first set of products. While creating “The Hope Collection” Dea wanted to make products that would offer gentle reminders to “hope again.” The “again” portion is meant to remind us that hope is a continual, evolving practice - one that we have to actively enter into again and again. Dea chose mugs as her first products, because of their association with that which warms and energizes us. Who knows? She may eventually find her way into making accompanying teas…
Check out Against All Hope Lost and We Flew on Dea’s website.
Abuelita Faith
Author: Kat Armas
Notable: Kat Armas is a Cuban-American writer and speaker who hosts The Protagonistas podcast, where she highlights everyday women of color, including writers, pastors, church leaders, and theologians.
So…technically a book is not a business per se, but we are so thrilled about Kat Armas’s upcoming book, Abuelita Fatih, that we had to include it on this list. This gift guide is all about uplifting business women of color, so a book about the wisdom we can all gain from women on the margins is a must for us.
Abuelita Faith tells the story of unnamed and overlooked theologians in society and in the Bible--mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters--whose survival, strength, resistance, and persistence teach us the true power of faith and love.
Find Abuelita Faith on Amazon.
.png)
