Going the Extra Mile with
Black Girls Smile
Today, we celebrate Black Girls Smile, a non-profit organization and one of Financial Joy School’s distribution partners. Founded in 2012 by Lauren Carson, Black Girls Smile began as a way to reach young Black girls between the ages of 13 to 19 and educate them about mental health. According to Carson, there is a stigma within the Black community that young girls are “adultified” too early and become the heart, or the backbone, of the family before they’re mentally ready to handle such a load. Therefore these young Black girls feel as if they need to be tough and strong rather than being mentally healthy as the children they truly are. As a result of this adultification, many young Black girls find themselves depressed and stuck without a voice to express what they’re going through. This only leads to repeating the same broken patterns seen in generations before them.
Black Girls Smile aims to change all of that.
Ruby Taylor knows all too well the struggles young Black women face today. As a Black woman herself, Ruby has had to face struggle after struggle learning how to build her own generational wealth before opening Financial Joy School as a Black female entrepreneur. Her heart has always been educating youth and Black and brown families on how to build their own wealth and be confident enough to do so. In fact, you might say that’s what makes her affiliation with Black Girls Smile a winning hand.
Carson’s non-profit organization is distributing 200 decks of Taylor’s own LEGACY! card game, a product she offers on her website to teach youth and Black and brown families how to close the racial wealth gap. Through this affiliation, 200 young Black girls will be able to learn, not only how to build their own wealth, but how to believe in themselves as well.
Taylor believes, as does Carson, that young Black girls need to see, and be seen, by older, successful Black women. Representation is key to igniting these tender hearts into believing that they, too, can be successful in the workplace as a woman, and not only that, as a Black woman. Awareness is exactly what these young girls need, to know they are not alone and that they can dream—and pursue those dreams—with all their heart.
Easing the racial wealth gap through Taylor’s work at Financial Joy School certainly works hand-in-hand with easing the mental health load of our precious Black teen girls and helps them to understand their own worth. These girls are worthy, not only intrinsically within themselves, but also as our future CEOs, investors, and entrepreneurs. Taylor and Carson both envision a better world for Black girls where mental health does not go unchecked, and neither does growing generational wealth.
For more about Black Girls Smile, please visit Statnews, Newsy, and their homepage.
To learn more about investing, closing the racial wealth gap, and growing generational wealth for Black and brown families, please visit Financial Joy School and become a part of our financial family.
