Meet The Team Behind: Style Her Empowered

Style Her Empowered believes that all girls and women deserve to do more than survive, they deserve to flourish. To help them get there, Style Her Empowered creates sustainable education and employment opportunities for girls and women around the world. Learn more about their work creating the world’s first school uniform that grows here! 

What are your key issue areas? 

Our work focuses on the three main barriers that prevent girls and women from flourishing long-term: limited access to education, lack of formal employment for women, and climate change. With our holistic approach to empowerment, we're building a circular and self-sustained model that is better for girls, women, and the planet. To address these barriers, we increase access to high quality, well-rounded education that builds girls' self-reliance, we create safe, reliable, and dignified jobs for women from low-income and low-education backgrounds, and we make sustainable products that are better for girls, women, and the planet. 

Can you talk to me about your sustainable products? 

We're best known for our Style Her Empowered uniforms that grow and our reusable menstrual pads. Our signature dress is the world's only school uniform that grows 6 sizes and up to a foot in length so girls can attend school for years without fear of outgrowing their required school uniforms. We recycle 100% of fabric waste from our factories into our unique reusable menstrual pads. In 2021, S H E produced over 5,000 reusable menstrual pads for girls in Togo. We’ve distributed over 10,000 menstrual pads to girls and women across rural Togo and have replaced the need for over 22,000 school uniforms. 

Where do you work? 

The S H E program started in the small town of Notse, Togo. Togo is a beautiful country known for its rich cultural history and entrepreneurial women. However, Togo is also one of the lowest ranking countries in the world for gender equality and human development. The average education level for girls in rural Togo is just 2 - 3 years, with only 33% of girls advancing to junior high school. With roughly 69% of rural Togo living on less than $1.90 per day, poverty remains the largest barrier to education. This disproportionately impacts girls at a rate of almost double their male peers. Since we began in 2017, we’ve provided over 6,000 education sponsorships for girls in Togo and created 33 long-term, salaried jobs for women. 

How has your uniform affected girls’ education in Togo? 

A required school uniform is the largest financial barrier keeping girls out of school in Togo and in many countries around the world, and our expandable school uniform is helping to change that. In 2023, our hardworking students achieved one of the highest success rates in our program's history. 1,486 out of our 1,500 girls passed their classes and national exams. Our holistic girls' education program serves 1,500 girls annually in kindergarten through high school. Each year, every girl at S H E receives: a uniform that grows, a full-tuition scholarship, 1 year’s worth of school supplies, year-round tutoring, reusable menstrual health kit, and a durable backpack.