The Duck Who Launched With A Green Conscience

When considering my Sassy skin and hair care product line and working on the branding, I knew right off the bat that it had to be Green and have a social and environmental conscience.  If I was going to launch a new product with my own daughter and her friends as the target audience, it had to be superior in quality and give back to the world. 

There simply wasn't anything like that out there just for them (tweens – ages 7-12+).  My daughter and her friends gravitated toward products that sparkled or products that were mass-marketed through chain stores and TV ads.  But these products had so many chemicals in the ingredient lists that you didn't know what you were letting your child put on her skin or hair.  And kids don't read labels – they just expect products to be safe and good for them.

I needed to create products that were superior, as all-natural as possible, and that the tween market would pick for themselves.  Organic ingredients and plant extracts were a natural choice (pun intended).  Less was more: the least amount of ingredients to do a superior job was the goal.  All of our products have Organic Honey and plant extracts like aloe and coconut oil, and most of them have Organic Olive Oil too.

 After the formulas came together, the Sassy character was born: a healthy, self-confident duck with a little attitude and a lot of cool.  Sassy and the label were specifically designed to attract 7-12+ year old girls.  But really, our products are good for everyone.  Our whole family uses Sassy.

By encouraging girls and their parents to purchase products with organic ingredients we are directly helping to reduce the amount of pesticides in the environment.  Organic farmers do not use pesticides! 
Because organic food and plants are not yet mass-produced, they can be more expensive.  Personal computers were very expensive when they first came out but once enough people started buying them and they became more mainstream, the prices came down.  The same will be true of organic produce.  Plus, by buying organic, we will be securing a better world for our children's future.

What's wonderful is that kids are interested in helping the environment too.  Tween girls care about our planet as well as social causes (the “care-taking” gene?).  Now, it's no secret that butterflies are a favorite of tween girls.  We happened to discover that a butterfly farm in Wisconsin had been destroyed recently, first through soil contamination which prevented milk weed from growing and sustaining the   migrating monarch butterflies.  Butterflies on their way to South America.  After the soil destruction, a terrible wind storm wiped out the fields of milk weed.  So we established Cuz Girls Care, a program to help restore these milk weed fields.  A portion of the proceeds from each Sassy product sale is given to the farm.  When the farm is up and running again, we will survey girls on our web site to find a new project to support.  Everyone, EVERYONE feels better about themselves when they are helping someone (or something) else.

As an LCSW in my private practice, I've worked with so many amazing teenage girls who couldn't see their beauty, their gifts, and their world as a positive and supportive place for them.  I've also met many adult women with the same issues.  I decided that the Sassy label and website would become a positive influence for girls, especially before they become teenagers where things seem to get permanently imprinted in their memory (and are thereby harder to change – not impossible to change – just harder).

The Sassy label and website offer Beauty Power Tips like: If you believe you are beautiful, so will others!  Look for and create your own evidence that you are beautiful! Look in the mirror and repeat, “I am beautiful!”  The website will offer an interactive Sassy who will “read” girls fortunes (positive and motivating predictions and statements).  My goal is to give girls the most powerful messages to help them create their best possible future.

Moms and Dads can take advantage of the site too and get helpful advice in dealing with the growing pains of tweens and teens.  The process of testing independence and separating from parents (individuation) can be especially trying.  Finger-snapping, eye-rolling, head bobbing and talk-to-the-hand attitudes may crop up as they grow and try to find out where they fit in in the world.  Advice like, it's important to remember the most powerful statement is “I am...”  Children hear, “Clean your room!  Why are you so lazy?”  Then they add that to their “I am...” memory list.  “I am lazy,” plays endlessly in the back of their minds, and then lazy becomes a part of their personality.  But, this is true for positive statements too!  So be sure to catch your child doing things right.  Say things like, “Boy, you sure are responsible!” when they clean up a mess they made without being asked.  That goes straight to that endless memory loop too, and they begin to believe and know they are responsible.  I've teamed up with a Certified Parenting Coach and Instructor and this is just a sampling of the parenting tips that will be offered.

In twenty years I will look back and know that I did something good for our environment and for young girls all over the world: safe, good-for-you skin and hair care products, a website supporting tweens
and their parents, and a give-back philosophy.  The Sassy duck may look white, but underneath she's pure GREEN!