Ep 106: The Founder of Healthy Roots Dolls on Empowering Black Girls To Embrace Their Natural Hair

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yelitsa Jean Charles has gone from not knowing how to do her own hair at the age 21 to teaching young girls all about their own. </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">While in her Junior year studying Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, Yelitsa redesigned the fairy tale Character Rapunzel as a brown girl with beautiful kinky hair. After speaking with classmates and friends. she saw the opportunity to address the demonstrated need for more diverse toys and representation in children’s publishing.</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">With a grant from of the</span> <a href= "https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/swearer/programs/social-innovation-fellowship/11"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Brown University Social Innovation Fellowship</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, support from the</span> <a href="http://www.risdeship.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">RISD E’Ship Program</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "https://masschallenge.org/programs-boston"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Masschallenge Accelerator program</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/996500271/healthy-roots-natural-dolls-for-natural-girls"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">674 dedicated Kickstarter backers</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "https://healthyrootsdolls.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Healthy Roots</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">was born.</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">She was most recently recognized on Essence’s 2017 50 Founders to watch list and won the Startup Stampede as well as the New Voices Fund Pitch competition.</span></p> <p><span style=