Fashion

Cover Girl Wins (Again) With This Amazing Campaign

by Tyler Atwood

Who says cosmetics companies don't have their consumers' best interests at heart? Janelle Monáe and Cover Girl are uniting to amp up Covergirl's Girls Can initiative, helping women combine the beautifying power of cosmetics and the can-do attitude needed to break through remnants of the glass ceiling. Girls Can seeks to give women the confidence and capability to excel in the career of their choice, male-dominated or not.

Created in February 2014, Girls Can is both a fundraising enterprise and an inspirational endeavor. In addition to providing young women with the narratives of positive role models who have defied expectation by thriving in challenging positions and male-dominated fields, Girls Can also donates a portion of Cover Girl's revenue from cosmetics sales to organizations that help career-driven women give their burgeoning careers a jump start. Girls Can has already pledged $500,000 to Girls Who Code, and an additional $200,000 to the Soledad O’Brien + Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation to create educational opportunities for young women. Over the next several months, Girls Can will further step up its initiative by teaming with retailers to sell Girls Can mascaras in hopes of further propagating the message and donating sales proceeds to female-oriented philanthropic organizations

Janelle Monáe joined the campaign as its celebrity spokeswoman so Cover Girl consumers — and women looking for a role model — would have a success story to associate with Girls Can. Monáe hopes that by learning of her own humble beginnings and her hard-won celebrity, other young women will be encouraged to reach for a better future. As Monáe explained during her interview with Women's Wear Daily:

My environment could have impacted how I saw myself in the world. I am who I am today because a lot of people told me ‘You can.'

So dip into your local drugstore and snap up that Cover Girl mascara and lip gloss you've been eyeing, because the Girls Can initiative means you can look beautiful and make a difference.