Today you’re hearing from Mel Gorka, another girl that rocks the social media world.  We studied together at the University of Toronto and now Mel is an online guru…check Lady Atelier, a street beauty blog, which Mel is working on now!  Without further ado, here’s Mel!

Feel like doing something fun and a little bit different for girls?

I recently came across a couple of pretty cool fashion initiatives out there that are trying to help change the world!

The Uniform Project

Sheena Matheiken was getting frustrated working in advertising and not making much of an impact on her world.  In May 2009 she decided to take action “with fashion as her medium and education her cause.”  The end result? She launched The Uniform Project. For 365 days she wore the same little black dress as an excersise in sustainability and as a fundraiser. Her daily photographic journal and blog of the dress being worn in many different ways reached a global audience and attracted a lot of media buzz. But more importantly she raised over $100 000 dollars in donations. Because Sheena had so much success she has just launched Year 2 of the Uniform Pilot Project. Each month for the next year you can Do the Uniform Project yourself. Pick a dress and wear it for 30 days but making it different each day with something reused, nothing new. Raise money for your cause and be creative! By taking a daily photo journal this pilot project shows your journey and also interacts with the Uniform Project Audience. Fashion, Sustainability and Fundraising! What a great mix.

Rock Your Cause

If you want to try something a little more local but just as creative, why not check out Rock Your Cause™ a local initiative that creates fashionable and ethical apparel for you to sell for your cause. Create your own fashion line for your cause!  The idea of Rock Your Cause™ has grown from a small fundraising initiative with t-shirts sold to family and friends, into a fundraising phenomenon with student sales reps selling an entire line of Rock Your Cause™ apparel at high schools and universities across North America. This initiative was started in Toronto in 2008 and has quickly grown much larger.

Wear Because I am a Girl

You’ve seen them on Jenn Heil and lots of girls on this blog.  The Because I am a Girl t-shirts make a statement about girls, and look great in either hot pink or black.  Rumor has it that Because I am a Girl blogger Kate Jongbloed is wearing hers across the country as we speak!  If you need to get your own, check them out here.

So, I guess fundraising and style do mix!  For more ideas, check out our fundraising page…

I was checking out their site and loved the article Bring It, about a group of Canadian gymnasts from Vancouver who are both teenage girls and elite athletes.  The subtitle sums it up: who wants to be a regular teenager when you can be the best?  These are definitely girls that rock.  And reading it will probably help you to get your gymnastic fix while you wait for Make It or Break It to start again on Sept 15 (love that show!).  It shows that when you do something at this level, you become wise beyond your years:  ”Gymnastics helps with focus, concentration, preparation. It gives you a lot of practice for everyday life,” says 14-year-old Christina Marr.

Or, you can visit their Screening Room and check out films by three girls in Grade 10 at Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Hardly has sections on Life, Arts, Style, Beauty and Contests (if you’re feeling lucky), and not a picture of Justin Bieber to be seen!

Other Canadian girls magazines that we love: Girls Can Do Anything Mag and Faze Magazine.

This video does an awesome job of showing how education can make a big difference in the lives of girls as it traces the lives of two girls born on the same day, one that has access to school and the other that doesn’t.  Its short and good, so check it out!

We know that by investing in girls and their education, we can help to eliminate poverty and create a brighter future for the world.

There are so many ways for you to get involved in supporting girls!

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

We have a dream like that too: A dream where the world’s children will not be judged by their sex or gender, but their rights as human beings.

All of us as girls have individual dreams as well…just this week Madison over on the Because I am a Girl Facebook Page told us about her dream to become a country music singer.

I find that its sometimes hard to say those dreams out loud, because what if someone laughs or tells you that you can’t do it. But, if Madison and Martin Luther King, Jr could do it so can I:

My big dreams are for equality and justice, and my dreams for me are getting my PhD, seeing as much of the world as I can, and living happily ever after (I know it sounds like a mega cliche, but I’m totally serious about that one).

What are your dreams? What stand in your way? And has anyone ever told you that you can’t achieve them?

(photo credit: blatantnews.com)

Leading up to Blog Action Day 2010, there are 6 topics on the table: water, human trafficking, sustainable food, hunger, oceans, and women. All these topics are important, and most of them are in some way linked to the health and wellbeing of girls around the world.  And its up to you to vote for this year’s topic.

As girl campaigners, we blog about women and girls on a weekly basis, and many of you are listening and acting. Now imagine if on one day in October, THOUSANDS of bloggers were talking about girls issues, what it means to be a girl, and what girls are doing to change the world?

If you want to see that happen as much as me, vote here for women to be the topic of this year’s Blog Action Day!

Stereotype has it that girls don’t like to get dirty, but Because I am a Girl Celebrity Ambassador and freeride mountain biker Darcy Turenne proves those that still believe it wrong. As the first female to make a living exclusively from freeride mountain biking, Darcy is willing to get her hands a little dirty for her sport, and for girls.

Darcy, who’s 26, has signed on to represent Because I am a Girl because she believes that “investing in the health, leadership, and success of women and girls around the world is a direct investment in a better future”. She’s also supporting girls who rock by hosting this weekend’s See Jane Jump Women’s Mountain Bike Festival this weekend on Vancouver Island. Its the event’s first year and there will be tons of ladies strutting their stuff on two wheels.

You can’t put a price on girls or girl power, but Darcy’s decided that she’s going to raise $10,000 for the Because I am a Girl campaign. If you want to help her out, check out her fundraising page here.

Kick butt this weekend, Darcy! We’re rooting for you…and your cause.

Last month Plan published a 6-month update since the earthquake. Find out what’s been happening there, even if Haiti is no longer in the news:

The people of Haiti still need your help.  How to get involved:

• Click here if you’re interested in how you can help or want more information.
• Or, check out interactive videos of Port-au-Prince on PlanYouth.org.
• You can also read the stories of Marie, Jo-Ann, Madeline, Miline and girls in a Haitian camp to learn more about girl power in rebuilding Haiti.

Check out Project Elle and the Girls Action Foundation:

Are you somebody that gets fired up about issues? Do you want to understand what kind of impact you can have? Do you want to make a difference in your community and take action in your own life? Why not join Girls Action and inspiring young women from across the country at the ELLE Project?

From Oct 24 to 31 they’re holding a leadership training camp for young women.  During the camp you’ll learn about different ways to make change, from holding events to influencing policy.  As well, you’re matched up with a mentor who can help guide you and help out with your plan for changing the world!  You can apply here by August 15, and they’ll pick 20 outstanding girls from across Canada between the ages of 16 and 25 to participate!

And one that will be answered at TED Women in December.

For those of you haven’t checked out TED before, its a series of conferences that bring together the smartest and most innovative people in the world to share their ideas, also known as Ideas Worth Spreading.  The best part is that they post all the talks online so you can watch them any time.  Like the website says, each talk is riveting, and free to the world.  Each one is about 20 minutes long and leaves me feeling way smarter than, say, half an hour of The Bachelorette.

It’s still 122 days until the first TED Women conference that will bring together innovators from around the world to talk about issues that affect women and girls, so for now I’ll leave you a little taste with one of my favourite TED Talks by Chimamanda Adichie on the Danger of a Single Story:

There are lots of ways to get involved in making the world a better place for girls, whether its through volunteering your time, making your voice heard, or giving to the cause.

One way of getting involved that we don’t talk about very much here is to make world changing your career.

When I was in high school, I was involved with Students Council and a lot of extracurricular activities. The thing they all had in common was that they had some sort of socially-conscious focus, whether it was supporting environmental causes or raising money for a charity. But I had no idea that this kind of involvement could go beyond something I did in my free time and turn into a job.

In my final year of high school I learned that its possible to take an International Development Studies program at a bunch of different Canadian universities, like the University of Toronto, McGill, and Dalhousie just to name a few.  I realized for the first time that I could actually take classes that would help me to learn about world changing!

International Development Studies isn’t the only way to dedicate your work to making a difference. There are lots of other fields of study that are related, like community development, social work, or public administration.

So, if you love volunteering, holding fundraisers and getting involved with global (or local) issues, there are options to turn that love into a career!  I’m passing the message along because if someone hadn’t told me it was possible, I’d probably be stuck doing something that I don’t love instead of talking to you girls about girls issues!

(photo credit: CarbonNYC)