Life and Work with Alison Shores, Kristen Stoner and Megan Goodman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alison Shores, Kristen Stoner and Megan Goodman.

Four years ago, Megan’s then-three-year-old daughter became really obsessed with princesses and superheroes. She would alternate between playing Ariel and playing Batman or sometimes, both at the same time (which was pretty creative).

Megan began to wonder how she could provide her little one with even better role models than these two fictional characters. They don’t wanna knock princesses or superheroes, but their brave isn’t nearly as inspiring as real people’s brave. How could she help her daughter understand that REAL people, REAL women, make the very best heroes? An idea came to her, an idea that got her so excited, it woke up the dreamer in her. Inviting Kristen and Alison to join her, they began to work bringing her dream to reality.

In October 2015, GIRlS CAN! CRATE sent out its first crate. Every month since then, GIRLS CAN! has sent out a crate celebrating the life of a fearless female. From Marie Curie to Bessie Coleman, Irena Sendler to Florence Nightingale, Patsy Mink to Malala – GIRLS CAN! CRATE inspires girls to BE and DO anything by introducing them to fearless women who made the world better. Each month, GIRLS CAN! delivers a crate (AKA a cool box) to mailboxes filled with everything needed to introduce girls to fearless female role models who show them ALL the things they can be. Each crate contains a 20-page activity book that includes the story of that month’s featured woman and chock full of other funtivities, supplies for 2-3 hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activities, tips for adults to help foster the featured character trait, and a collectible button.

In July 2018, GIRLS CAN! launched their new mini-mailer. It’s the same BIG inspiration as their crate but in a smaller package! Each mailer comes with a 16-page activity book that includes the story of that month’s featured woman and chock full of other funtivities, supplies for one hands-on STEAM activity, tips for adults to help foster the featured character trait, and a collectible sticker.

Since GIRLS CAN! began, they’ve been featured in Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, Cool Mom Picks, The Arizona Daily Star, and was a winner of Parent’s Choice Recommended award.

At its core, GIRLS CAN! is three women who want girls to know all about the amazing women they never learned about in school. It’s their desire that every girl that picks up a box will see a woman who reminds her of herself in some way so that she, too, can know that she can do BIG things. Learning as they’ve gone and grown, Alison, Kristen, and Megan are committed to perfecting their crates while telling the stories of women who’ve made their world better.

So, move over princesses, because real women make the best heroes and GIRLS CAN! CRATE is delivering them!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Anytime we start something new there are bound to be challenging. GIRLS CAN! has not been without them. Considering that none of us have a background in business, we’re all educators, it’s been a pretty steep learning curve. However, we’ve been sure to surround ourselves with others who know more than us, read as much as we can when we want more knowledge, and look to the women we’ve featured when we need an extra dose of grit.

Our advice would be: go for it! Whatever you want to do, have a passion for, feel led to do… go for it. One of our favorite quotes and the one that really sparked Megan’s passion and keeps us going is from painter Georgia O’Keeffe: “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” When we come up against a new hurdle, when supplies don’t arrive when they’re supposed to, or whatever… we just say “Let’s get our Georgia on.” Fear is a powerful force; we choose to leverage it in a way that pushes us forward.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with GIRLS CAN! CRATE – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
GIRLS CAN! CRATE a subscription service for girls 5-10 that introduces them to fearless women who’ve made the world better. What does this mean? Well, every month we send girls 5-10 years old a box or mini-mailer full of women’s history. We are known for celebrating fearless women, and particularly women who are underrepresented based on their race, ethnicity, a field of profession, and other challenges. Every month the three of us, Alison, Kristen, and Megan, do everything from start to finish to get our crates or mailers out the door. We research the women, we write all of our own content, we design our graphics, we design our activities, we fold all of our boxes, we fulfill all of our boxes/mailers, we drop them off at the Post Office, we run our own social media platforms, we answer all of our own customer service inquiries, we run the day-to-day operations of our business, and more!

When we receive photos from subscribers of girls learning about and embodying the amazing women we’ve introduced them to, well, that makes it all worth it. Nothing thrills us more than knowing that girls come to know women who most history books have ignored. We’re also pretty darn proud that we started this company from scratch with very little seed money only to see it blossom and grow to where we were in the black in the first four months.

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
It may sound trite, but don’t be afraid–afraid to try; afraid to fail; afraid to ask for help; afraid to recognize your achievements, and afraid to dream BIG. So much of what has held us back, both professionally and personally, has come at the hand of fear. We like to think of women like Bessie Coleman, Balqees Bani-Hani, Grace O’Malley, or Irena Sendler to help us push through the fear.

Find a mentor. Learn from those who are doing what you want to do well and ask for help. We believe in women helping women.

Pricing:

• Crate subscriptions start at $25.95 (includes shipping)
• Mini-mailer subscriptions start at $18.50 (includes shipping)
• T-shirts, mugs, and totes start at $20.

Contact Info:

• Website: girlscancrate.com
• Email: info@girlscancrate.com
• Instagram: @girlscancrate
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/girlscancrate

Image Credit:
GIRLS CAN! CRATE

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