- R
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SO IT ALL STARTED WITH OUTSIDE LANDS.......
We all know Outside Lands. That massive music festival that happens in Golden Gate Park every summer. One year there was this huge lumberjack that everyone took pictures with. Not quite the scale of Cochella but since its in the Bay Area you're okay with missing Cochella. If you're not following me then its the music festival that at least one of your friends has snuck into and now mentions it whenever they get a chance.
Well Gretchen Carvajal, owner, creator, designer, assembler, and sole employee of the company BRWNGRLZ had the amazing opportunity to sell her earrings at a booth at Outside Lands. Not just any booth, no no, a booth in the center of the lawn by the main stage. That means everyone was seeing her earrings and that's a pretty huge deal for this small business owner. Whether in sales or exposure Gretchen was going to leave with new opportunities for her company. She worked tirelessly for weeks creating hundreds of pieces to sell at her first ever booth. She stayed up late and produced until she had thousands of earrings made for the huge festival.
Then her laser cutter burst into flames. Yes you read that right: her. laser cutter. burst. into. flames. It burst into flames at 3AM. And yes, I had the same thought: the witching hour. Satan's time. A spirit had set a reminder on their google calendar for 3AM to wreck havoc on Gretchen's business in the midst of her gaining traction through OSL.
What is a laser cutter? Context clues its a laser that cuts into things. In Gretchen's case it is what she uses to run her business. It cuts into wood and acrylic to create her earrings for BRWNGRLZ. She will come up with a design, sketch it out, get it in an editing software, and then hook it up to the laser cutter and cut out each earring like that. Without her laser cutter she has no choice but to outsource the job to another person to get it done. She has to pay someone else to make her earrings for her merely because her own equipment is burnt in her garage. That means any profit she could make from her earrings is significantly less than it would be if she could use her own laser cutter. That means she’s running on someone else’s time. That means she’s losing agency to her craft and one of her major sources of income.
She paid an insane amount of money to buy this laser cutter (I won't give you the exact number but I will say there are four zeros in the amount). She invested in it all on her own with her own money. No grants, no fundraising, nothing.
Fixing her laser cutter is going to take $5,000. That's for the parts and the labor. She's not buying a whole new one, she just needs to get it fixed. And since she's a proud, independent woman who doesn't like asking for things she didn't want to ask for any help for this.
That's why I'm asking for her. This is her Christmas gift from me (and any of you who donate). Gretchen is one of the most hardworking people I know. She runs BRWNGRLZ all on her own. From design, production, packaging, marketing, customer service, and logistics, from the back end to the front end it’s all her ON HER OWN while balancing a full time job teaching high school kids in two San Francisco Public Schools, dealing with the cost of living in the city, and commuting two hours home every weekend to see her family and take care of her niece. She made a business because she believes in the power of women of color and creates not just jewelry, but community among black and brown girls. She is a selfless entrepreneur who compensates her collaborators and hustles for her family, and her community, before herself. AND SHE MAKES SOME OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE AND UNIQUE PRODUCTS EVER. Bottom line is Gretchen didn't deserve this to happen to her. She is a phenomenal human being and BRWGRLZ is a business worth backing, so with your help, I want to get her laser cutter back in working condition so she can start 2019 continuing to do what she loves.
f you’d like to see her pieces you can check them out and support at BRWNGRLZ.COM and follow her on IG @BRWNGRLZ.
We all know Outside Lands. That massive music festival that happens in Golden Gate Park every summer. One year there was this huge lumberjack that everyone took pictures with. Not quite the scale of Cochella but since its in the Bay Area you're okay with missing Cochella. If you're not following me then its the music festival that at least one of your friends has snuck into and now mentions it whenever they get a chance.
Well Gretchen Carvajal, owner, creator, designer, assembler, and sole employee of the company BRWNGRLZ had the amazing opportunity to sell her earrings at a booth at Outside Lands. Not just any booth, no no, a booth in the center of the lawn by the main stage. That means everyone was seeing her earrings and that's a pretty huge deal for this small business owner. Whether in sales or exposure Gretchen was going to leave with new opportunities for her company. She worked tirelessly for weeks creating hundreds of pieces to sell at her first ever booth. She stayed up late and produced until she had thousands of earrings made for the huge festival.
Then her laser cutter burst into flames. Yes you read that right: her. laser cutter. burst. into. flames. It burst into flames at 3AM. And yes, I had the same thought: the witching hour. Satan's time. A spirit had set a reminder on their google calendar for 3AM to wreck havoc on Gretchen's business in the midst of her gaining traction through OSL.
What is a laser cutter? Context clues its a laser that cuts into things. In Gretchen's case it is what she uses to run her business. It cuts into wood and acrylic to create her earrings for BRWNGRLZ. She will come up with a design, sketch it out, get it in an editing software, and then hook it up to the laser cutter and cut out each earring like that. Without her laser cutter she has no choice but to outsource the job to another person to get it done. She has to pay someone else to make her earrings for her merely because her own equipment is burnt in her garage. That means any profit she could make from her earrings is significantly less than it would be if she could use her own laser cutter. That means she’s running on someone else’s time. That means she’s losing agency to her craft and one of her major sources of income.
She paid an insane amount of money to buy this laser cutter (I won't give you the exact number but I will say there are four zeros in the amount). She invested in it all on her own with her own money. No grants, no fundraising, nothing.
Fixing her laser cutter is going to take $5,000. That's for the parts and the labor. She's not buying a whole new one, she just needs to get it fixed. And since she's a proud, independent woman who doesn't like asking for things she didn't want to ask for any help for this.
That's why I'm asking for her. This is her Christmas gift from me (and any of you who donate). Gretchen is one of the most hardworking people I know. She runs BRWNGRLZ all on her own. From design, production, packaging, marketing, customer service, and logistics, from the back end to the front end it’s all her ON HER OWN while balancing a full time job teaching high school kids in two San Francisco Public Schools, dealing with the cost of living in the city, and commuting two hours home every weekend to see her family and take care of her niece. She made a business because she believes in the power of women of color and creates not just jewelry, but community among black and brown girls. She is a selfless entrepreneur who compensates her collaborators and hustles for her family, and her community, before herself. AND SHE MAKES SOME OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE AND UNIQUE PRODUCTS EVER. Bottom line is Gretchen didn't deserve this to happen to her. She is a phenomenal human being and BRWGRLZ is a business worth backing, so with your help, I want to get her laser cutter back in working condition so she can start 2019 continuing to do what she loves.
f you’d like to see her pieces you can check them out and support at BRWNGRLZ.COM and follow her on IG @BRWNGRLZ.
Organizer and beneficiary
Gretchen Carvajal
Beneficiary