Mahisha Dellinger: Changing the World One Curl...One Girl At A Time

CURLS, one of the best recognized natural hair care brands in North America, launches its empowerment campaign for women and girls to take control of their destinies with “CURLS Girls Rule The World!” Mahisha Dellinger, CURLS CEO & Founder, believes in the enormous power, strength and talent of women and girls and is supporting activities all across the country to engage and educate them regarding entrepreneurship.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mahisha to talk about Curls Girls Rule The World and how she's changing the world one curl...one girl at a time.

Why did you launch Curls Girls Rule The World?

Tyrha, Lindsey and Myself came up with it. I do a lot in the community but I wanted something that I own. So I decided to create our own foundation together. Curls Girls Rule The World is about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs. To change the paths of these young girls like me, from the projects, where you don’t have an example of success or how to even get there. What’s the path from point A to Z on how to get there? They don’t know. They don’t have anyone that can show them. Their mother can’t show them. They don’t have anyone that’s educated in the community that can help them. How do you get there if you want to be successful but stuck in your situation? So it’s about helping that girl who has the motivation and desire to change her destiny.

What do the girls gain?

The key is to give them the information and the access. To show them something different from where they come from. Without information and access how do you do it? It’s next to impossible right? That’s the gap I want to bridge. We bring a host of mentors from every different industry and connect them with 4 mentees. They are connected based on the mentees interest. We don’t just connect them for the day…we connect them for life. So the mentors had to be invested to see them through. The mentor is there to help the girls through all aspects of life from college resume and application to industry knowledge to help them in the future. 

What issues are you trying to address?

Information, access and resources. What do you need to change your destiny? You can’t get out if you don’t have the information, access and resources to do so.

How did you get out?

It came much later in life for me because it was after college. I had the information but I didn’t have the access. So I rode on the information hardcore until I created the access through long hard work. But I can shorten the road by getting them going earlier in life. The book was written to be transparent about my journey. To show these young girls that I came out of an environment just like theirs. There were things I was embarrassed to talk about for a very long time and decided to expose those things. The point I’m making to these girls is that if I can make it then so can you.

Where is Curls Girls Rule The World stopping next?

Sponsored by Sally Beauty, the next stop is Dallas in December!

Any plans to take this international?

We already have requests for Paris and London but we want to cover home before we go abroad.

Where do you see Curls Girls Rule The World 5 years from now?

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(laughs) Five years is a really long time. We will have penetrated all the markets we have on our radar. We will have our annual sessions in place. We will also have a women's conference that is open to all women. The conference will consists of a three day workshop with speakers and break-out sessions.

Mahisha said, "What is life if you gain everything but can't impact someone else? If you can help someone else, why not do it?" I couldn't agree with her more. 

 

About Curls

Founded in 2002, CURLS is a pioneer in the natural hair care category. CURLS offers over 40 natural hair care products made with certified organic ingredients for women, kids, and babies. The company has multi-channel distribution, including retail, where CURLS products can be found nationwide in Target, Sally’s Beauty Supply, Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, CVS, and Duane Reed and has a strong presence with over 200 professional salon retailers and boutiques across the United States. CURLS also has a strong international presence in Canada, Brazil, Africa, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.curls.biz.