How These Tie-Dyed Cupcakes Are Helping Send Girls to School, At tables in school common areas and workplaces across the country, people are peddling cupcakes for a cause. Make that tie-dye cupcakes. Slice open one of these handheld treats and you’ll find colorful swirls of sweet dough, dyed in vibrant primary colors to form psychedelic designs. However, beyond the swaths of frosting and sprinkles, these cupcakes represent much more: A 12-year-old Peruvian girl named Yessenia getting the education she needs to further her future, or Fatou, a young woman from The Gambia who graduated high school and moved on to college with the help of one organization — and their colorful baked goods.
Six years ago, before the first tie-dye cupcake was ever sold, She’s the First founder Tammy Tibbetts had a vision for an organization that would harness the power of first-world technology to help girls in low-income countries get the education they deserve. “I saw the opportunity to mobilize my generation to use their social media to crowdsource funds for scholarships,” Tibbetts said. Tibbetts is just 29 but has already won a host of accolades for her charitable work: the Diane von Furstenberg People’s Voice Award, Fast Company League of Extraordinary Women, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for education, and TIME’s 30 Under 30: World Changers, to name a few. She grew up in central New Jersey and studied journalism at the College of New Jersey. She worked and interned at publications like JANE, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Seventeen, where she was the magazine’s first social media editor, but felt her heart was leading her in a more charitable direction. Tibbetts became the founding editor of DonateMyDress.org, a directory of prom dress drives around the country, which would act as a springboard for her future charity work. Then, in 2009, while living in NYC, Tibbetts launched She’s the First, a grassroots media campaign to raise money and awareness for the need to provide scholarships internationally for girls to become the first in their families to attend and graduate high school, with her co-founder Christen Brandt, now Director of International Operations for the organization.
That campaign has evolved into the acclaimed non-profit organization it is today. She’s the First has funded the educations of nearly 600 girls in 10 countries around the world through various fundraising efforts — some more delicious than others. “It really took off from being a purely social media campaign into being this incredible, award-winning non-profit, because as we started to provide these scholarships in schools around the world, we were also attracting students who wanted to have fundraisers and help out,” Tibbetts said.
What does this have to do with brightly colored cupcakes? One of the She’s the First fundraisers was held by Lindsay Brown, a student at Notre Dame who thought it would be fun to hold a bake sale fundraiser with her favorite tie-dye cupcakes and the colorful treats were an instant hit. “People at other schools saw the pictures on social media and asked for the recipe. Soon the tie-dye cupcake became a kind of symbol that we could build a community around,” Tibbetts said.
Six years ago, before the first tie-dye cupcake was ever sold, She’s the First founder Tammy Tibbetts had a vision for an organization that would harness the power of first-world technology to help girls in low-income countries get the education they deserve. “I saw the opportunity to mobilize my generation to use their social media to crowdsource funds for scholarships,” Tibbetts said. Tibbetts is just 29 but has already won a host of accolades for her charitable work: the Diane von Furstenberg People’s Voice Award, Fast Company League of Extraordinary Women, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for education, and TIME’s 30 Under 30: World Changers, to name a few. She grew up in central New Jersey and studied journalism at the College of New Jersey. She worked and interned at publications like JANE, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Seventeen, where she was the magazine’s first social media editor, but felt her heart was leading her in a more charitable direction. Tibbetts became the founding editor of DonateMyDress.org, a directory of prom dress drives around the country, which would act as a springboard for her future charity work. Then, in 2009, while living in NYC, Tibbetts launched She’s the First, a grassroots media campaign to raise money and awareness for the need to provide scholarships internationally for girls to become the first in their families to attend and graduate high school, with her co-founder Christen Brandt, now Director of International Operations for the organization.
That campaign has evolved into the acclaimed non-profit organization it is today. She’s the First has funded the educations of nearly 600 girls in 10 countries around the world through various fundraising efforts — some more delicious than others. “It really took off from being a purely social media campaign into being this incredible, award-winning non-profit, because as we started to provide these scholarships in schools around the world, we were also attracting students who wanted to have fundraisers and help out,” Tibbetts said.
What does this have to do with brightly colored cupcakes? One of the She’s the First fundraisers was held by Lindsay Brown, a student at Notre Dame who thought it would be fun to hold a bake sale fundraiser with her favorite tie-dye cupcakes and the colorful treats were an instant hit. “People at other schools saw the pictures on social media and asked for the recipe. Soon the tie-dye cupcake became a kind of symbol that we could build a community around,” Tibbetts said.
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