( ENSPIRE She Did That ) Girls Rock SB is Committed to Empowering and Uplifting Women in the Music Industry with New Photoshoot
ENSPIRE Contributor: Natalie Dean
In the music industry, female musicians and behind-the-scenes professionals often get the short end of the stick. Like so many other fields, it is often the male professionals who have more mobility and opportunity, no matter how unfair. One organization seeks to combat such inequity by providing opportunities and empowerment: Girls Rock SB + Amplify!
Girls Rock SB has recently run their “Girls Can Do Anything” campaign in partnership with ZADIG&VOLTAIRE as a part of Women’s History Month. 10% of the profits made from this collaboration were donated to women’s rights organizations. Girls Rock SB creates a supportive and uplifting community for girls and gender-nonconforming people in music, and they have reached over 11,000 people worldwide!
Jen Baron from Girls Rock SB + Amplify recently spoke with ENSPIRE:
Tell us a little about Girls Rock SB + Amplify’s mission! What is the main goal of the organization, who is the target audience, and what do you hope to share with this audience?
Our mission is to empower girls, women, and gender-expansive humans through music education, the creative arts, community, and positive mentorship. Our vision is to provide a safe, diverse, and inclusive space for youth. We envision an equitable world that celebrates creativity, embraces authenticity, and values all voices. Our target audience is youth in 3rd grade to college students.
What is the main goal of the “Girls Can Do Anything” campaign?
To raise funds for Syryn Records and, at its core, to show how, when we model strong and smart, and creative women for youth, they actually believe they can also do anything. It is extra important that youth see women/gender-expansive folks who they can relate to, who look like them, identify as they identify, etc.
Why is it so important to empower girls specifically within the music industry? What difficulties do these girls face, and how do you help them overcome these difficulties?
The statistics for women and non-binary folks in the music industry are pretty gut-wrenching and they actually have only gotten worse. Currently, the statistics sit around 3% of positions are filled by women in the industry. While this campaign focuses on the music industry, our mission is much broader than that and a big part of our program model looks at how we can get girls into leadership roles later in life (in whatever industry they are passionate about) often what we see are girls’ confidence is actually stronger than ever … it’s the sexist world around them that essentially locks them out of the very spaces we have promised them they belong in. That’s the bigger fight.
What has the partnership with ZADIG&VOLTAIRE been like? What are the goals of this partnership, and how are you working to achieve them?
During COVID-19, we launched a youth-run record label called Syryn Records. This was and still is an internship for high school and college youth. The label and the internship help support female and non-binary artists and help shift the current landscape of the music industry where we see only around 3% of music roles being filled by women/gender-expansive folks. We are so grateful that Zadig also feels passionate about this mission every year they run girls can do anything campaign and we were grateful to be chosen this year.
We also got to get some big artists involved to model that Zadig “Girls Can Do Anything” TEE: Louise Post from Veruca Salt, Enzima, Zella Day, Nicole Fiorentino from the Smashing Pumpkins, Heaven from Syryn Records, and a bunch of our awesome youth. An amazing photographer also shot the Ad campaign, Arna Behar that we partnered on w Zadig. You can learn more about Syryn records here.
Last, what are some future plans we can look forward to?
In 2023, we will launch an entire online music production platform for youth where they can learn to produce their own music. And, we will add more in-person programming coming back from COVID.
Providing quality music education and a safe environment for these girls and nonbinary people to practice and make music is essential to closing the gender gap in the music industry. We look forward to seeing what Girls Rock SB offers in the future!
To learn more, visit here!
Related articles: HR Expert Miche’Lynne Helps Businesses Stay Afloat Amid Pandemic Difficulties, Deneen Joyner Speaks on Soul Healing, Young Singer-Songwriter on Mission to Unite People Through Music
