Youth Startup Seeks to Create Online School for Natural Hair Care Demonstrations

Gabrielle Goodwin, 13, of Columbia, SC, is one of this year's competitors in the i.Invest National Youth Business Competition. She is the founder of The Confidence Look and Learn Hair School, an online girls’ hair styling tutorial subscription service.

We spoke with Gabrielle to learn more about her business venture:

Tell us about your business venture:

The Confidence Look and Learn Hair School will be an online girl’s hairstyling tutorial subscription service. It will be a biweekly, two-way video interactive live stream offering the full hair care and styling experience for subscribers with our resident stylist and natural hair specialist. One week before the scheduled styling demonstration, a photo will be sent to subscribers of a hairstyle along with a list of products and tools that are used. The styles that are chosen can be modified for the particular hair length and styling experience of our members. Hair care topics like detangling and deep conditioning will also be included in our tutorial demonstrations. A GoPro camera will be worn to give great close-ups during the experience, while questions will be moderated and answered every 20 minutes so families can truly look and learn. Our recordings will be available for replays forever to our subscribers.

Who or what inspired you to start Confidence?

We already have had a Facebook group for our girls' natural hair care and Confidence brand, where we answer different questions about hair care, and now we want to expand. Occasionally, we have even used Facebook Live to do real-time hair demonstrations. In doing so, we have seen that many moms have questions about various hair care topics, so we decided to create a school to help them while promoting our plant-based natural hair products for girls.

How will Confidence impact the world?

The Confidence Look and Learn Hair School will help girls feel confident in their natural hair, while part of the proceeds will go to our GaBBY Play Dates, where we invite girls from children's shelters to teach them about entrepreneurship and have fun with them. We have fun by going to places like spas, splash pads, and bouncy houses. Ultimately, Confidence will solve the problem of moms not feeling confident in taking care of and styling their daughters' natural hair. Most moms had chemically processed hair growing up, and now 73% of black women wear their hair naturally. As moms are embracing their natural hair, they are looking for products and services to help their daughters do the same.

To learn more about the Confidence Look and Learn Hair School, visit their website, http://gabbybows.com, or Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/therealgabbybows/. To mentor or offer support, email info@i-investcompetition.com.