To get a better background of the progress so far, allow us to explain the growth the startup has made thus far. Originally explained as a fashion company, You Matter Stories had its name change due to a shift in focus. We now plan to focus on the artistic side of storytelling. To put it simple, invisible lives go unnoticed daily, even in models, and we want to find these people and share their story in a creative format while simultaneously selling our products to support this solution. Essentially, our products include the art. For example, there could be an image of a woman who recently had a miscarriage and in order to support her, we shed light on the issue at hand. In this case, miscarriage is real, and real mothers and fathers of unborn children grieve the loss around the world. Our goal is to have fashion designs that were inspired by people like this and to clothe our models with confidence and love, photograph them to further tell their story, and emotionally support the people we feature.
Yes, it may take a while to build up this image and tell these stories, but it is worth it because everyone deserves to be known and everyone deserves to be understood. This is our way of saying, "You Matter." You matter enough to be heard, and to be shared. 99% of people are capable of feeling empathy, some more than others. We are human, we are created for storytelling and we best understand in stories. Facts only do so much until we find ourselves walking away, unattached. But to read about something real, that's what engages us in.
We want our customers to know that every product we release was somehow inspired by someone's story. You can choose to support any matter that means the most to you as we develop different stories and buy from those products because of it, or you can simply shop to your liking and support all. Although not a non-profit organization, we will work quite like one in the sense that we focus on people over business. But we truly believe that a successful business is one that pays attention to its people, both workers and customers.
Preparing for launch date includes gathering Advocates, the term we use for our models who will be real people like you and me, not professional models and no particular size requirement. These Advocates will sit with one of the writers on our team and tell an impactful moment or a brief life story of who they are. Once that is done, their story will be assigned to a photographer who will schedule a shoot day with that person. Every photo shoot will be a challenge, and every Advocate must agree in advance to openly share for our public website and be open to their own personalized shoot. Advocates will not be required to pay for this but are welcome to purchase a T-Shirt during startup for their photos. They can then use that shirt to help spread the word so that their friends and family can see their story. This is our number one marketing technique so far.
Lastly, we will send off our first collection to manufacturers after testing a few sample work and eventually launch our clothing line, which will contain various designers over time as opposed to one. We hope to go worldwide and start reaching out to other countries and more stories. Our writers and photographers will travel the world to continue meeting new people with new stories. The business' funds will continue to support this and support the workers so that we can continue to artistically tell stories and sell creative fashion for both everyday apparel and special occasion.
Some things to look forward to would be fashion shows with average people as models, partnering with organizations or companies, and introducing our video production team as we grow. Video stories will be directed by our CEO, who will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinematic Arts Production degree as of May 2017. Because video and photography is her greatest passion in storytelling, she plans to continue this passion by adding it to her love for telling real life stories. Working with her fashion designers, she hopes to create the ultimate collaboration and grow a successful company. She is not only determined and diligent, but her personal life situations have pushed her to keep going because empathy has been one of the greatest gifts she possesses. Adding that to her top strength of strategic thinking, and you get the solution of You Matter Stories.
Stay tuned for our launch date by liking our facebook fan page, Instagram, or bookmarking our website with these links. If this interests you in any way and you feel compelled to write in about joining, granted you live in the LA area or sign up to be a remote writer, please email Stephanie at stephanie@youmatterstories.com for more info.
You Matter Stories
youmatterstories.com
