Never Waste an Opportunity to Do Your Part

By Windsor Western

I don’t need to write about how unprecedented 2020 has been. You’ve read it a million times and trust me, I know - you don’t want to hear it. You’re tired. You’re overwhelmed. You’re over it. I, too, am feeling all of those things. I have not escaped that deep sense of unease, sitting heavy in my gut. The late nights and early mornings worrying about your parents, your children, your job.

As 2020 blessedly comes to a close, I reflect back on the year and some advice that was given to me by a mentor in the early days of the pandemic. “Never waste a crisis” she said. I was baffled, confused, and more than a little bit offended. Never waste a crisis? Do you mean I should attempt to monetize a pandemic? My mind flew immediately to the reports I had read of those unsavory individuals giving capitalism a bad name by driving for hours on end to scoop up all available disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer in order to sell it on ebay at exorbitant prices.

But no, that’s not what she meant. I came to understand “never waste a crisis” as meaning never waste an opportunity to help. Never waste an opportunity to change things for the better. Never waste an opportunity to see things in a different light. Never waste an opportunity to throw your weight behind societal shifts that need to take place. Never waste a crisis.

And as we round the final bend of this monstrous year, I can honestly say that I am incredibly proud of the work that we did at Her Campus Media and the impact that we made on college women around the country and around the globe. And I want to say a deep, heartfelt thank you to all of the brands who stood behind us and beside us as we did our best to fulfill and expand our mission of empowering as many young women as possible in as many ways as possible.

My co-founders and I launched Her Campus from our Harvard dorm room over 11 years ago. We’ve bootstrapped our company to success, never raising outside capital. We are an independent, women-owned business with 5 brands under our portfolio (Her Campus, InfluenceHer Collective, Spoon University, College Fashionista and Generation Hired) and over 40,000 community members worldwide. And every time a brand comes to us and trusts us with their marketing and communications for young women, we take our responsibility very seriously. Our responsibility to the brands to get them the best possible results, of course, but also our responsibility to the young women that we serve. The responsibility to be a resource for them - a place to find community, a place to learn, and a place to help them navigate their late teen and early adult years. And we are so grateful to each and every one of our brand partners for standing by us in our mission and for making every year, but especially 2020, better for college women everywhere.

After acquiring Spoon University, College Fashionista and the Lala in 2019 and launching Generation Hired just this month, we’re excited to have greatly expanded our portfolio of solutions for brands looking to share their messages and values with young women at scale. So forgive me in advance for the length of this post - we were very fortunate this year to have had many incredible brands sign on to work with Her Campus Media.

Because of our 100+ brand partners this year, we were able to:

  • Entertain, inspire, and lift up the resilient Class of 2020 with #ImStillGraduating.

  • Get Gen Zers hired into their dream internships and entry-level jobs, with the launch of our newest brand Generation Hired.

  • Power our first-ever Business Plan Competition which helped over 40 students launch the companies of their dreams with $165,000+ in grants, mentorship, and entrepreneurship education.

  • Give away $100,000 to four deserving graduating seniors through a meaningful Funded Futures program, helping to stamp out student debt for students and recent grads.

  • Bring joy to college students worldwide with virtual beauty parties, movie watch parties, game nights, and extracurricular social clubs.

  • Reimagine college life for students attending school remotely with virtual career centers, distanced book clubs, remote workspaces, and more.

  • Send notes of love and encouragement to Gen Zers across the country.

  • Give thousands of Gen Z influencers and creators opportunity after opportunity through brand ambassadorship and sampling programs.

  • Donate over $50,000 of advertising services to Black-owned and Black-serving businesses and nonprofits.

Thank you to our 2020 brand partners - who believed in us, in our mission, and in the women we support. Thank you to 3M: Command, Absolute New York, Procter & Gamble and Aussie USA, AZO, bartleby, Batiste, Beautyblender, Bed Bath & Beyond, the Biden-Harris Campaign, Bumble, Cengage, CeraVe, ChapStick, Coca-Cola, College CheckLists, Conair, Cotton Inc., Deutsche Bank, Diva Cup, Edelman, Facebook, Fenty Beauty, Fidelity, First Aid Beauty, Function of Beauty, Garnier, Genomind, GoDaddy, Goldman Sachs, Grubhub, H&R Block, Hallmark, HBO Max, Hempz, Hero Cosmetics, Hire Scholars, Innisfree, Johnson & Johnson, Kiehl’s, LaCroix, Lilly Pulitzer, LOLA, Match Group, Minted, NARS, National Panhellenic Conference, NBC, Neutrogena, Nintendo, One Love, Orlissa, just periods., PANDORA, Penguin Random House, Plan B, Plan International, Powell Companies Real, PUMA, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, RepHresh, RXBar, SABRE, Sallie Mae, Sephora, Skillsoft, Smashbox, Steve Madden, Tasty Bite, The Home Depot, The Knot, Too Faced Cosmetics, Truth, UGG, Under Armour, US Bank, Vera Bradley, VS PINK, WeWork + WorldStrides. We could not do what we do without you.

Happy holidays and cheers to health, happiness, and more togetherness in 2021!

Press ReleaseHer Campus Media