Happy International Women’s Day 2021! Today – 8th March – is International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the incredible achievements of women from all walks of life. Observed since the early 1900’s, it also marks a call to action to make positive changes and accelerate gender parity, as well as providing a global opportunity to educate and inspire new generations.
The International Women’s Day 2021 campaign theme is #ChooseToChallenge – and as the IWD website says “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.”
The last 12 months have been some of the toughest in living memory, but it has been a privilege to witness so many incredible women rise up this year, start new businesses, elevate their side hustles and reach for new heights. So, with this in mind, here’s my International Women’s Day 2021 list of incredible women that I want to celebrate the achievements of…
Penny Joyner-Platt
Top of the list this year is my incredible friend Penny, who over the space of the last 12 months has transformed a high flying career in the city within luxury PR to an even higher-flying role as the editor of Little Ankle Biters Herts – a brilliant online resource for local families in Hertfordshire. Not only has she successfully launched a business and seen amazing growth during the middle of a global pandemic, the inaugural Little Ankle Biters Herts Awards (which Branding By Tigz sponsored) received over 12,000 nominations for over 500 businesses, organisations and individuals in its first year, with their first event – the awards ceremony – planned for the summer!
Sali Jones
Most of you will have probably hear of Sali, my #QueenOfSocials, but you may not know that Sali is also an exceptional makeup artist, When lockdown hit and weddings were cancelled, she focused her attentions on turning her sweary ranty doodles into an epic side hustle, with her MooDoodlesUK Etsy store now featuring over 125 products from stickers and badges to greetings cards. She’s so close to 800 sales and absolutely smashing it. If you like bright rainbows and uplifting quotes, or just love to support small independent businesses, let’s see if we can get her to 800 by the end of the week?!
Karolina Laskowska
Luxury lingerie designer Karolina Laskowska often makes this annual list because her skills are seemingly endless, but one of my key highlights from the last twelve months has been following the journey of Karolina as she repositioned her brand following a relocation to Norway, along with her recent exclusive lingerie collaborations with Jane’s Vanity, a US-based online boutique specialising in fine European lingerie for the true connoisseur. Pictured above on The Lingerie Addict (who wrote an amazing Twitter thread on the pricing of luxury lingerie) is her 2020 collaboration Eos, whilst their new for 2021 collaboration Asteria has just launched.
Kara Curtayne
Another new discovery this year is Kara Curtayne of Karaccounts, who – amongst other things – is incredibly knowledgable within the realm of accounting and taxes for influencers. Let’s face it, tax is rarely ever a fun subject to talk about, but her instagram is full of useful, bitesize chunks of information that make information easy to digest and is well worth a follow if you run your own business, or perhaps are thinking about becoming self-employed. I’ve found her Brexit-related content particularly helpful over the past couple of months.
Shimmy Laroux
Chicago based burlesque performer Shimmy Laroux has definitely been shaking things up over the past year, not only landing herself with the title of Miss Burlesque North America 2020, but placing 14th in the world in the Burlesque Top 50! If that wasn’t enough, she’s also a diversity and inclusivity consultant in the muggle world and has been incredibly active in supporting businesses as they re-assess their businesses and make changes in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement. Oh, and did I mention Shimmy also appears in my award-winning burlesque photography book STRIP/TEASE?!
Miss Vivienne Lingerie
One of my favourite new finds in the last couple of months is Miss Vivienne Lingerie, an independent lingerie designer living in the Scottish Borders who creates beautiful, made to order pieces that are not only inclusive but also ethical with their practises, using elastic, components and printed materials sustainably sourced from either local Border based suppliers or UK stockists to support the other UK small businesses. Even their packaging is 100% recyclable right down to the packing tape. I recently ordered myself one of the Ginger sets and I absolutely love it! I wholeheartedly recommend checking them out.
Eliza DeLite
Internationally renowned neo-burlesque performer Eliza DeLite has always been one to watch in the London burlesque scene, but over the past twelve months the strength of her entrepreneurial prowess has really shone through as she embarks on an exciting new project funded by the Arts Council England. It is fantastic to see burlesque getting such recognition and I can’t wait to see the end result! Everything is mostly still under wraps for now, but you can find snippets on her Instagram and much, much more via her Patreon.
Who are you celebrating the achievements of this International Women’s Day 2021?
Give them a shout out in the comments below!
The deep friendship, love and support that women offer each other. I am blessed with sone wonderful women friends who have lifted me up, encouraged and cajoled me over the last couple of years.