WRITING CHANGE Celebrates First Year of Impact
Company Feature, Sep 8, 2023
Last year, The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) joined with Amanda Gorman, Estée Lauder Global Changemaker, to launch WRITING CHANGE. ELC put power into action together with Amanda, the inspiration behind WRITING CHANGE, by uniting global platforms to launch a $3 million literacy initiative supporting and amplifying organizations that promote literacy as a pathway to equality, access, and social change.
More than 773 million children and adults worldwide face literacy challenges, most of whom are girls and women. For this reason, ELC launched WRITING CHANGE with 3 pillars—advancing literacy access, advocating for representation in literature, and fostering artistic expression in youth.
ELC is determined to provide unwavering support to organizations working to awaken the voices of a new generation of leaders. Over the past year, the WRITING CHANGE Collective, our five initial partners from across the US, demonstrated its dedication to underrepresented and underserved communities, particularly those of women and girls. The Collective included the following inaugural grantee organizations:
- We Need Diverse Books, who sent more than 600 books by Native and Black authors to educators across 13 states, prioritizing low-income schools that don't often have diverse books that reflect their students' lives
- WriteGirl, who provided year-round creative writing workshops, mentoring, publishing opportunities and college entrance guidance to 500 youth and young adults, demonstrating improved writing skills and confidence
- MIGIZI, who brought together 15 American–Indian girls to create a sisterhood of scholars to safely explore the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Relatives (MMIW/R) and to develop stories in various forms of expression to raise awareness of the epidemic
- Girls Write Now, who served 600 combined young mentees and mentors —woman-identifying, transgender, and gender expansive—from systemically underserved communities worldwide, including 30 U.S. states
- The American Library Association, who brought together a cohort of 12 libraries and local artists nationwide to implement short-term arts-based projects that engaged residents, built traditional and digital literacies, and elevated representation of cultural communities
ELC is incredibly proud of the initiative’s momentum, proving our capacity to fuel change through intentional community-building. Through collaboration with our partners, we’ve learned the power of community and connection. We have also learned that a multi-faceted approach to addressing access and community programming is greatly needed. Most importantly, we’ve realized the power of impact and are accelerating our goals toward equality in literacy.
In year two, WRITING CHANGE will expand its national footprint to welcome a new cohort of grantees into the collective, prioritizing organizations that intimately serve their communities. As we look back upon a successful and impactful first year of WRITING CHANGE, ELC looks forward to the upcoming year as we continue to power possibilities.
Learn more about our commitment to social impact.
