September 2021- Present
Cinderella's Lil Shop | Non Profit Business
CLS is my non profit small business, that aims to empower and make underprivileged teenage girls self sufficient. These girls make products like reusable sanitary napkins, scrunchies, headbands, etc., by upcycling cloth material that I collect for them through donation drives. On their behalf, I sell/donate these products. All the profit from this business, is handed directly to them.
Our Journey
From An Idea To Reality
I had always wanted to start a small business of my own since I was a little kid, the idea of coming up with the perfect packaging, getting to know and meet other small business owners, handling all the logistics, planning every little step, seemed like a dream come true for the little entrepreneur in me. On the top of that, at the start of 9th Grade, I started taking community service seriously, and realised that it was something I really enjoyed. After taking up different kinds of community service projects, I decided I wanted to find a group of girls who are willing to learn, and become self reliant. My idea was that, I would teach them how to sew, with the help of local teachers, and provide them with sewing machines, so that they could make reusable sanitary napkins, for their use, and for other underprivileged women who can't afford them. But the entrepreneur in me, still wasn't satisfied. I really wanted to start my small business, so I thought of merging both my dreams together, and came up with the non profit small business, that is 'Cinderella's Lil Shop'.
Needless to say, I love Disney
Why do we call ourselves 'Cinderella's Lil Shop'?
Cinderella’s Lil Shop is not exactly your everyday small business.
The backbone of this business are 5 underprivileged teenage girls from a village called Shodhapur in Panipat.
'Cinderella's lil Shop' was kept the name because Cinderella used to make dresses and gowns, but she never had the opportunity to show her talent to the world, but then when the fairy godmother entered her life, she helped Cinderalla in enhancing her work, so that she could finally showcase her talents, her dresses, her skills to the world.
This situation is similar to the one with the underprivileged teenage girls here.
Anjali, Jyoti, Radhika, Rajni and Kajal are the Cinderellas behind this shop. I, Saanvi, am a mediator for them, or you could say the fairy godmother, so that their designs and pieces can be shown to the world, and they can become self reliant, by earning an income through their talents.
Our Team
Meet the backbone of CLS, (left to right): Kajal, Jyoti, Anjali, Rajni, Radhika, (The Cinderellas) and me, standing, (The Fairy Godmother)
Our Aims
'Cinderella's Lil Shop' is not just your everyday small business. It is so much more than that. My goal going into this wasn't to just earn money and make the girls self reliant by helping them earn an income of their own. I also wanted to incorporate the concept of sustainability, and make this an eco-friendly business, that follows the rule of sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion, also known as eco-fashion, is a movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system, towards greater ecological integrity. In order to be a sustainably fashionable brand, you have to be green, clean, fair and ethical 💚♻️
Which is exactly what Cinderella's Little Shop is!
Education Awareness
Most of the girls had to drop out of school before 10th Grade because of financial constrains as well as their family thinking they were better off helping out with household chores. Through this initiative, I am trying to fund their education, and am helping them get enrolled into schools once again.
