Meet Shona Shaw of Little Brown Girl in Metropolitan Atlanta

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shona Shaw.

Shona, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Becoming a mother was my biggest challenge and reward all balled into one human being. Despite what was perceived, a perfect love story that included a husband and a home, I faced so many challenges within my first year of motherhood. I battled with severe post-partum depression while going through a divorce and moving back out on my own with my, then six months old daughter. While going through these things, I was able to identify the necessity of support. But not just any support, the support of women who looked like me and who knew what was I was experiencing. Support from those who could genuinely relate and were not afraid of judgment.

As my daughter continued to grow, I realized the importance — and beauty– of allowing her own lane and her own network of Brown Girls who look like her who are going through the same things as her (believe it or not, toddlers have their own drama too!). As my motherhood journey continued, I joined mom groups on Facebook and continued to build my own network of mommy’s. I remained transparent with what I was going through and constantly received positive feedback and bouts of “OMG! I’m going through that too but have always been embarrassed to share!” Constant posts of mommy’s needing to get out and meet more mom friends, Toddlers experiencing challenges and mother’s feeling alone in dealing with them. The list goes on. Nonetheless, I knew there was a large gap between mother’s who WANTED support and mother’s who were willing to go the extra mile to provide it and I knew that was where I was NEEDED. I needed to be the one to connect all of these mommy’s and their children in a comfortable, judgment-free zone. But how?

To add more fuel to my fire, I lost my job while pursuing my Master’s in Social Work. I saw this as an opportunity to focus on filling my professional desires and that’s when I talked to my mom about creating the Little Brown Girl brand.

I created the vision of having a network of mothers and children to feel empowered, connected and encouraged. My vision for the brand is still “growing and glowing” and I have so many ideas and dreams to carry through. I knew I needed to generate income to make everything possible so I begun with Little Brown Girl shirts, Once the brand released a year ago, EVERYONE wanted to be included, which has expanded the brand from Little Brown Girl to Little Brown Boy and Little Brown Mommy. It has been a journey and definitely a learning lesson figure out how to make everything possible.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I was overwhelmed with the amount of initial support I received. I couldn’t believe so many people were cheering me on. The first couple of months were full of growth and the brand was doing better than I expected. But, there was always room for more growth. Boy Mom’s wanted their share and then women who weren’t parents wanted theirs and it was difficult trying to accommodate everyone–but I did it.

Also, creating the Growing and Glowing scholarship was something I had been so passionate about creating. I was extremely excited and since the business was doing so well at the time, I figured giving away money quarterly wouldn’t be so difficult — but it was! Believe it or not, the hardest part has actually been getting people to apply!

Also, I tried to host my first event in November and it didn’t work out. So that was extremely tough to deal with and was my first reality check on how difficult it is to run a brand.

Being honest, this has been a roller coaster of support and emotions. Now that the brand has released, scholarships have been announced and the hype has plateaued, keeping the momentum going is difficult. Getting the brand out to NEW people and staying motivated to put in the extra work that was once so easy has been a challenge.

Please tell us about Little Brown Girl.
The brand sells apparel for Little Brown Girls, Boys and Mommy’s. Little Brown Girl provides low-cost activities and networking events to mother’s and children across Metro Atlanta with hopes to expand nationwide in the near future. What sets us apart from other brands is our personal touch to every experience and our focus on affordability.

Little Brown Girl is unapologetically dedicated to our brown little ones and those who continue to commit our lives to them. Here we will bask in the beauty of our “brownness”, we will see that we come in many shades, shapes and sizes, we will network and build a community with activities and words of encouragement. We will always be the best we can be and “grow and glow” together. Our mission is to build a strong community of support for Little Brown Girls growing and glowing around the world. Our vision is to reach every Little Brown Girl with positivity, strength and resources that help them continue to grow and glow.

What I am most proud of is the introduction of the #GrowingAndGlowingScholarship:
Here at Little Brown Girl, we believe the Growing and Glowing process is fostered not only by a good support system, but we understand that that support system comes from a child’s ability to participate in enrichment activities both at school and in the community. Exposing your child to different experiences is instrumental in their growing process. So enrolling them in enrichment activities such as sports, STEM activities and the arts is important, however, we know that it can be costly. So, we decided to create the #GrowingAndGlowingScholarship where Little Brown Girl will award one applicant with a scholarship to participate in the activity of their choice on a quarterly basis.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have focused strictly on Little Brown Girls instead of expanding so early. I think I got too excited and jumped ahead, wanting to achieve every goal right away instead of perfecting one at a time.

Pricing:

• Items range from a $4 pin to a $20 women’s shirt

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MyLittleBrownGirl.com
• Email: MyLittleBrownGirlATL@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylittlebrowngirl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyLittleBrownGirl/

Image Credit:
Vernon Meekins, Bryan Joel

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