RYZE N’ SHYNE, LLP – Positive Media and Apparel for Young Girls of Color

Afro Puffs and Ponytails present to you the story of  Ryze N’ Shyne, LLP as presented by it’s founders.

Ryze N’ Shyne, LLP was founded in 2007 by Muhammed Sanchez, Kecia Hayes and Lydia Kelow.  We founded Ryze N’ Shyne with the goal of creating and producing positive media and apparel for young girls of color, something that we believe is missing in mainstream children’s entertainment. While our target audience is young girls of color, it is our hope and goal to touch everyone with our story.

We came together to form Ryze N’ Shyne after Muhammed noticed his daughter, Justyce, would never select female characters of color when playing video games, shopping for books and apparel, or when watching television. When Muhammed spoke with his daughter about his observations, Justyce said “Dad there are no good female or black characters to choose.” Muhammed contacted family members and friends about his conversation with Justyce and found many parents were having the same experiences. Their children too noticed the lack of central characters of color in TV programming and video games, and were hesitant to choose characters that looked like themselves. As a result of those conversations, Muhammed promised his daughter that he would come up with something she could be proud of and love.

Muhammed began to envision what a positive girl of color characters would look like, and he turned to Lydia and Kecia to help bring that vision to life. Together, we determined that we wanted to offer girls products that are strong, independent, and which avoid the overly sexualized and stereotypical depictions that are so prevalent in today’s main-stream programming. We wanted to provide girls of color with characters that encourage a positive self-image without taking away fun and adventure. We are striving to erase the current images of women and girls of color being used as “exotic” ad-ons for entertainment purposes and replace them with images of strong powerful and confident charac-ters. It is with these goals in mind that we brought Supreme Justyce to life.

Supreme Justyce is an American story told through the eyes and experiences of five strong, clever and exceptional young “sheros,” as they join together to challenge conventional wisdom about what is beautiful. These girls fight for the rights of all girls to be happy and proud to be themselves just as they are. Supreme Justyce enjoys their time skate-boarding, rapping, competing in martial arts, reading, painting and break dancing. The Supreme Justyce team does-n’t just talk about what needs to be done; they take action in the name of girls everywhere.

The tween market is saturated with products that do not represent our children’s diverse faces and interests. In addi-tion, many of the products marketed to girls of color are not age-appropriate or are based on harmful stereotypes. Su-preme Justyce is the answer to what the tween market is missing: positive, age appropriate images of girls of color. Every girl has a need to feel accepted, and falling short of the accepted images a girl sees on TV can be devastating to a girl’s self image. Ryze N’ Shyne believes that the solution to this problem does not involve changing our children; rather, it involves expanding what are children are exposed to. Ryze N’ Shyne is looking for the opportunity to break the mold and show girls it is OK to be exactly who they are.

Take a moment to meet Supreme Justyce and acquaint yourself with Ryze N’ Shyne LLP.  See how we are working to help young girls embrace themselves, and ask how you can be involved in supporting our important work.

At Ryze N’ Shyne, we believe girls of color weren’t made to fit in. They are made to stand out!

Click here to visit Rhyze N’ Shyne’s website.

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