On this week's edition of The Joy Beat, we're highlighting an organization that is empowering some of Boston's most vulnerable women through a glow-up. It's called Give n’ Glow, and they're a nonprofit that collects new and lightly used beauty products and distributes them to unhoused women in the city. The organization was founded on the belief that every woman deserves to have access to the self-care they need to inspire confidence and self-love.
GBH's All Things Considered host Arun Rath spoke about Give n’ Glow with its founder, Northeastern student Samantha Asprelli. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: So just take us back to the beginning. What inspired this idea to provide beauty products to women in need?
Samantha Asprelli: It actually began in eighth grade when I was chosen as the Wrentham Ambassador for Project 351, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that empowers young leaders to serve and give back to their communities.
I led clothing drives, I led food drives — I was really engulfed in this network of nonprofits. And serving alongside Project 351, I realized there was a gap in providing the homeless population with more than just basic necessities. We're looking at food, we're looking at clothing and housing, and those are so important, but the nonprofit market already has incredible resources that provide the homeless population with those necessities.
I saw the ability to jump in there with my love for beauty and cosmetics and say, "Let's give women the ability to empower themselves when they're going through these circumstances. Why can't we give them a little bit more to help them during their day?" And that is why Give n’ Glow was founded — and I could not be happier to have an incredible network of nonprofits in the Boston area to work with to help on this mission.
Rath: I got to think it's also more important than we might think at first glance, because I was thinking about: if you are unhoused and you're looking for work, we don't think twice about helping men who are out of work with a suit and a shave. These are really things that you do need.
Asprelli: Absolutely. And I believe that Give n’ Glow serves the women because women are more attracted to beauty products and cosmetics. We want them to look in the mirror and see more than their circumstances.
But in thinking about what Give n’ Glow does, as you mentioned, there is an absolute market for men and an absolute necessity for men to have the same exact access to: a nice sharp razor, shaving cream, shampoo, because there are needs there that are not met for unhoused men, just the same as for women.
So I believe that all of us should have access to that no matter our circumstances. I think my expertise really does lie within the beauty and cosmetics industry, so I hope someone else takes up the other side of this.
Rath: And tell us about about the journey with Give n’ Glow, how it transformed from this brilliant idea to where you are with it now and how it's grown.
Asprelli: So I was sitting in my Northeastern dorm and I was thinking, "I have these incredible connections. I'm in the city, and I'm a college student. It's about time that I do something that I can take and own it myself."
And I know the feeling of having makeup on and having that new self-confidence in myself to sell myself. And I wanted to show women that maybe don't have access to that, how they can get these products and not only get those products, but we also educate these women on the importance of mental health and also provide them with the knowledge on: how can you use these products in your day-to-day life?
So I decided to do a pilot program with The Wonderfund, founded by the former First Lady of Massachusetts, Lauren Baker. And I collected brand-new beauty products to give to one of the Department of Children and Families offices in the northern Massachusetts area. And I provided them with social workers to go out and give new beauty products to young women in the foster care system.
Afterward, I heard how much these young women loved getting these products. It was something new and different. It wasn't another pair of socks or underwear or clothes, it was new and exciting and it actually made them feel beautiful about themselves. Although we're giving a product, we're giving something that's more than just physical. It's that psychological, good feeling you have about yourself and your presence when you're around others.
After The Wonderfund and how successful that pilot was, we pivoted and gave back to the Wrentham Food Pantry before the start of September. And that's really where we kicked off in saying: the Wrentham Food Pantry’s our first public launch of giving over 60 beauty products.
Rath: What have you heard back from some of the women who have had access to these products and what it's been like for them?
Asprelli: We do a lot of mental health workshops and also makeovers when we go and drop off these products. We're not just providing a box of products to these nonprofits and saying, "Here you go." We go in, we interact, we put makeup on women, we show them how to use it, and we ensure that our products are really meeting a need.
Some of these women have told us that these products keep them from stealing from businesses like CVS and Walgreens, because women really want these products and they can't afford them, so we're providing them that alternative.
They said that Give n’ Glow has made them feel more confident in their circumstances, whether that's abuse, addiction or trying to find a home and get out of their homeless situation. They feel beautiful, they feel confident, they have a bigger smile on their face.
Give n’ Glow is never going to be the reason that a homeless woman gets out of their circumstance, but we can always be catalyst and be a reminder that we see women for more than just trying to get them into housing or get them out of their situation. We want them to feel good about themselves in the process, as hard as that is.
Rath: Where do you see this going from here? Do you see Give n’ Glow expanding? I mean, you're still a student, right?
Asprelli: Yes, absolutely. I love that I'm able to give back and provide women in my local community with something more than basic necessities while I am in school. And I do want to point out, although I am the founder, I have an incredible team of students who assist in outreach, content creation, internal human resource operations. So what I do could not be done alone, and I want to ensure that they get the recognition that they deserve.
But to answer your question in terms of scaling, I think that being a local, niche, Boston-based nonprofit is something that's important to me. Just because of how much Boston has provided me. Granted, I am a Yankees fan. So I think looking into expanding into New York eventually and tapping into that market is something that I would love to look into.
Getting these big makeup cosmetic brands who have a lot of obsolete inventory — the products go through a rigorous quality inspection process where a lot of these products don't make it past manufacturing, and these products might have a dent, a little scratch in the surface and aren't being sold and they're being thrown out. How can we redirect these products into the hands of Give n’ Glow to utilize our nonprofit network and be the middleman between the corporations and the women who truly need these products for self-esteem and self-love?
