Sweet Gyrl - helping "gyrls" live their dreams since 2005

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Kimberly, founder of SweetGyrl, Inc. I found her on MyBlogLog and was intrigued by the organization she had on her site, so I asked if she would mind if I put her interview on my site. Fast forward two weeks and here it is! Read on to find out more about SweetGyrl and how you can help!

What exactly is SweetGyrl?
SweetGyrl Inc, is an organization that promotes health lifestyle and living for young women. It's a venue that really gets them steered away from the grown up stuff that so many of our young women get caught up in.

For example, often times gyrls have hidden gifts like playing the flute, singing, gymnastics, acting. They have dreams, however they may live in an enviroment or go to a school enviroment that does not support that. Your friends are all having sex, your friends are all in juvenile detention, your freinds are all haters and fight another group of girls, your mom was a teenage mom and is now living a life of struggle.

That becomes your reality, that becomes your way of living and being. Your best friend just brought home a new baby and she is beefing with the baby's father cause he is messing with another girl and she wants to fight her. All of this happening at 16!! Whew, how can you even begin to really dream or want more out of life. What you see is who you become - it's unfortunate but it's true. It happened to me, it's my story. SweetGyrl is my story to simply put. Having worked as a Psychotherapist and in the school setting, I see it over and over and over again. It breaks my heart it really does. SweetGyrl is about dreams, helping gyrls live their dreams, keeping their dreams alive. So therefore, I created SweetGyrl Inc.

Is it mainly online?
SweetGyrl is all over the US online, its a forum for gyrls to have healthy chats and read about the struggles of other young women and be able to ask "Wow, I am going through that, how do you cope with that?" We are also working to make SweetGyrl more like an after school program or to go even further more like an affordable Sylvan Learning Center but for gyrls, that is our long term vision.

So basically someone could buy the SweetGyrl product, logo, curriculum, etc, and set up shop and service youth in their community. All of this is in the works now, I have been looking to reach out to celebrities that believe in the idea for support, endorsement, and possibly sponsoring gyrls for the program. It's huge and I love it, it takes time thought, but I really have vision for this program.

When was it founded?
SweetGyr was founded by me in 2005 at home in Maryland.

Did you come up with the idea by yourself?
Yes I did, I woke up one morning really early and it was put on my heart to create SweetGyrl, I wanted something that was really gyrlie and really fun, something I could dive into, something that felt soft and giggly and sweet. So I used the name SweetGyrl. I was working as a Psychotherapist for a wrap around company (social services) keeps youth in the home by giving them home services.
I woke up and said I want to create a training company that caters to gyrls only right now. So I hired an assitant and I told her what I wanted and we got to writing and thus SweetGyrl was born. Please check out www.sweetgyrlnetwork.blogspot.com for updates, I am also writing a book called "The Truth behind SweetGyrl" and also the website, www.sweetgyrl.org.

What type of promotion are you doing to spread the word?
Well since its only me, I have been doing blogging, and joining online forums. I also contacted Eva Longoria's publicist Liza Anderson, and we tried to get Eva, but her schedule did not permit. So now we are basicially trying to revamp and restructure our marketing approach.

What do you hope to accomplish with this?
I am hoping that young women will see this program as their way of saying, "Yes, I can still live my dreams!" We offer assessments that help gyrls get to the core of what they really want and dream big dreams. We help them set up goals that bring the dream alive! We help them stay focused, no matter what it is they want, and we point out to them that what they see right now does not negate their future at all. I want gyrls to dream and enjoy this time with themselves! They only get to be gyrls once, enjoy it RIGHT NOW! See www.sweetgyrlnetwork.blogspot.com for updates and ongoing information on the meat and potatoes of how SweetGyrl came about and what's happening.

Go to www.sweetgyrl.com for more information!