Black Teen Creates Subscription Box Service to Promote Reading for Girls

Journi Prewitt, creator of Black Beautiful Butterfly

Journi Prewitt, a 17-year old entrepreneur, came up with an awesome idea to encourage black girls to read. Her project called Black Butterfly Beautiful aims to inspire girls not just to read, but also to "spread their wings and fly" like a butterfly.
As a senior high student, it was hard for Journi to choose between cheering, her favorite sport, and being an entrepreneur. But with the support of the people around her and her own will to inspire and make a change in others' lives, she created her own venture.

"It's a subscription box. It originally started as a box or girls ages 4 to 16," Journi described. "Previous seniors at Power Center Academy were like. 'I want a box too.' They're now college students. So we expanded to age 21."

Each of the $30 monthly subscription box she arranges herself contains a book where the author and/or main character is a woman of color, such as black woman business owners, etc. Every month, the box has a theme and would include trinkets, jewelry, makeup, decor, and different things that go along with the theme.

In just about 6 months, the orders boomed from 12 to 172 and it continues on growing.

The box is mostly for girls like her who love reading. But the project is actually created partly because of her little cousins who doesn't enjoy reading that much. "It was something to help encourage [my cousins]," Journi said.

She is grateful for her mother and teachers at Power Center Academy who believes in her and what she can do. On top of that, she wants to help boost the African-American girls' self-esteem and empower them to do and to be something great.

"It helps them to see that there's someone their age or a little bit older than them doing something that's not acting or something that's not being an athlete, but who's still doing something for the community," she continued.

In addition to Black Butterfly, she just recently launched a new box called Black Dragonfly which is particularly for African-American boys.

For more details about Black Butterfly Beautiful or to subscribe to their monthly box, visit their website at www.blackbutterflybeautiful.com or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/blackbutterflybeautiful/
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