Her Story
About Holland
My inspiration for founding the Royal Spoil Academy of Beauty and Wellness really came from working in the beauty industry as a cosmetology teacher and seeing how a visit to the hair salon or nail salon can really change you from the inside out. It seems like something small, but seeing such an impact that we made on people from all types of life, just by bringing a little bit of joy and a little bit of beauty into their life, really inspired me to say, you know what, everybody needs this. My career in general has always been working with kids, always in the education field, especially working at after-school programs, which I think are really important to support educators in the school system. I think it's important to especially have social-emotional learning programs outside of school, things that build up kids' confidence and their self-awareness and self-esteem, because that reflects in the classroom as well. Through the Royal Spoil, we teach beauty and wellness in a number of different ways with the idea that when you look good, you feel good. We work primarily with schools and shelters in Philadelphia, conducting workshops with women and girls in the shelters, teaching them different beauty techniques and workshops about mostly self-care, self-love, and how they tie together. We also have an after-school program that focuses on middle school girls, which has been running since 2018. It's a social-emotional learning program that teaches middle school girls wellness through beauty, focusing on self-confidence, self-awareness, self-esteem, all the selves, self-care, self-love, and really just teaching them from a young age about emotional regulation. It's really special to see people, especially the young girls, learn about self-care and really understanding how to take care of your hair, how to know what type of skin type you have, products you should use, personal hygiene, especially during puberty. We also work with older women living in shelters who tell us they never knew how to take care of their own hair, and now that they have the skills to do it themselves, not only do they not have to pay for it, but they also feel really good about themselves and have that autonomy of really being able to take care of themselves.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Holland
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say dream big and do not stop. I think when you work in the nonprofit space, you have a lot of people who just have really big ideas and want to make a change in the world. They usually see a need in the world and want to address that, and it's not very easy to get people on board all of the time. Sometimes you've got people that are like, oh my gosh, this is a great idea, absolutely, I see your vision, let's go for it. And other times, people might be like, hmm, I don't necessarily get it yet, that's a really big dream, right? So, I would really, my advice would be to just keep dreaming big, just put foundations underneath those dreams, and don't stop. Don't quit, just keep forging forward towards your vision, because the world needs more people like that.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges are many when it comes to running a nonprofit organization. Nonprofits don't always have or get some of the support and resources that some other industries may get right off the bat. So I think you just have to be really resilient working in this industry. It's really great, though, again, because you wind up working with a lot of really spirited people who are really passionate about what they do, so I think that's kind of the bright side of it. But I think a challenge is just finding the resources and the funding for making things happen, I think that can just be really challenging. But again, I think overcoming it is just being resilient and reaching out to others, building community, communicating with other people, and I think the resources wind up making their way to you, so I think being open, and being resilient, and again, just not giving up is what will see you through.
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