Jeanine Blair

I founded Fishanistas in 2009, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching young girls STEM through fishing. The inspiration came from the kids in our church - I used to teach Sunday school and would always start with 'you want to see what I caught?' The children fell in love with it and kept asking when I would take them fishing. When I finally did, more girls showed up than young men, and they just kept showing up time after time. Since it was us girls, we had to find a cute little name, and that's how we came up with Fishanistas. Before starting the nonprofit, I spent about 17 years in the mortgage industry from 1995 to 2008-2009, working as a processor, loan officer, and underwriter - that was my bread and butter. But when the market crashed in 2008-2009, we lost everything - our home, our cars, everything. We had no money for food, so we had to fish to feed our family. That's when everything came full circle. My love for fishing started when I was little bitty - I didn't have a father in the home, just me, my brother, and my uncle. My uncle took us under his wing and became that father figure we needed, and he taught us to fish. In teaching us to fish, he taught us so many more things - patience, problem-solving, character. All those hard things made me who I am. Today, I want to give that same gift to other young women, whether they look like me or not. I want fishing to be something women of all colors, races, creeds, and national origins can enjoy. My goal is to see Fishanistas worldwide - to be a household name like the 4-H club, reaching girls in the school system who are timid and for whom basketball or soccer just isn't their thing. I want to create safe spaces where women can be themselves and create their own magic.