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Happy Pride Month everyone! As the mother of a gender nonconforming child, every June I’m reminded just how important it is for LGBTQ+ kids to feel not just accepted, but supported and celebrated for being exactly who they are. I also know how painful it can be when that doesn’t happen. A couple of years ago my child, who was 9 at the time, shared that being a girl didn’t feel like it fit and asked to be referred to with they/them pronouns. I’ll be honest, I did not take them very seriously back then and it took many months for me to really put an effort into using their preferred pronouns (and I still don’t get it right all the time). Since then, they cut their hair, stopped wearing dresses, and changed their original feminine name to Kai. We chose Kai together and agree that it fits them well. But I can’t deny that losing their birth name, which honored my own mother, was painful for me. In many ways the whole process of supporting my child through this astronomical change has been a combination of rewarding and painful. Rewarding to see them figure out for themselves how they want to present to the world and the assertive, but polite way they explain what being non-binary means to people who don’t get it, but most importantly to see them comfortable in their own skin again. Painful because there was loss, from the frivolous, (cutting off their beautifully wild hair was almost as painful as giving up their original name) to the fundamental, the loss of the little girl who I was expecting to watch grow into a woman. What was more painful was seeing how hurtful normally thoughtful and kind people could be. When an adult tells a child they don’t want to use their pronouns because “it isn’t correct grammar”, “I’m old, it’s too hard for me to change,” or “I don’t get it”, the message sent to the child is that they do not matter. When a kid at school calls a non-binary child “it”, and no one corrects them, it tells that child they are not worthy of protection. For some kids, I’m sure those experiences would make them hide who they are. For my child, it had the opposite effect. They became a vocal and forceful advocate for themself. They consistently corrected both adults and children on their pronouns. They responded to being called “it”, by saying “you shouldn’t say that, it’s super disrespectful. And they donated A Kids Book About Being Non-binary to their class library and asked their teacher to read it to the class. While I’m incredibly proud of Kai for standing up for themself and helping to educate their school community, that's a lot to expect from a tween. And what happens to the kids who are not as comfortable confronting their peers, not to mention adults? To quote the incredible Harvey Milk, “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.” It’s up to us, as allies and adults, to make sure our LGBTQIA+ youth know they are accepted and loved for exactly who they are, wherever they are. To quote my incredible Kai, "I know using they/them pronouns is a new thing and I know it's hard, but I really appreciate it when you try. I really, really appreciate it!" Kai, 11Pronouns: they/them/theirs

Calling all fun loving families! Did you know we launched our new #MightlyCrew Ambassador program!? 

Happy Earth Day! Today and every day, Mightly is dedicated to reducing our environmental impact. Since day one, all our clothes have been made from rain-fed organic cotton. Last year, we converted our paper packaging to 100% recycled content. This year, we're proud to announce we’re launching two waste reduction initiatives. 1. Zero Waste Shipping Bags We’ve partnered with RePack to give our customers the option to reduce single use plastics by choosing to have their orders shipped in reusable shipping mailers.   When Mightly customers select RePack reusable mailers at check out, their orders will be shipped in durable transit-safe bags that are returned to RePack for cleaning and reuse. The bags fold up to the size of an envelope and come with a prepaid shipping label, making sending them back as easy as one, two, three – literally. Step one: fold the mailer; step two: stick on the shipping label; and step three: drop in any USPS mailbox. We made the decision to offer this option because, although our existing mailers are recyclable, a lot of what we put in our recycling bins ends up as trash anyway. In fact, less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled. About the same amount is incinerated, which creates toxic pollution, and the rest – nearly 80% - ends up in landfills, dumps or the natural environment. According to National Geographic, “If present trends continue, by 2050, there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. That amount is 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building.” And you may have heard of the study that predicts oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2025 if no actions are taken to reduce the flow of plastic into waterways.  Using RePack bags instead of single use mailers is one way to reduce plastic waste. One reusable RePack bag replaces 20 single use mailers, and they are made from recycled materials, which keeps existing plastic out of landfills. Using RePack bags also reduces carbon emissions. A lifecycle analysis shows that using RePack reduces more than 90% of total packaging waste and reduces the carbon footprint by up to 80% compared to disposable packaging.    2. Cotton Waste Paper PackagingWaste occurs all along the supply chain as cotton fiber is transformed into clothing. However, much of that waste still has value and can be used to make other products, including high quality paper products. Cotton paper production is a chemical-free, solar-powered process that consumes one tenth of the wood of paper production. In this process, waste from the cutting floor, spinning (the process that turns fiber into yarn) and milling is combined with post-consumer textiles and converted into pulp. The pulp is compressed into sheets and dried naturally. The dried paper sheets can be used to make swing tags, mailers, boxes, gift bags and many other items. We’re making something special out of this all natural, eco-friendly cotton paper and can’t wait to show it to you! As business owners, we’re proud of all we’ve achieved in the past couple of years, including becoming a Global Organic Textile Standard certified brand, achieving Fair Trade Factory certification for 100% of our products, eliminating virgin paper packaging and reducing our plastic use. As moms (and humans), we’re super motivated to do more to reduce our impact on the planet and we want to hear from you, our community, about your sustainability priorities. To share what you’d like to see us work on next, you can message @mightlyme on facebook and instagram or send an email to hello@mightly.com To learn more about Mightly’s sustainability initiatives, click here.

I was recently in a fundraising workshop when the presenter said, “When you’re talking to investors, you gotta tell them how you’re going to make them money! They don’t care about gender or skin color or if you’re a veteran.” Then he paused and said “Well, actually diversity is hot right now.”  Diversity is “hot” right now … that’s true. So why is funding for women founders down, not up?  As we close out Women’s History Month, I feel compelled to remind everyone that last year, in 2021, only 2% of venture capital funding went to women founders. And just a tiny percentage of that went to Black and Brown women. What is even more discouraging is that – despite all the recent attention to Diversity and Inclusion – this is the lowest it’s been in a decade.  Women founders may now be getting more meetings than ever – but this isn’t translating into investment. In 2021, all-female teams had more meetings than all-male teams or mixed gender teams, but raised the least amount of money.  This contradiction begins to make sense when you look at how investors view pitch decks and interact with founders. For instance, one recent study found that investors spent 130% more time on the Team slide and 76% more time on the Traction slide for all-female teams. For all-male teams they spent 43% more time on the Business Model slide and 105% more time on the Product slide. Researchers at Harvard found that VCs posed different types of questions to male and female entrepreneurs. Promotion-oriented questions allowed male founders to focus on the opportunity, while prevention-oriented questions which were geared towards female founders forced women to focus on risks. What does this mean? It means that when making investment decisions, investors are focused on women’s past accomplishments and what could go wrong with their businesses. With men, investors are looking at their ideas and are more focused on the upside. This same bias is true in the workplace, where women aren’t promoted because managers underestimate them. If women are not given the same latitude to take risks as men and already have to be successful in order to be given the opportunity to succeed, it’s no wonder there’s a 2% “cap” on funding for female founders and only 1 in 17 CEOs is a woman.  At Mightly, we owe a great deal to an early angel investor, Anna Binder, Head of People at Asana, who believed not only in our mission but also in our all-women founding team. One of the things that has made Anna so successful in her career is her ability to spot potential and then provide people with the tools they needed to succeed. For us, and for most female founders, what we need to succeed is money. Unfortunately, many of the initiatives to support women and other underrepresented founders are focused on mentorship and non-financial business resources, when really what we need is cold hard cash.  Catherine Karima-Jones,  CEO at Red Dot Digital Inc. and B2BeeMatch, said it perfectly in this opinion piece  “Rather than giving us mentorship, I want funders to give women money, and then give us free rein. Let us learn, the same way men do. Let us take risks, and accept that some entrepreneurs will fail. Funders let men run unsuccessful businesses, and it doesn’t seem to stop them from continuing to fund them at a much greater degree. I want them to treat women the same way. It’s by taking that kind of chance – equitably, by funding businesses run by people of all genders – that we see success.”  So on this, the last day of Women’s History Month, I join Ms. Jones in her call to action, “Give us the funding, and then we will show you what we can do.” Mightly's Founders, Anya Marie Emerson, Tierra Forte and Barrie Brouse

Tie dyeing at home is fun for the whole family and it was one of my favorite kid-friendly activities during the pandemic lockdown. My ten-year-old discovered that Mightly’s classic fit tee was the perfect canvas for creating colorful, one-of-a-kind designs using different tie dying techniques. We also dyed old sheets and duvet covers, giving new life to worn out linens.However, when it comes to industrial scale tie dye, the fun stops. Not many people know, but most commercial tie dyeing uses enormous amounts of water and exposes workers to harmful chemicals. So when we started designing the Mightly tie dye collection, we knew we had to do it in the lowest impact way possible. Ultimately, this meant foregoing dyeing all together. Instead, our designer created a beautiful tie dye pattern that could be printed instead of dyed. Printing uses much less water than dyeing and doesn’t require workers to handle garments during the dyeing process. Did you know that fashion is responsible for up to one-fifth of industrial water pollution? Water scarcity is one of the biggest environmental risks we're facing and textile dyeing plays a huge role in the contamination and overconsumption of water. According to Forbes, the fashion industry uses around 79 billion cubic meters of water per year and dyeing is one of the largest contributors to water pollution from the industry. This is why we at Mightly work exclusively with Global Organic Textile Certified (GOTS) dye houses. GOTS includes rigorous requirements for environmental management, wastewater treatment, and the inputs to be used at every processing stage. GOTS prohibits the use of flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, GMOS, heavy metals, plasticizers, microplastics, and many other substances that are known or suspected to be harmful, even if still legal in many places. Sadly, popular processes such as tie dye are especially harmful because they are labor intensive, and therefore tend to happen in places where labor is cheap and regulation is lax. As moms ourselves, we know that busy parents don’t have the time to research the environmental and human impact of everything they buy. We also know that a lot of companies make vague sustainability claims that are impossible to verify. Our goal is to make shopping for kids clothes a little bit easier by being transparent about how and where we make our products and by using third-party certification to back up what we say.

Two days ago, the New York Times published a scathing expose on the organic cotton industry in India. Their research shows that much of the “organic cotton” may not actually be organic at all, and that the premiums buyers pay for organic cotton benefit middlemen and fraudsters more than legitimate organic growers.  We here at Mightly take pride in our sustainable children’s clothing, which are certified organic and fair trade. So are we concerned? About the impact on the sustainable textile industry, which is finally reaching a mainstream audience? Yes! About the impact on authentic organic cotton farmers? Definitely!  About the legitimacy of our own organic clothing? Absolutely not!  In fact, the Times article reinforces what we here at Mightly have been saying for a long time: there is no sustainability without transparency. That is why we publish our supplier information on our website. Here are three reasons why Mightly customers can rest assured that our organic clothing is truly organic (made without any pesticides, toxic chemicals or GMOs) and that the farmers we source from were paid a fair price for their crop:  We know where our cotton comes from! We only work with suppliers who are able to track the cotton they use all the way back to the farm group, and who will share that information with us. We use cotton grown by Chetna Organic, a well-established non-profit organization that has provided training and support to organic farmers in India since 2004.  In 2021, we paid Chenta farmers $3.30 per kilogram of cotton, which is nearly twice the cost of conventional cotton and 10% higher than the average cost of organic cotton in India.   The Times article is not wrong in saying that the organic cotton industry in India is beset by fraud. We hope that this article will galvanize our industry to strengthen the system rather than walk away from it. The environmental, health, and climate benefits of authentic organic production are well known and organic farmers deserve real commitment and investment from the brands that are benefitting from growing consumer demand for sustainable clothing.  We further agree with the Times that the only way for a brand to ensure its organic cotton is actually organic is to invest in farmers directly through credible organizations before any seed is ever sown. And that’s exactly what we here at Mightly have been doing since we founded our company in 2019. 

The difference between green marketing and greenwashing can be hard to detect, but there are a few branding techniques you can look out for to avoid purchasing a green-washed product.

Mightly has partnered with Cerqular to give you one-stop shopping and 20% off on sustainable gifts for kids this holiday season. 

In 2010 prAna, launched the Responsible Packaging Movement. The movement aimed to reimagine their product packaging. Inspired by prAna and their vision of a plastic free future for packaging, Mightly joined the Responsible Packaging Movement in 2020. 

Though organic clothing might not be top of mind for most parents, here are 10 reasons why you’ll want to dress your kids in organic cotton from now on.

It is an immense challenge to take the leap from working for others to working for yourself. As founders, we know this, as does our artist partner Lili Arnold. Lili’s creative career began in graphic design, and after spending some time refining her artistic skills and learning some new ones she decided to launch her own art business. Her entrepreneurial spirit makes her a great fit for our team and her unique prints are a great fit for our Organic and Fair Trade Certified clothing line.   Lili takes inspiration from nature by creating prints of plants and animals like marine creatures and birds (featured on the Moon Birds organic cotton t-shirt 2-pack). She is quoted in an article for Country Life saying, "My inspiration for each piece comes from being exposed to something beautiful in the natural world." As a Santa Cruz based artist, there is no shortage of botanical muses right outside her doorstep. On her website, you can find a variety of prints of plants that are native to California, but Lili’s inspiration is international. In an article about Lili on Santa Cruz’s travel blog, she identifies one of her favorite pieces as a print of the Australian shrub Protea Susana. Lili’s process begins by intricately hand-carving the unique details of her subject into rubber blocks - this creates something that looks like a giant stamp. Sometimes multiple stamps are needed to individually capture the parts of a piece - like a prickly cactus on one block and its blooming flowers are another - this is called the jigsaw technique. She then rolls ink over the block to add the vibrant colors and gentle gradients that bring her pieces to life. The final step is stamping the blocks on a piece of paper or garment like a T-shirt or bandana. This can be done by hand using a tool called a baren, or by using a printing press. You can find more pictures of Lili’s tools and workspace on the homepage of her website - you can also follow @liliarnoldstudios on Instagram to see oddly satisfying videos of her process. Lili’s prints communicate a love for the environment - her pieces will make you marvel at the beauty of the world around us. Flower fanatics like Lili will love the Lili's Garden dress. Marine life enthusiasts should check out our Orcas 2-piece organic cotton pajamas. Those who are in the market for clothes with positive messages will enjoy the Together is Better T-Shirt 2-pack from the Fair Trade Certified graphic t-shirt collection. Mightly kids of all kinds can find a print, or pattern that represents their passions from our line of organic cotton children's clothing. Lili Arnold, bleach painting a textile that was the inspiration for Mightly's Lili's Garden dress. 

What Does “Love is Love” Mean? People around the world likely remember November 4, 2008 as the remarkable, historic day that the United States of America elected its first Black president, Barack Obama. For California residents, this major progressive step forward was accompanied by a devastating step back with the passage of Proposition 8. Many people, especially here in California, need no more information beyond the words “Prop 8” to know exactly what I am talking about, but for anyone unfamiliar, Prop 8 eliminated the right to marry for same-sex couples.  If you’re reading this, you probably know that our company is based in California, and while we all remember the sadness and disappointment we felt when Prop 8 passed, we also recall the clear and simple message that came from Prop 8 opponents: Love is Love. This powerful mantra has long outlived Prop 8, which was overturned in 2010. While the phrase is most often associated with marriage equality, for many within the LGBTQ+ community its meaning extends beyond the right to marry. “Love is Love” is associated with the inalienable right to form a loving family. And it means being accepted for who you are and who you love. For this Valentine’s Day, Mightly wants to celebrate some of the many meanings behind “Love is Love” by remembering some of California’s historic pro-LGBTQ+ accomplishments. “Love is Love” Means Recognizing Partnerships The first city in California to recognize same-sex domestice partnership was Berkeley (right next to our Oakland headquarters). In the late 1970s, Gay rights activist and Berkeley city employee Tom Brougham was frustrated to learn that only married couples were eligible to the city’s family employee benefits. This meant that his partner Barry Warren would not receive Brougham’s benefits, as there was no way for the two to legally wed at the time. There was no existing way of legally recognizing the relationships of same-sex couples, so in 1979 Brougham wrote a letter to the city requesting for his partner to be enrolled in the city’s health benefits. Additionally, it is believed that Brougham’s letter coined the phrase “domestic partner.” Brougham’s motion was initially met with legislative resistance, but wide community support. By 1983 Berkeley formed a domestic partnership task force which drafted a policy that would allow all live-in partners to receive family health benefits. The policy passed in December of 1984, and Tom Brougham and Barry Warren were the first couple to register under the new domestic partner policy. Many California cities would create similar policies modeled after Berkeley’s and by 1999 a statewide policy was passed to ensure same-sex couples would be legally recognized as domestic partners. “Love is Love” Means Workplace Protections During Governor Pete Wilson’s 1990 electoral campaign he promised to enact proposed Assembly Bill 101, which would have outlawed employer discrimination based on sexual orientation. Upon taking office in 1991, he ignored his campaign promise and vetoed the anti-discrimination bill.  Governor Wilson’s veto sparked outrage. A major protest erupted in San Francisco, drawing tens of thousands of residents. Other California cities soon followed with similar demonstrations of their outrage. One year after the demonstrations began, Wilson finally signed an anti-discrimination bill into law - though the new bill notably lessened the consequences for violators of the law.  For the Queer community, Wilson’s action was far too little, and way too late. Since 1992, the anti-discrimination law has expanded to include gender identity as a protected class. Additional laws have been enacted to prevent discrimination from housing opportunities, business services, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  “Love is Love” Means Equal Access 2014 was a big year for LGBTQ+ rights in California as several significant laws were enacted including the School Success and Opportunity Act as well as Assembly Bill 496, which focused on the needs of the LGBTQ+ community in healthcare settings.  All students are entitled to be treated with respect while they exercise their right to receive an education. LGBTQ+ students are often singled out, especially when they advocate for their own needs. The passage of the School Success and Opportunity Act was one approach to combat the unfair treatment many LGBTQ+ students faced in academic settings. The law ensures that students are allowed to express their gender identity and that they have safe access to the school facilities and activities that align with their identity.  Assembly Bill 496 was designed to address the unequal and inadequate care many people from the LGBTQ+ community have received from the healthcare system. The law calls for healthcare providers to undergo training that will help them deliver well informed care that addresses the specific needs of the LGBTQ+ community. Medical and mental health practitioners such as doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and marriage counselors are included. “Love is Love” Means More than Marriage Equality It has been over 10 years since Proposition 8 was overturned, and the state of California has since taken many steps forward towards addressing the needs of the LGBTQ+ community. The many legislative victories have been the result of years of community advocacy and activism. Lawmakers write bills, and Governors sign them into law, but if you trace back the origins of any given legal action, you are likely to find a movement launched by the LGBTQ+ community. California’s numerous victories deserve a mighty round of applause, but that does not mean that the work is done. This Valentine’s Day you can exemplify “Love is Love” by teaching your kids that a loving relationship is not defined by gender identity or sexual orientation. Here are a few resources that can help guide these conversations.  5 LGBTQ Heroes You Should Teach Your Kids About Today – And What To Say 30 Children’s Books with LGBT Characters A Guide to Gender Red a Crayon’s Story I Am Jazz the book and the series

What is Mightly? Whether you are a longtime fan of our brand, or have newly discovered our line of organic and fair trade children’s clothing, you may be wondering how we choose our company’s name. The first step in picking our brand name was to consider who we are serving. While parents are the ones buying our organic cotton clothes, we wanted our brand name to speak to the kids that would actually be wearing them. Today we call them Mightly kids, but before we knew what to call them, we knew how to describe them. Who are Mightly kids? The answer to this is best summarized by the Mightly Minifesto: Mightly kids are courageous daydreamers. They imagine infinity and laugh at impossible. They delight in the wilderness and get lost in the wonderness. They are dreamers and makers and magic-creators. All kids are Mightly, in their own way. All kids are Mightly, and those that are most proud to wear Mightly care deeply about people and the planet. A Mightly kid may not know what Fair Trade Certified means, but they embrace what fair trade stands for. A Mightly kid wants clothes that can comfortably accompany them on adventures. Sometimes Mightly kids want to spend time carefully crafting the perfect outfit, other times they want to get out the door as soon as possible. Mightly kids need unique, stylish pieces for those fashion centric days, and items that can easily mix and match when they are in a hurry. Since Mightly is made for all kids, finding a brand name that captures everything a Mightly kid can be was quite a challenge. So...how did we come up with Mightly?We wanted a powerful name that expressed the energy of childhood. Even with the abundance of possible words that are often used to describe childlike feelings, none captured everything we wanted to communicate in our brand’s name. When no existing words stood out as satisfying options, we had to think outside of the box.What would a courageous/daydreaming/magic-creating kid do if they couldn’t think of a word to describe themselves? They would laugh at the limits of the English language and make up their own word instead! This is what we did. We came to the name Mightly by combining the words mighty (possessing impressive power), mightily (fiercely) and lively (full of life and energy) - three words that perfectly describe our fair trade clothing brand. These words evoke everything we want our brand to be, while leaving enough room for all kids fit in with their own definition of Mightly-ness. We encourage our own kids to be imaginative and embrace their individuality. It turns out the key to creating a brand name was to follow our own advice. Kids tackle creative problem solving without hesitation. They aren’t afraid of letting their uniqueness guide their decision making. If you’re facing a creative problem that needs solving, we encourage you to think like a kid, and be your own kind of Mightly.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGS) are a set of objectives that aim to improve working and living conditions globally, by addressing issues like poverty, workers’ rights, and climate change. Fair Trade USA standards promote direct and meaningful impact within six SDG areas. Of these 6, Mightly’s practices promote Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption. A lot of media attention has been given to the exploitative working conditions at clothing manufacturing factories. Women do a majority of the production labor, by margins of 80-95% in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. Managerial positions are primarily held by men, creating a gender-based hierarchy between management and the workforce. This imbalance of power is one of many factors that make it challenging for garment workers to voice complaints about hazardous working conditions. A worker may even be blacklisted from working in any major factory if she makes a complaint about just one of them. Mightly’s organic children’s clothes are made in Fair Trade CertifiedTM factories, which ensures that workers have protection from unsafe conditions and toxic management practices. Brands and factories must be committed to non-discrimination, gender equality, and women’s economic empowerment to qualify for Fair Trade Certified status. Fair Trade Certified factories must also provide safe, healthy workspaces - a requirement that is more important than ever in Covid times. By requiring safe and ethical treatment for garment makers, Fair trade practices promote decent working conditions.Other obstacles that stand in the way of decent work and economic growth are low wages, and a lack of job security for workers in clothing factories. While textile manufacturing has grown in developing countries, garment workers have not seen a financial benefit from the increase in demand. 90% of garment workers are not being paid the National Minimum Wage and they are frequently employed under temporary contracts. Factory workers in the textile industry are not being paid enough to have financial security, and they are ill equipped to seek fair compensation as their employee status is at constant risk. These conditions make job mobility impossible for garment workers in a majority of textile factories.Fair trade standards go beyond the conventions of the International Labor Organization by ensuring that workers earn a Fair Trade Premium for every Fair Trade Certified product they make. The Fair Trade Premium can fund social, environmental, or economic development projects that benefit factory workers, farmers, their families, and wider communities. The premium can also go directly back to the workers in the form of bonuses. Workers elect a Fair Trade Premium committee that is in charge of deciding how the premium fund is spent. The Fair Trade Premium promotes economic growth by using money earned from the sale of Fair Trade goods to improve the lives and communities of the people who are actually making Fair Trade Certified products.In order to truly be an ethical company, the production process must be people friendly and planet friendly. In addition to being Fair Trade Certified, Mightly operates under a set of rigorous environmental regulations in order to comply with the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). GOTS is accepted as the global leader of processing standards for organic textiles. Mightly’s cotton comes from the Chetna Organic Farmers Association, a farmer-owned nonprofit that works with smallholder farming families in rain-fed regions of India. Chetna farmers practice regenerative farming methods and use 71% less water and 62% less energy than non-organic cotton farming.Before you rush to replace everything in your closet with organic, Fair Trade Certified clothing, remember that the most sustainable piece of clothing is the one that you already own. Ethical consumer practices revolve around making your products last longer. For clothing this means mend and thrift items, swap with your friends, and hand garments down to younger siblings and friends when your kids grow out of them. When you must buy new, purchase from companies that produce durable items using ethical and sustainable manufacturing practices. Read labels, and research companies before making purchases. You can also use the Good On You directory to check the ethical rating of many popular clothing brands. You won’t find Mightly there just yet, but we have submitted our brand information to Good On You and we are looking forward to being reviewed.Mightly promotes responsible consumer habits by focusing production on everyday essential items like organic cotton underwear and pjs that are hard (and perhaps not desirable) to buy second hand. Mightly builds these essentials better, by using durable fabrics and smart designs that keep garments in good condition longer. In other words, Mightly’s Fair Trade Certified clothing is hand-me-down friendly.Being an ethical consumer is a challenging practice. It’s difficult to research every single product you purchase, and oftentimes, brands may not be quite as ethical as they advertise. Not all planet friendly companies treat their employees fairly, and not all people friendly companies are environmentally conscious. Fair trade makes buying better easier. When you see the Fair Trade Certified label, that means that a brand is committed to practices that protect workers and do less damage to the planet. Buying Fair trade is just one of a handful of actions consumers can take to add a little bit of harm reduction to their shopping habits. "I enjoy being on the FT committee. My fellow workers share their ideas with me on how we can implement premiums to help the community. I have received 4 years of Fair Trade premiums and every time, I'm proud to have been part of the program. The first year when we received the premium, I purchased a bicycle for my son, Kaushik Das. He was so happy. When he's happy, I'm happy. I never thought I would buy a bicycle before I had the extra funds from the premium. Since then, I've put my premiums into savings for the future, which is what a lot of the workers favor - helping themselves in the long term. All the workers are thankful for the Fair Trade system and appreciate the chance to take part in a meaningful work arrangement." Deepali Das, 33, from Kolkata, West Bengal, has worked for 6 years at the Paridhan factory of Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills. She has been on the Fair Trade committee for 1 year.

While we are all looking forward to leaping into 2021, some of us want to leave 2020 behind with some added holiday spirit to fill the air. Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks to spread joy this holiday season. Stay Cozy!! At Mightly we think whatever you wear for sleep or lounging is just as important as what you wear out and about. This season, we are introducing our new line of 100% Organic Cotton, Fair Trade Certified Pajama Sets in the most buttery soft rib knits, along with our award winning “No Nasties PJ’s,” made with the same organic cotton plus a bit of stretch. Our new PJ’s have the same soft and stretchy necklines for easy dressing and our signature flat seams are designed to keep kids comfy throughout the night or while snuggled up watching a movie. And while sleep is one way to stay cozy, we also recommend indulging in our favorite Cacoco drinking chocolate. There’s nothing more fun than gathering friends and family for a warm cup of chocolate, but not just any chocolate. These Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate blends are combined with organic superfood herbs and spices to make for a different and unique type of drink. These naturally rich and creamy drinks are filled with beneficial nutrients and available in a variety of flavors to fit everyone’s spirit. Whether you are the Spicy Dark type, the Mint Chocolate variety or the classic Rich Dark, there is guaranteed to be something for everyone to enjoy. Dress Up and Zoom In! Whether your gatherings are socially distanced or on Zoom, there is still plenty reason to dress up. Our sugar plum fairies love Mightly’s Skater Dresses for all the celebratory twirls and spins. This season, we’ve added some classic bright jewel tones, like a ruby red, amethyst raspberry, and a topaz turquoise among our fun prints like gold leopard and confetti prints and even a rainbow stripe. For the little ones that like wearing a little sparkle, we love supporting jewelry made from fair trade artists like the beautifully made beaded bracelets from Aid Through Trade. These colorful bracelets are fun to mix and match and trade with friends. Plus, they are available in adult sizes and mommy and me, so you can share your commitment to supporting Nepalese artists with your kiddos. Love Art, Wear Art! We love using our Dresses and T-Shirts as canvases to showcase beautiful artwork, especially by our partner artist Lili Arnold. If you love our signature Lili’s Garden Dress or the limited edition print Night Crows or Poppies t-shirts, you can also enjoy her artwork as a print to adorn your wall. Lili combines her beautiful hand block printing technique with her love of nature’s beautiful objects to create unique pieces of artwork. Treat Yourself! OK…we haven’t forgotten about you on our “who has been nice” list. Whether you share with a BFF or decide to keep for yourself, there’s simply nothing better than indulging in the best panettone. Our friends at From Roy are nothing short of serious when it comes to delivering a luxury and iconic panettone that starts with a small slice but inevitably doesn’t stop there. It’s all the Buzz! It’s no secret, bees are amazing creatures and when alarming news of the honey bee epidemic started to gain mainstream attention, three friends came together to build 100 beehives to help support their local ecosystem. This was just the start to how Bee Bella began their mission to make positive change. Now, the company gives consumers a chance to enjoy a byproduct of the bees -- naturally, lip balm! Every purchase of Bee Bella lip balm contributes to research funding for the honey bee epidemic, they source only organic ingredients, and the lip balm is Fair Trade Certified™. At Bee Bella, you can do good and feel good! Sugar and Spice, and All Things Nice! If you are Bay Area local moms like us, you have probably visited Oakland’s best little theme park, Fairyland, too many times to count. A fun day at Fairyland can easily continue as you explore Lake Merritt and up Grand Ave, where if you follow your nose, you will undoubtedly find Oaktown Spice Shop. With some of the best varieties of salts, herbs, and spices to choose from, this shop carries everything to spice a favorite rub, dress up a marinade, or flavor a baked treat. Their salt selection is amazing too, along with teas and other herbs but our favorite is their Saigon Cinnamon. Our family adds it to everything from homemade pancake batter, fruit shakes, or as fairy dust on warm rice pudding. If you aren’t a Bay Area resident, no problem...it’s all available online! At Mightly, we love the idea of keeping the planet and people in mind during the holiday season. However, sometimes the best gift is simply lending a hand, sending a note to a friend or offering a bright smile and some cheer.#mightlyme#fairtradecertified

Mightly has some exciting news to share . . . our “No Nasties” Pajama Sets were recently awarded Best PJs of 2020 by the National Parent Product Awards (NAPPA)! To celebrate, we thought it would be fun to tell the story of what goes into making our PJs and why they have become a Mightly staple. Barrie Brouse, Mightly’s Creative Director, gives us some insight into our team’s creative process and pj production, below. For over 20 years, I have been designing children’s clothing, but only about the last eight years have been as a mom. Suffice it to say, my idea of what’s most important and what makes for great design has changed dramatically over the years. As a designer, I am constantly thinking about the visual aspects in creating products. However, beyond color and style details, there is functionality and composition. This comes into play especially when sleepwear is concerned. My priority as a mom has me constantly thinking about what touches my kids’ skin during sleep (or let’s face it, how many of us have kids that stay in pjs all day?!) Shopping for sleepwear can be tricky and for good reason. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has regulations regarding what is safe for babies and kids to wear for sleep and lounging. If you aren’t careful, you can end up buying pajamas made with all sorts of toxic chemicals and flame retardants, not to mention fabric consisting of plastics and other harmful components that can be irritating to the skin and bad for the environment. I am constantly asked the question: “Are all kids’ pajamas made with nasty and toxic chemicals?” The simple answer is “Absolutely not!” The not-so-simple answer is, “Check your labels, because you may be surprised by what you find". Here is some great news - our Mightly No Nasties PJ Sets are made from certified organic cotton and made in a Fair Trade Certified factory. Our snug-fit styling is compliant with all government standards for fire safety, which means that we don’t use any toxic chemicals. Most importantly, our pajamas keep kids safe and comfortable all night long. Our fabrics and fits are tested for quality and durability, and, believe me, our own kids let us know when something isn’t quite right. However, that’s only the beginning to what makes our pajamas great for kids--here’s where the fun starts! As a designer, I start the season thinking about color combinations and patterns that make me happy. Sometimes it is an unexpected pop of bright colors next to a basic and neutral stripe. Our Gray Stripe PJ is one of my favorites, and it came to be in a surprising way. I had my fabric swatches laid out with different Pantone chips side by side, trying to not only come up with the perfect combination, but narrow down my choices to just one. I liked the idea of giving a nod back to our colorful and multi-colored Mightly logo, and with this came the idea of having a mix-up of contrast rib colors for the neck, sleeve and leg cuffs…Voila! As my family and friends would agree, I love animal prints! Nature has a beautiful way of providing us with just the perfect patterns and I never shy away from adding in a leopard skin or cheetah print into any collection given the spot! These prints are something I could draw and color every day. So far, we have a few cheetah and leopard prints in our collection, but there’s plenty more room for the cool cat and kitten lovers. When we talk about basics, we can’t forget stripes and I’m a big fan. During my years working with the iconic Marimekko print house on licensed clothing, I learned that stripes are just as important as large and graphic florals. I’ve always enjoyed a classic nautical color combination, but also love seeing kids mixing and matching tops and bottoms to create favorite combinations. My boys are never short on imagination and at an early age, started naming colors of clothes, stuffies and other keepsakes based on associations. For example, my younger son uses a beautiful hand block printed pillow case from Kerry Cassill. He refers to it as his “storm pillow” because it’s a gentle mix of layered grays that remind him of a storm. At a certain age, kids start developing their own style preferences, knowing what feels right on their bodies, and what helps them express their individuality. At Mightly, we think about this and try to adhere to these guidelines: our fabrics are always super soft, we don’t use itchy tags, and we construct the tops and bottoms to have flat seams and stretchy rib knit for neck, arm and leg cuffs to give comfort and ease for dressing. Mightly Pajama Sets are simply the best, but don’t just take our word for it . . . the National Parent Product Awards agrees!   #MightlyMe #NAPPAAWARDS #FairTradeCertified

Excepted from an interview in Authority Magazine. You can read the entire interview here.  Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path? My backstory looks a bit different from the stereotypical Bay Area entrepreneur. I do not have an Ivy League education or a background in tech. I had my older daughter when I was 19 and raised her as a single mother for the first 12 years of her life. There is no question that being a single working mother prepared me to be an entrepreneur. I became an expert at juggling competing priorities and stretching resources, and I learned the value of simply continuing to put one foot in front of the other, no matter what. Early into motherhood, I realized that I was not going to be happy in just any job. I wanted a career I was passionate about, that was intellectually engaging and that allowed me to be creative. I studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in San Francisco and moved to New York for my first job in 1999. I loved being a designer and working with smart, talented women, but I quickly started to notice the industry’s exploitative and wasteful nature. I still enjoyed the art of creating clothes and the thrill of seeing items I had designed come to life on shop floors or on strangers walking down the street, but I didn’t feel good about the impact my industry was having on the planet or on the people who made the clothes I designed. Then, in the summer of 2005, I traveled to China for work, a trip which ultimately validated my concerns. I remember standing over this wastewater catchment at the factory I was visiting and noticing how beautifully bright blue the water was. Then I started to wonder what happened to that water, which was clearly contaminated. Where did it go? How was it treated? Where did it come from in the first place? When I got back from the trip, I started doing research into the environmental impacts of the apparel industry. I learned that textile mills generate around a fifth of the world’s pollution, that non-organic cotton farming is the fourth largest agricultural user of pesticides, and that the water used to grow cotton is often siphoned from drought-threatened rivers and lakes in cotton-growing regions. Around this same time, I started noticing that many of the women who were shopping at New York City farmer’s markets were wearing expensive jeans from brands like 7 for all Mankind and Citizens of Humanity. Clearly these brands were tapping into something women wanted, but I knew they weren’t living up to their aspirational names. I was sure that these customers, who were all shopping for local, organic food, would love to have the option of wearing jeans with the same premium look and fit but which were made in an eco-conscious way. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of our lives today. Can you articulate to our readers what are the biggest family related challenges you are facing as a woman business leader during this pandemic? I have a nine-year-old at home who is dyslexic and has ADHD and, like most of us, sometimes struggles with anxiety. Supporting her in school was already a challenge before the pandemic. It has become exponentially harder since she started distance learning. I’m sure some nine-year-olds are capable of sitting in front of a computer all day and independently completing online assignments, but for my child this simply isn’t possible. Someone must be available to assist her throughout the school day, which is also a workday for both her father and myself. The most obvious challenge has been figuring out how to provide the support my daughter needs while still having enough time to dedicate to my fledgling business. But the more fundamental challenge is how do I protect my relationship with my daughter now that I am playing the role of teacher in a learning environment that is completely unsuitable for her? Can you share your advice about how to best work from home, while balancing the needs of homeschooling or the needs of a family? For households with two working parents, I believe it’s critical to be thoughtful and intentional about how you and your partner split responsibilities during this time. Both parties need to acknowledge that we’re living through exceptional circumstances. Whatever was working before is unlikely to work now. If your partner wasn’t an equal participant in childcare or managing the house before, now is the time for them to step up. There are things we can all do to make working from home more pleasant and efficient, like making sure that all members of the household have their own dedicated work space (even if it’s just a taped off part of the kitchen table). But the reality is that there is no tip, trick, or hack that matters nearly as much as a mutually supportive relationship.Many single working parents are in an even tougher bind. I’ve been inspired by the single moms I know who have built strong communities around themselves and their children and are able to tap into these support networks. Most working women are continually wondering how to be more efficient and effective. How much more can I squeeze out of myself? But perhaps a better question would be, who can I turn to for mutual support? Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?   My favorite life lesson quote is from the poet Anne Sexton, “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.” I love this quote because it’s a reminder to listen to one’s intuition. Women are often taught to ignore our intuition, rather than to treat it as a source of wisdom. The best decisions of my life have been choices that didn’t make logical sense, like having a child so young or leaving a stable job to start a company. These were choices I made based on what I intuitively felt was right for me and that I was highly motivated to make work. Blindly following your gut, without being clear-eyed about the challenges, probably won’t work out well. However, intuition plus hard work can be a powerful force.

October 11 is the International Day of the Girl Child. According to the United Nations, nearly 1 in 4 girls aged 15–19 years is neither employed nor in education or training compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age. By 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day — including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. There are 1.1 billion girls in the world today. We need to do all we can to help--and to help them help themselves.   Help Mightly honor our girl children (of which I personally have two!) by celebrating the International Day of the Girl Child Giveaway with our partner, Eco Lips.  Eco Lips was the first USDA-certified organic lip balm on the market, uses wind power offsets, and, like Mightly, makes Fair Trade Certified products.  In honor of #dayofthegirl, we’ve put together a super girl giveaway! One winner will receive a 7- pack of Eco Lips’ organic, fair trade lip balm and a $40 gift card towards Mightly’s organic, fair trade clothing line (for girls AND boys!). To enter, check @MightlyMe or @EcoLips on our Instagram feed. What Is Fair Trade and How Does It Help Girls? At its most basic, fair trade is about helping farmers and workers in developing countries by ensuring that they have access to export markets and are paid a fair price for their products.  It is a global movement made up of a diverse network of producers, companies, shoppers, advocates, and organizations working together. Fair Trade Certified products are certified according to a robust system relying on independent, third-party evaluation and certification to hold businesses accountable to their fair trade commitments. That’s a Lot of Big Words - What Does That Really Mean? If this all seems a bit complicated, let’s put it in more basic terms: for consumers, buying a product with the Fair Trade Certified seal means more of the purchase price goes back to the people who actually grew or made the product. In other words, buyers in rich nations pay slightly higher prices for goods to ensure that producers from developing nations can earn a living wage and improve their standard of living. For factories, the Fair Trade Certified seal also ensures decent working conditions: a Fair Trade Certified factory must adhere to rigorous social, environmental and economic standards to protect the health and safety of workers, including safe working conditions, no child or forced labor, elimination of harmful chemicals, maternity leave, and much more. Fair Trade Supports Female Farmers Fair trade supports female farmers and female factory workers in a variety of ways. For instance, according to Fairtrade International, around 60-80 percent of the world’s food is grown by women and girls. But they often don’t own the land and see little of the profit made from it. As an example, the Fairtrade Foundation reports that in 2014, 470 women overcame historic land ownership constraints to establish Indonesia’s first all-women coffee cooperative. Another fair trade project in Kenya encouraged the transfer of coffee bush ownership to women, who for the first time garnered their own independent income from coffee after years of contributing up to 70 percent of the labor needed to grow and harvest the beans. But don’t take it from us -- rather, if you want to hear directly from female fair trade farmers themselves, check out the following videos. Here is Rosine Bekoin, a mother of five, cocoa farmer and fair trade producer since 2016. Another is Olga Alvarado, a coffee farmer from Honduras. Finally, here is Anita, a coffee farmer in Papua New Guinea.   Fair Trade Supports Female Entrepreneurs According to the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), many more fair trade businesses are women-led and -run than conventional businesses.  For instance, 12% of conventional businesses have board positions held by women, while 51% of their fair trade members did so.  Nine percent of conventional businesses had women CEOs, but 52% of their fair trade members did so. And 24% of conventional businesses have women in senior leadership roles, while 54% of WFTO member businesses did so.  Our company, Mightly, debuted our first fair trade collection this summer and will have 100% of our products Fair Trade Certified by the end of 2020. We are 100% women-led and 100% women-run. Ecolips, too, has a female founder and shares our belief that we can use our business to empower other women. The three of us Mightly founders went into business in part to show our girls that women can found, run, and lead businesses. Today, only 6% of CEO positions are held by women at the 500 largest American companies.  Of course, Mightly is still a long, long way off from taking its place among the S&P 500, but we are proud to be able to tell our daughters that Mightly is our business, and one we are using to promote women and girls. (My girl children are slightly less impressed by this when I ask them to help unpack boxes, but they’ll appreciate it . . . when they are older!)      #MightlyMe  #EcoLips  #FairTradeCertified 

If your household is like mine, you are not planning on ditching Halloween this year, but ditching store bought, plastic, and single-use costumes? YES!  Halloween is a big deal for families and this year there is no reason to miss out on any of the fun. Whether you are planning a socially distant candy-treat scavenger hunt, or a spooky walk around the neighborhood counting pumpkins and goblins, a great costume is still the key to having fun. In recent years, about 65% of Americans purchased costumes for Halloween instead of swapping used ones with friends or DIY-ing. If that isn’t bad enough, the majority of purchased costumes end up in landfills, generating spooky and scary plastic waste. YIKES! It’s time to get creative! If you aren’t so much of a maker but want a quick and eco-friendly solution, start with pajamas. Mightly Pajamas are a great organic cotton base for any costume since they are comfy and keep kids cozy throughout the day and into the night. Animal print pajamas like our Gold Leopard or Pink Leopard are perfect for transforming into a cat with a homemade fuzzy tail, a headband with fuzzy ears attached, and a simple face painting of whiskers and a pink nose. Sounds puurrrfect! Ready to zip, zap, zoom to the moon? Space-themed costumes are great because they create reasons for kids to explore cool facts about planets, why the moon changes shape each night, and gravity. If you are looking for a sibling-friendly costume, here’s one that is out of this world. Mightly Galaxy Pajamas are a colorful take on what you see in the night sky. We have shooting stars running across a midnight navy background, just like you are looking through a telescope.  What about the planets, your little ones ask? Here’s an idea . . . how about taking some scraps of non-toxic modeling dough or make your own with an easy recipe. Next, form your favorite planets (and maybe even some imaginary ones too) and leave them out to dry. Don’t forget to insert a bamboo stick or something pokey through the center of each planet before drying. Once the planets are ready, find a scrap piece of string or ribbon to thread through each planet “bead” to form a necklace or belt, and get ready to orbit! Your space partner or resident astronaut is also very important. Do you have any insulated box liners from a recent delivery? If so, turn it upside down and cut a small opening at the top large enough for a head to pass through comfortably. Next, line up where the armholes need to be and cut holes to allow arms to move freely up and down. For pants, you can do the same thing, but this time the opening is right side up and the leg holes will be at the flat bottom. You can cinch these two pieces together with a belt or tape, but if you do the latter, make sure to include a slit in the back for easy on and off, especially for bathroom breaks. Lastly, transform your bike helmet into an astronaut helmet and snow boots into moon walkers. This costume is one small step for fun and one giant step in keeping things green!  If you are thinking more “blast from the past,” start with a twirly skirt or a Skater Dress. Simply add a belt at the waist and a neck scarf knotted to the side or tied to a pony tail, covering the rubber band. Next, put on a pair of white fold-over socks and some simple tennis shoes or flats. If you feel up for an extra challenge, cut some ribbon and sew (or glue) on a dog leash to the skirt with a few loops. Then, take some felt or fabric that won’t fray easily on the edges, and cut out a poodle silhouette. You can add some decorations like rhinestones to a collar or draw on face details too. Then it’s time for a trip to the soda fountain and a sock hop!  Are your kids readers and do they easily get lost following their favorite characters in stories of adventures and magical journeys? A favorite author and also local Bay Area resident, Michael Chabon, wrote The Astonishing Secret Life of Awesome Man and we have just the outfit to match. Our Long Sleeve Organic Cotton Raglan T-Shirt in red and navy is just what you need. To complete the outfit, pair it with jeans and red sneakers. Of course, if you want to keep your secret identity safe, be prepared to add a cape and eye mask! Best witches for a haunting Halloween!   Mightly Made for Mightly Kids #MightlyMe ∙ #ShareYourFair ∙ #OrganicCertified

Like many of us, I have felt helpless at times, being stuck at home during the covid-19 pandemic. What can I do to help, I've thought. I am not a doctor or nurse or other essential worker. Neither am I a scientist, public health officer or teacher. Then, when the fires and smoke came to Northern California, where Mightly is based, I was reminded that I wasn’t a firefighter or disaster recovery expert either. And I can’t just go and volunteer, since I am the primary caregiver to two small children. Feeling stuck, and being literally, physically stuck, was exacerbating my feelings of hopelessness. This year’s largest wildfire was only a few miles away and coming closer, just adding yet another fear about my family’s safety.   And then I remembered to think small. When you’re a parent of small children, it’s the small victories that are celebrated. All the pee went in the potty this time! Broccoli eaten without tears! Tucked in before 8:00pm! And all of those small victories add up over time, to the point where the children are happy and well adjusted adults. For now I’m happy to have kids that sleep through the night (mostly) and eat vegetables without complaint (sometimes).   The fair trade movement is also all about small. The idea behind fair trade is that each time you buy a cup of coffee -- or, in our case, an item of Mightly’s children clothing -- a percentage of that purchase goes back directly to the factory workers in the form of a Fair Trade Premium.  Fair Trade USA’s new #JustOneCup campaign is all about transforming small into big. If you are going to drink a cup of coffee each day, then you might as well make it a Fair Trade CertifiedTM cup, because Fair Trade certification guarantees a minimum price to help coffee producers and pays producers an additional Premium for every pound sold that goes to address community needs. Although this idea of fair trade coffee is relatively new, it adds up. Over the last 21 years, Fair Trade USA’s programs have generated over $740 million in financial benefit to producers!   Fair trade textiles -- and that’s where Mightly comes in -- is a newer program than Fair Trade Certified coffee. Mightly’s CEO, Tierra Forte, helped develop Fair Trade USA’s Apparel and Home Goods Program less than a decade ago, when she worked for the non-profit organization. The first Fair Trade Certified textile pilot program ran from 2010 to 2012, with eight factories and 400 workers participating. Over $28,353 in premiums was paid to worker committees and another $7,846 to cotton producers. Too small, you might think? Why bother, for all this effort, for a mere $28k sent back to the workers? Well, like many things that start small, the Fair Trade Apparel and Home Goods Program has grown over the last decade. By 2015, 22 factories impacting 16,000 workers were participating in the program, with factory workers earning nearly $450,000 in community development premiums by the end of 2015. By 2020, the program reached over 75 factories in 13 counties, with 140,000+ fair trade factory employees benefiting. Major companies, like Patagonia, West Elm and Target, began participating. Fair Trade Premiums, sent directly back to the factory workers, have now reached millions of dollars. Small things add up to big things, given time. We started Mightly a little over a year ago with a vision, a shoestring budget and a small collection of organic cotton children’s tees. We now carry not just children’s tees, but pajamas, leggings, hoodies, long sleeve shirts, summer and winter dresses, and, coming this week, face masks and boys and girls underwear. And our products are not just any products, but are GOTS certified organic and, by the end of this year, will be 100% Fair Trade Certified.      So if you’re stuck in one room with your kids and discover that the eight year old has outgrown the pajamas you just bought for her two months ago and the little one has managed to put a hole through her leggings (how did that happen, when we can’t even go outside?) -- do a little online shopping at www.mightly.com. We started this company to make the kind of clothes we want for our own kids: play friendly, people friendly and planet friendly.  Every purchase matters, look for the Fair Trade Certified label, and know that you can make a difference. Subroto Mondal 28, from West Bengal, works in sewing at the Paridhan factory of Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills. "It felt good when the first premium arrived after we produced Fair Trade garments for a year. I never thought something like this was possible. I'm proud to have clothes I have worked on reach the US, England, Australia and all over the world. When people buy these products, it benefits us. We hope consumers will continue and invest in us. The impact of these premiums reach far beyond the factory - each worker has a home village and relatives that in small and big ways truly benefit. I personally left school after the 10th grade. My hope is to invest in my children's' futures so they can have a better future. Working here in a Fair Trade factory, I believe this is more possible." Mightly Made for Mightly Kids #ShareYourFair ∙ #MightlyMe ∙ #WeWearFairTrade