It’s been a long time since I updated the Featured Mom-biz page, but I wanted to get this started again and couldn’t think of anyone better to get us rolling that PigTail Pals and Melissa Wardy. Melissa’s business and personal outlook inspire me daily to encourage my daughters to be who they are. I asked Melissa to write a little about herself and Pigtail Pals and she graciously accepted.
My name is Melissa Atkins Wardy, I am the owner and creator of Pigtail Pals – Redefine Girly (www.pigtailpals.com). I created the company with the mission to Redefine Girly for our current generation of young girls. Pigtail Pals has been tagged as being “feminism for five year olds” because my tees take a stereotype said about girls/women and turn it around into something positive. Pigtail Pals tees offer artful, hand drawn designs that show girls as astronauts, pilots, race car drivers, doctors, movie directors, scientists, and more! I have build a very active blog, twitter following, and Facebook page that allows parents to discuss and talk about the issues facing our kids.
As the mother of a preschool-aged daughter, I became confused and disgusted by the products and apparel marketed to our girls. It all seemed counterintuitive to raising smart, confident, and adventurous young women. I wanted a childhood for my daughter full of play, exploration, discovery and learning. As a kid I remember being footloose and fancy free as I ran around the woods of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with my little brothers and friends. As I shopped for my daughter, who at the time was only six months old, it appeared as though we were moving backwards, and marketers were telling families to raise hyperfeminine, hypersexualized little girls into some kind of Stepford-Wife-in-training kind of tween. (Don’t get me started on how I feel about the word ‘tween’.) Today’s girls are being raised by women who have had the most education, opportunity, and rights than any other generation of mothers the world has ever seen. We need products in the marketplace that reflect this. For me, Barbie (or worse, Bratz), lip gloss for three year olds, and certain teen pop stars don’t cut it. I wanted something better for my daughter. Frankly, I wanted something better for all of our girls.
Pigtail Pals – Redefine Girly has set out to show girls, and those who love them, that they can indeed be smart, daring and 
adventurous. In fact, we think being these things is being girly! It is time we expect the same things for our daugthers, from our daughters, as we do our sons. It is time we do away with the limiting, binary gender-stereotyped products that have invaded childhood and leave those precious years as one for a time of curiosity, exploration, and caring. It is time to Redefine Girly.
My first year in business has allowed me to talk face to face with thousands of parents as I crusade to educate them on the harm of limiting their daughters to a narrow, stereotyped image of what it means to be a girl. There should be no limits. Our girls should be allowed to dream in every color, and to take those dreams as high as they can reach. I am now very active in teaching parents about media literacy, the harms of sexualization, and the importance of play. I have collaborated with impressive organizations like the AAUW, launched a blog that takes on girls’ issues and doesn’t pull punches, traveled to Washington DC to support girls’ legislation like H.R. 4925, and Los Angeles to meet with experts in the field and create a community for women to turn to for empowerment.
As I enter my second year of business, I plan to expand product options, reach out to more parents, and continue to bring light to issues facing our girls. There are some really exciting collaborations forming right now for the company, and it is absolutely great when I get emails from parents saying their daughter’s favorite tee is her Pigtail Pals tee, or how excited they were to find a company like mine that offers better options for their daughters. And of course I love hearing that someone thinks differently now because of what they have learned from Pigtail Pals. Its time we change the way we think about our girls!
Wow. How can you help feeling inspired?! Check out Melissa and her groovy shirts for girls today!
Disclosure: I never receive any compensation for Featured Mombiz…features. I simply want to expand your knowledge of mom-owned businesses and encourage you to support them.
