We salute a woman whose business model seeks to help women be the best that they can be, by putting the focus on nurturing our insides, on friendships, personal fulfillment, finding purpose and embracing stillness.. essentially being a better YOU today, than you were yesterday!
Meet Zahra Gaskin, #womentrepreneur & Co-Founder of Happy Brown Girls.
Zahra Gaskin is also the owner and director of a holistic after-school program named Kiddies Korner, but over the last year she has shifted gears into the area of women’s wellness.
She co-founded Happy Brown Girls in 2019 to provide mental, physical and spiritual wellness to women of the diaspora. Happy Brown Girls provides services and seminars for women of all ages.
“My goal is to give women the opportunity of being her whole self”, she said at a recent vision board session in early 2020. Our platform is to provide activities and resources for women ranging from seventeen plus to strengthen their bodies, minds and spirit. We provide services and activities such as mental health, hiking, painting, book clubs, and physial wellness with medical care professionals.
Zahra hopes to increase their reach to Brown Women all over the world so they too can create healthy atmospheres within their families.
SHANIKA BURNETT
SHAKAD ECO – LIFESTYLE
Built on elegance, sophistication, glamour and luxury, Shakad-Eco Lifestyle is the epitome of the Caribbean’s quintessential style. Our products target the unapologetically bold mavericks of society, who lead fashion trends and make intrepid style statements while maintaining and embracing their culture. Shanika Burnett, a born artist whose parents were her direct inspiration as they pursued their artistic and entrepreneurial dreams, established Shakad in 2008, now re branded Shakad Eco-Lifestyle in 2018.
She has been nominated for several awards including Best New Designer AFI (African Fashion International) Johannesburg, South Africa and AFW (Africa Fashion Week) Toronto, Canada, Excellence in Fashion Design, Barbados and finalist for the CIC (Caribbean Innovative Challenge). Shakad has graced fashion shows throughout the region and internationally, namely, Caribbean Fashion Week, (Jamaica), Carifesta X (Guyana), Haute Couture (St. Lucia jazz festival) and African Fashion Week (Toronto). She also judges for the national cultural costumed competition, Grand Kadooment and Junior Kadooment.
“My inspiration comes from the colours, patterns and movements of nature. This includes the elements, people, animals, flowers, the breeze, raindrops, the rainbow, the way the sea meets the shoreline, the way a woman’s body curves and I can go on and on.”
Since 2016 Shanika has partnered with renowned textile artist Ayissa and opened a boutique carrying a full line of products that cater exclusively to their targeted consumer. This move has helped see a resurgence of the brand being able to reach a broader market and introduce new product ranges inclusive of accessories, bags, earrings and belts.
CARIBBEAN STYLE & CULTURE 