Youth Opportunity Network Rocket21 Helps Sixteen-Year-Old California Entrepreneur Launch Anti-Bullying Apparel Company; Announces Competition to Fight Bullying
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 05, 2013 -- Rocket21, the only professional networking platform designed to safely connect kids and teens with professionals and experts representing industries, professions, passions, and movements that span the globe, today announced a new partnership and Dream Big Competition, in collaboration with youth-run apparel company, Fight Your Ignorance.
Fight Your Ignorance is an online apparel company, headed by 16-year old Piedmont, CA high school junior, Zayanne Rifai. Small in stature, Rifai was bullied as far back as she can remember and began to stand up for herself (and other kids) at a very young age. By middle school she was researching the effects of bullying on children, as well as adults. In 8th grade, Rifai conceived a lunchtime inclusion program and persuaded her principal to help develop the program in her school.
In high school, Zayanne and several classmates developed an idea for an anti-bullying project and competed in a business showcase for Bay Area based organization, BUILD. Zayanne was named Most Valuable Professional for the entire San Francisco Bay Area in May 2012. Zayanne’s strong belief that everyone needs to encourage bullied children to speak up and call out the socially unacceptable behavior of bullies ultimately drove her to apply her passion and experience to develop Fight Your Ignorance. Fight Your Ignorance is an online apparel company dedicated to preventing bullying by showcasing messages that call out bullying as socially unacceptable.
"Kids that are bullied should not be bottling up their pain, and society should speak up more and more against bullying – both in consequences and education. I have learned from my own experiences that when you speak up, not only is justice served, but you also might save bullies from themselves," said Zayanne Rifai, F.Y.I. Founder & Chief 'squash-da-bully' Officer. "I’m very excited to be working with Rocket21. They are genuinely committed to making kids’ lives better."
To support the launch of Fight Your Ignorance, Rocket21 has developed a Fight Your Ignorance Group on Rocket21. Zayanne Rifai is available to connect with all Rocket21 Members as a Rocket21 Youth PRO, to share her experiences with bullying, creating advocacy programs, and starting a company.
Now through January 31st, youth under age 18 are encouraged to participate in Rocket21’s Dream Big to Stop Bullying Competition. To enter, Rocket21 Members must submit an original, anti-bullying T-Shirt Slogan, along with their own ideas for how to prevent bullying. Two Grand Prize Winners in age categories of Youth Under 13 and Teens 13-17 will each win a major prize package including: An Anti-Bullying Summit at their school, featuring an anti-bullying songwriting clinic guided by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Steve Seskin; a Google Hangout broadcast of the anti-bullying song performed by the school’s students, and $500 for both themselves and their schools. Each winners’ T-Shirt designs will be featured in the Fight Your Ignorance online store and on Rocket21, with winners’ schools receiving $6 for each of their schools’ student-designed shirts sold during an extended promotional period. And, each school will receive 100 of their students’ winning T-shirts.
"Rocket21 is all about helping kids and teens advance their passions and pursue their dreams. Helping Zayanne to launch her anti-bullying business and designing a contest that combines music, art, writing and advocacy is a dream project for our team, as well as for our PROs," said Jodell Seagrave, Rocket21 Co-Founder and COO. "We can’t wait to see the inspired messages and stories that our members will bring to the competition.
About Fight Your Ignorance
F.Y.I. is committed and focused on exposing ignorance for its negative impact on young people. We execute on this mission by manufacturing and promoting trendy apparel featuring messages that call out certain behaviors as socially unacceptable. F.Y.I.’s messages are intended to stop ignoring divisive bully type behavior, and instead seek to shine a light on how shameful these actions are.
For more information visit http://www.fightyourignorance.com.
About Rocket21
Rocket21 is the only professional networking platform designed to safely connect kids and teens
with professionals and experts representing industries, professions, passions, and movements that span the globe. Rocket21 provides youth with unprecedented opportunities and access to world-class experts and organizations while protecting them with a combination of state-of-the-art, real-time filtering and human moderation, extensive safety and security precautions, and a specialized infrastructure designed to keep kids safe.
Like Rocket21 on Facebook and follow @Rocket21 on Twitter. For more information contact Media Relations at media(at)rocket21(dot)com.
Jodell Seagrave, Rocket21, http://www.rocket21.com, +1 (650) 839-1105, [email protected]
Share this article