At the end of March, one of our favorite mom-founded organizations, Miss O and Friends, launched its first NFT project that will celebrate girls! Previously, we’re shared all about Miss O and Friends, a safe socialization brand for girls, which already encompasses a website, streaming TV show, app and much more. So we were fascinated when co-founder Juliette Brindak Blake reached out to share the news about their NFT launch.
We spoke to Juliette about this new initiative, from what an NFT is to how moms can invest.
Congratulations on this new project! Before we begin, can you please give us a refresher on Miss O and Friends?
The Miss O and Friends brand has been around since 2005, starting as a hobby when I was a high school student, then turning into a business after receiving significant investment from Procter & Gamble. Through the Miss O and Friends website (#1 tween girls website), app (Girl2Girl Wall-only safe chat app for tween girls) and video content (YouTube Originals series, Hyperlinked), Miss O and Friends is a safe socialization brand that is dedicated to changing the current narrative for girls.
Our mission is to empower and build self-esteem in girls to continue to offset how current media and social media consumption are leading to toxic bullying, trolling and negative role models.
I’m so proud of our recent NFT launch, Miss O Cool Girls.
For anyone not familiar, what exactly is an NFT?
“Non-fungible” more or less means that it is unique and it can’t be replaced with something else. To give you an example of the difference between “fungible” and “non-fungible,” let’s say you let your daughter borrow your favorite lip-gloss, and she ends up losing it. Luckily that lip gloss is “fungible” and you can replace it by going to Sephora and buying the exact same one. Phew!
But, let’s say you let your daughter borrow your phone because hers is broken, but when she gives it back to you, and she gives you a completely different phone. It has a different color case, it’s a different type of phone and has none of your contacts or photos saved. Your phone is your phone and it can’t be replaced with something else because that replacement is not the exact same as your phone. It is considered “non-fungible.”
These are both physical examples, as we’ve always been able to trade assets such as art, clothing and real estate. As the world continues to be integrated with digital spaces, how so do we own something that you can’t hold in your hands? For the first time, we’re able to use a technology called the Blockchain to create a unique digital certificate that is attached to a digital file – whether that is an image, music file, video, or anything else you can think of. This certificate is public and tracked by buildings full of computers around the world.
So, now for the first time ever, we can prove that we own something digital. We’re able to buy, sell and trade digital assets like art because we can prove that we own them. And let’s quickly talk about the “if I right click on jpg I now own it” thought. You can copy a digital file as many times as you want, including the art that’s included with an NFT. But NFTs are designed to give you something that can’t be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.
So interesting. Can you please tell us more about this particular NFT?
Miss O Cool Girls is the first NFT project designed to celebrate + support girls and what it means to be a female of the future. Featuring unique and diverse traits of young teen girls – acne, braces, gap teeth – the mission is to empower and build self-esteem in girls to continue to offset how current media and social media consumption are leading to toxic bullying, trolling and negative role models. Through our Miss O Cool Girls, we want to help our community (and the world) feel less alone by emphasizing that there is no one definition of what it means to be a girl. The rarest girls will have the realest traits, and we love them so much for that. We also plan to use our platform to educate girls about crypto and web3, invest in other female-driven NFT projects and donate a portion of sales to like-minded foundations. We just announced our official charity partnership w the UN Foundation, Girl Up as well as Theme NYC (merch collab w 13 year old designer Ariella Maizner).
How will this project introduce crypto currency to women who are unfamiliar?
I know the barriers to entry can feel very intimidating so we are breaking it all down. We’ve put together a ton of 101 content on MissO.com and our Instagram, which includes video tutorials and how-tos.
https://missoandfriends.com/miss-o-and-friends-crypto-101/
https://www.instagram.com/missocoolgirls.nft/
We also launched our Girls Who Mint Fund, which provides 250 girls/women/ non binary $100 worth of ETH (Ethereum, a crypto currency), to learn how to mint and buy their first NFT. I know this part can be scary and confusing, so we want to help take the pressure off, and lower the barrier to entry to help them learn and get involved.
https://missoandfriends.com/sign-up-for-the-girls-who-mint-fund/
Through our merch collab with Theme NYC, each sweatshirt will include a QR code entering the owner to win that NFT, as well as info on what that even means! We’re dedicated to helping girls learn about NFTs and the opportunities of web3.
https://theme-nyc.com/collections/nft-miss-o-cool-girl-collection/NFT
We also plan to build out extensive web3 onboarding for girls and women through webinars and simulations.
If someone wants to get involved, what are the ways?
There are tons of ways! My advice is to start learning about projects through trusted resources (like us!) and others we share, before jumping into anything. With any project, you really need to do your own research (DYOR) to learn about the founders, the mission and make sure you are using the legit links.
You can invest in/ buy, create your own, join communities, and if you have CS skills, there is a ton there too!
As a mom and female business owner, why is it so important to you that girls know about the metaverse and this new world?
Whether you like it or not, web3 is here to stay. And so far, like the early days of web2, it’s been dominated by men. And they are the ones seeing the massive financial gain from it, so why shouldn’t we?
I am also personally so tired (and disgusted) seeing how current media consumption and investment is leading to age-inappropriate content and toxic social media filled with bullying, trolling and negative role models. It’s got to stop. As the metaverse becomes a reality and this new technology evolves, it’s our chance to start it with the empowering narrative we want for girls and women. One that can change our world for the better with education, inclusion, involvement and opportunity.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We’re minting now! www.missocoolgirls.xyz
Zero clue what minting is or how to do it? We’re here to take you through it so please check out the resources through our IG and site. We have videos, checklists, and all the info.
We also encourage you to apply for our Girls Who Mint Fund. You can sign up solo, or if you have a daughter that would be interested to learn, you can sign up together!
Ig: @missocoolgirls.nft
Twitter: @missocoolgirls