Company Spotlight: Words with Heart
How this eco-friendly stationery brand is more than just words, supporting women and girls in the developing world.
What’s not to like about Words With Heart? Their beautiful cards, inscribed with inspiring messages. The fact that they use 100% recycled paper, solar power, and eco-friendly inks. The way every product they sell funds education days for women and girls. Or perhaps its Words With Heart’s CEO and founder Lauren Shuttleworth, who typifies a strong, compassionate and successful female entrepreneur?
Lauren Shuttleworth says she was inspired to start Words With Heart when noticing dis-empowering slogans on a journal for girls in a stationary store. To counteract this culture of negative messaging, she now inscribes her products with words such as ‘be bold, be brave, be kind’ or ‘this notebook belongs to a brilliant girl’. Lauren says she believes “that women and girls should have the tools and inner confidence to do and be anything they dream of”. And it’s not just words – access to education, which Words With Heart directly supports, is one of the biggest tools that can be given to women in the developing world.
With only a third of Australian business operators being women, it’s not hard to see why Words With Heart is important in both its form and function. Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, says that “Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource.”
Women are still severely underrepresented in the tech industry. Meaning in the areas of UX design, we are not thinking enough with women, or with women in mind. This indeed, is poor design.
That’s why Harness Projects is so excited to be partnering with Words with Heart – to learn from, and support, women in business and the wider world. This is an opportunity for students to gain invaluable skills in UX design and an amazing portfolio piece while at the same time making a real difference to lives of women and girls.
To top it off, students on this project will have Yummii Ong-Tran as their mentor. A UX strategist and entrepreneur, Yummii also freelances across a diverse portfolio of digital projects in the industries of finance, retail, and technology and currently holds a role as Chief Customer Experience Officer at Travel Genie.
So, we warmly welcome the collaboration with Words With Heart on our upcoming UX design project. We’re excited about all the great work to come next month!
Like to know more? Check out the Words With Heart Projects page. Enrolment are now open!
