Black women-owned beauty businesses deserve more funding to help jumpstart their revolutionary ideas, and thanks to the PITCH PLEASE! competition a few lucky entrepreneurs will be able to do just that. PITCH PLEASE! — a pitch competition powered by Pull Up For Change’s Impact Fund and New Voices Foundation — gathered several up-and-coming Black women-owned beauty brands to pitch their best business ideas that aim to disrupt the industry. After sharing why these brands are the next big thing to help shift the beauty landscape, judges announced this year’s finalists during the 2021 Essence Festival. Winners of the competition — who took home $100,000 — include holistic wellness company Peak and Valley — which provides sustainably packaged, mindfully sourced, and inclusive products; and clean lifestyle beauty brand Peculiar Roots — which specializes in a unique line of products specifically designed to care for locs and natural hair. Other winners include plant-based skincare and...

Nonprofit org Color Of Change — the nation’s largest online racial justice organization — has always played an integral role in rewriting the rules to pass laws to protect Black people. The organization’s mission to tell Black stories is also led by its ability to bring together celebrities and change-makers to discuss issues plaguing Black communities and solutions to resolve them. As part of its commitment to fight against hair discrimination, Color Of Change launched its powerful InHAIRitance event — alongside actress Tracee Ellis Ross, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Representative Leslie Herod, Color Of Change VP Arisha Hatch, and small-business owners Jennifer Lord and Thomasina Jackson. The event was launched in collaboration with Dove, National Urban League and Western Center on Law and Poverty. It was created to discuss The CROWN Act — a law that would protect Black people from hair discrimination in workplaces and schools — and the state of Black-owned beauty businesses...