February 2021 - CustomizedGirl Blog

Virtual St. Patrick’s Day – How can you celebrate?

February 25, 2021February 25, 2021 CustomizedGirl Leave a comment

As we get closer to St. Patrick’s day this year, we also get closer to one year since our country was put into lockdown from the global pandemic. A lot has happened in a year but the light is finally at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are rolling out and we’re finally starting to open back up, but we still have a little ways to go!

I think it’s safe to say we’re all hoping this is the last year we have to celebrate St. Patrick’s day virtually, but we’re here to share our ideas on how to still have the most fun while celebrating safely from home!

1. Custom St. Patrick’s Shirt Zoom Call

You may not be able to get with all your friends at the bar this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t organize a rowdy Zoom call with your besties. Get everyone in the crew to make some custom St. Patrick’s Day tees, then hold a contest to see who has the best one! Give special prizes for the funniest, most creative, or best custom element!

Custom face uploads make for pretty hilarious custom elements!

2. Watch A Virtual St. Patrick’s Day Parade

With so many events still shut down, cities are getting creative with their St. Patrick’s day parades. Many are ditching the classic street displays and going fully virtual. Why not make some custom pajamas and snuggle up for Dublin, Ireland’s official virtual celebration? Get all the love from mother Ireland herself from the comfort of your own home for one more year.

Invite the whole family to watch the events with their own custom tees!

3. Learn some actual Irish history…maybe while day drinking?

The meaning of St. Patrick’s day can often get lost in all the noise of drinking and imitating bad Irish accents. Why not take this last year locked up to learn some actual Irish history….with a pint in hand of course. There are tons of fun and informative videos on Irish History on YouTube. Why not throw back a couple of cold ones while learning something?

Personalize these tees with your own Irish heritage.

4. Make Some Custom St. Patrick’s Day Drinking Gear

Customized Girl offers tons of fun products to customize and design. Why not spend some time designing your own custom shot glasses or custom ceramic stein? That way, next year when you can go back to the bars, you can tell them to just fill up your own stein! Not actually sure if that’s a thing, but it’s worth a shot…or stein.

Customize a stein with your clan’s name on it!

5. Participate In A Virtual St. Patrick’s Day Race

One more year of staying inside means one more year of virtual charity races for the St. Patrick’s day holiday. Check out some virtual races in your area here. But before you sign up, make sure to customize some St. Patrick’s day race tees. This is a good year to get back into practice before everyone sees you huffing in person next year.

Customize a tank for your St. Patrick’s day virtual race.

Guest Blogger Spotlight – VivaKolor

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021 CustomizedGirl Leave a comment

A note from CustomizedGirl: In reverence of Black History Month, we wanted to use our platform to help amplify black voices in the blogging community. So this year we’re featuring a post from a guest blogger. Her name is Alecia Grant and her blog is called VivaKolor. We encourage you to check out her blog where she writes about fashion and lifestyle topics from her home in New York. You can also read this featured article on her site here. For our guest spotlight, Alecia wanted to share her feelings on ‘How To Celebrate Black History Month On Social Media’. Check it out below!

How To Celebrate Black History Month On Social Media – by Alecia Grant via VivaKolor

During Black History Month, we celebrate the accomplishments, history and influence of the black community. I was compelled to write this post because now that we are home more and it’s a new year, it’s imperative for brands and creators to go further than a MLK quote. (not saying that there is anything wrong with that) And not to mention, 2020’s socioeconomic climate was an incredibly moving moment in the U.S. I feel that right now is the perfect chance to amplify voices while educating your audience, encouraging black creators to want to create more, focus on businesses advancing, and advocate for change.

So lets talk about how we can accomplish this:

1) Celebrate Black History All Year: Black History is more than a moment. To avoid being labeled as opportunistic, brands should prioritize black culture in everything that they do. Campaigns that are geared towards the celebration of the black community should provide value while being authentic, and empathetic.

2) Spotlight Creators and Q&As: By showcasing black creators, black-owned businesses and black-owned brands in your industry this can be a great way to introduce your audience to people and businesses that they can support.

There are so many ways to do so. A great idea is to host a virtual (of course) Q&A event either on IG live, facebook, Zoom…. with a Black creator in your industry.

For example, Adobe is giving black creators a chance to share their stories.

**Also, please value creators time and expertise by offering to work with a budget. Free products can’t pay the bills. This is important.

3) Use Your Platform To Amplify People or Organizations: Most brands’ social media channels have lots of followers, which makes this an excellent opportunity for brands to use their channels to highlight organizations, individuals, and others who fit within their value system. For example, YouTube has committed to amplifying black creators and highlighting injustice with lots of initiatives. According to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, YouTube has over 2 billion users, and has created a multiyear $100 million dollar fund dedicated to “amplifying and developing the voices of black creators and artists and their stories”. This includes a series of roundtables, conversations and more that highlight black creators while raising money. Way to go YouTube!

4) Share History Facts of Black Inventors/Innovators/Designers: This is fun as you can choose people who are not that popular to the mainstream. This can be done on any social media platform as well as your website Also, this is an introspective way to get your audience to stick around and want to see more creativity from you. For example, if you’re a fashion brand—how about highlighting Ann Lowe who was a fashion designer and best known for designing Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown.

Or highlight an impeccable author/poet like Alexandra Elle who uses her poetry to show compassion while inspiring.

This list can go on for a while, but I will stop here. So please continue to create content to celebrate black history all year on social media. I hope these strategies help and I am looking forward to seeing more value when creating content in the future.

2020 Statement Makers Customized Girl Scholarship Contest

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 CustomizedGirl Leave a comment

The time has come once again to announce the winners of our 2020 Statement Makers Customized Girl Scholarship Contest!

First off, we want to give a huge ‘thank you’ to all of the inspiring individuals who took the time to apply for the scholarship. We thoroughly enjoy reading through all of your “statements for the world” and we are truly honored to be giving away two $500 scholarship awards.

Without further ado, the 2020 CG Scholarship winners are … (drum roll please):

Kera
Statement: “Queens wear crowns but also dry shampoo.”

Bethany
Statement: “I might not be the hero with all of the glory, but I hold the pen that writes my own story.”

Congratulations to these two winners! Thank you to all who participated and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Don’t forget, we do this every year.

Eligible individuals can come back again for another chance to be selected as one of two $500 scholarship winners. And to those who will graduate this year, CONGRATS grad! If you can graduate during a global pandemic… you can do anything!