Uniting Fashion & Philanthropy: Making a Difference in Lives Together

Welcome to the Gifting Brand show, where we'll be bringing amazing leaders and innovators in both the fashion and nonprofit sectors to give you an opportunity to dive deeper and learn more about the impact that these amazing organizations are making. I am so thrilled to introduce you to our first guest. Lisa Anastasi, Chief development and public affairs officer for Boys and Girls Club of America, and my friend, Winnie park, the CEO of Forever 21. Lisa and Winnie will share their journey and stories of how we can all make a difference together in the lives of children who need our help and where you can make a difference. Welcome, Lisa and Winnie, to our very first show. Let's get started. So, Lisa, you've had an amazing career in the nonprofit sector. I'd love to know more about you. How did your journey lead you to Boys and Girls Clubs of America? And what drew you to this role?

Yeah, well, thank you so much. Yes, this role is truly the role of a lifetime. And I've been passionate about youth and teens pretty much from the time I was a little girl. And, you know, one thing that's interesting is I actually followed Boys and Girls Clubs of America for years. I would cut out their ads in the Wall Street Journal. I was one step away from a vision board. That is how much I wanted to work for this organization. So you can imagine when the opportunity came along, it was truly once in a lifetime. And, you know, I've been in politics before this and nonprofit fundraising in a couple different ways and universities for other nonprofits. But my heart has always been with youth and teens, and that's why it's so incredible to be with Boys and Girls Clubs of America. You know, early on in my tenure here, I visited clubs all over the country. And there's one story that just really brought it home for me. So I was in a club, and I like to read the walls of clubs because they have all these really interesting things about emotional regulation and stress management stuff. Nothing I was ever talking about at that age, Right. So I'm always fascinated by it. And there was this wall, and it said, I dream, dot, dot, dot. And so there were all these incredible dreams up there, right? I dreamed to go to college. I dreamed to go to medical school. I dreamed to be a veterinarian. And one of them said, I dream, dot, dot, dot, to sleep in peace. And that moment was like a lightning bolt to my heart. And I really thought at that moment, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Wow.

That's amazing. So, Lenny, your career path to forever 2021 is so exciting and interesting. Tell us your journey and how you got to where you are today.

Well, first of all, Lisa, that's such an amazing story, and thank you, Jeannie. I have had a long and winding path, actually, to Forever 21. And I actually started my career out of college in a nonprofit, working for Ralph Nader on systemic social change initiatives. Our goal at the time was to get 10% of every graduating class from Prince, where we're both alums, to engage in systemic social change. And I was really amazingly idealistic. And I remember Ralph told me at that time, right out of school, you are so close to the peak of your idealism. Don't waste this moment. Funnily enough, though, my side hustle while I was doing that job was to work at the Banana Republic in Princeton, New Jersey, as a sales associate, because my love of fashion sprouted when I was quite young. And I would say it's generational, coming from my grandmother to my mom. I love to say that the first book I ever read with my mom was Vogue magazine. So it's something I just was really, really excited about. I constantly go into Banana Republic and actually look at the sale rack because I couldn't afford anything. And the manager asked me, would you like to work here? And retail got in my blood, and it did not stop. You know, my journey went on. Actually went to business school, worked in strategic consulting, but after that, I worked at Levi's, and I was in San Francisco, you know, first working on strategy, but then working on product, which has been a love of mine since then. I worked for lvmh, Louis Vuitton, Hennessey Group for a decade in fashion and luxury, and found my way back to the United States after living in Hong Kong for a bit with Paper Source. And at Paper Source, I took on my first CEO role in a company that was really passionate about art and creativity. And so I. I could use this love of design with actually making beautiful things. And when Forever 21 came knocking on my door, I couldn't resist. I was founded by Korean American immigrants. It's a story that I can relate to being a Korean American immigrant. And I was so excited to be part of a journey with an organization that is so diverse and so committed to community, accessibility, and authenticity.

And you and I actually met in Women in Retail Leadership Organization, where now you're on their board, correct? Yes.

Jeanne and I have so treasured that relationship and that journey where I got to meet you and so many other women. And I would Say the organization really does a lot more than just create a forum. They offer a support at a friend level and a lifelong friend level. And so it's just been amazing.

Yeah. And that's how we met and now we're lifelong friends. And in fact, I worked with your sister Susie park many, many years ago at Old Navy when she was in the strategy department. So it's, it's been such an amazing journey and I'm so thrilled that you're on the show. I think it's really interesting. It's such a challenging world right now between the economy and everything that's happened over the last few years. And I know that, Lisa, from your perspective, it is really made changes and how you manage and help kids today. So what challenges are young people facing today? How is Boys and Girls Clubs of America combating these changes to make a difference?

Yes, I mean, you are so right. The challenges facing our youth today are really unlike any other time, I think in any generation. And you know, those challenges had actually started before the pandemic but were really increased rapidly during that. You know, some of the things I think about is more than one in six young people are living in a household that would be considered at the poverty level. We estimate that about 8 million youth are alone after school every single day, possibly an unsafe or definitely without supervision. You look at our mental health challenges now for teens, it's truly unlike anything we've ever seen. If you take 1,000 teens right now, 450 of them would say that they experience persistent sadness, anxiety or depression. Half of those people will say that they've considered suicide. And then about 110 out of every 1,000 teenagers have attempted suicide. I mean, it's really almost difficult to imagine because the enormity of the challenges that are facing our youth today. And you know, Boys and Girls Clubs of America has been around for more than 160 years and we've adapted to meet these challenges as things change over time. And you know, one of the things we've done, obviously academic success has always been top of our priority list, but certainly ramping that up even more to help offset some of the challenges from the pandemic and then some of the mental health challenges that I talked about as well. And then finally I'd say, you know, something we really enjoy working on with Forever 21 is preparing our young people for a work and life ready future. Right. So that may be going to a college or a two year degree. It could also be going straight into retail or other opportunities. And Forever 21 has been such an amazing partner in helping us prepare our youth for for that next step after high school.

Wow.

So Winnie, with the changing world of retail and brands, how is forever 21 had to transform your business model and what is the role of philanthropy?

Absolutely, Jeanne. It's been such rapid fire change. I think we all thought, like Lisa did, that the pandemic would be that moment. But the change after the pandemic has been even more dramatic. And for us, I think the most important thing that we're bringing to Forever 21 is a focus on the customer and a focus on how they live, what they want and what they expect of brands. And what's been fascinating for me is just really studying our youngest customers in Generation Z. And Gen Z really demands a level of authenticity from its brands. And so for us, our journey has been to move away from fast fashion and really delve into lifestyle. And the lifestyle that we delve into is one that I would argue Forever 21 has been promoting for its entire history and that is really embracing fashion as a means of self expression. And in this world where, you know, so much of what you do is judged on how you look, what our customers really enjoy is the chameleon aspect of what fashion can do. You can wake up in the morning being goth and you can go to bed at night rocking Y2K fashion. But what we do is we want to make it accessible. We want to make it accessible. We want to embrace every aspect of your self expression through fashion. And we're on a journey to really, instead of just do fashion fast and cheap, do relevant and do value. And I would say that philanthropy has actually been call it kind of the yellow thread. Our brand color is yellow. It's been a yellow thread at Forever 21 for a long time. It is something that our employees value, it's something that our customers value. And we're really proud of the relationship we have with Boys and Girls Club because it's been going on for years now and it's been activated on so many different levels. And that's really what makes philanthropy be relevant for us, is can you touch and feel it? Can you see the impact that you're making and that it's something that's really authentic and comes from the heart of the brand.

I love that. You know, one of the things that is on everyone's mind is this Gen Z group. I mean, they're living through a totally different era than we've ever lived in. And it's, I think, more challenging and so Lisa, Gen Z is truly a force to be reckoned with. How is your organization motivating this generation to give back to their community?

You know, thank you. And Winnie, I was thinking it's so similar. Lot of what we talk about, right, is the creative expression and, and this Gen Z expects the opportunity to be authentic and be able to express it in whatever they want, whenever they want. It's a completely different mindset than what most of us grew up with. You know, I also think about someone mentioned recently. You know, most of us had maybe two or three pictures taken of us a year, right? Our school picture and maybe a holiday picture, maybe one at your birthday. These kids have hundreds of pictures, maybe thousands of pictures that they can see and edit and post. I mean, it is truly transformed how they even see themselves in this world, right? So, so of course Gen Z is very important to us also our major customer base and service base. So we're doing a lot of things at the club level to help tap into that creativity, tap into that self expression. You also see a real passion around advocacy and making their voice be heard, right? These are youth who want to create and be a part of change. So one program, for example, that we created is something called Think Learn and Create Change. And so basically this program allows you to have advocacy projects that then they are actually up here on Capitol Hill this week presenting their projects to members of Congress. We have more than 400 youth and their supervisors on the Hill right now. I was there with them yesterday, meeting with members of Congress, talking about the issues that matter to them.

That is Gen Z. Wow, that is really impactful.

So Winnie, you've got such a massive Gen Z following. How are you getting this young audience engaged with Forever 21?

So Jeannie, for us, we acknowledge first and foremost that self expression and actually advocacy are so key to this generation. And I think the insight that Lisa had in terms of the role that social media has played is huge. And acknowledging that social media is not just influencers, it's a window to the world. It is a means of communication for this generation. And it's interesting because it's not about glossing in Instagram, it's about real. And if you're ever on Snapchat, you know, it's, they're taking a picture of part of their face and it's real. It's, it's not covered up in makeup. It is their real authentic selves. And so we really lean into that. And for us, we acknowledge that as a brand, Gen Z is different. They don't want brands to tell them what to do or how to be or how to act or how to dress. You have to meet them where they are. And so for us, in connecting with Gen Z, it's listening, asking the questions, it's being curious, but also being part of their lives. And they are cultural omnivores. You know, there is not a recipe that my daughter and I haven't tried on TikTok. They consume food, they consume music, they consume everything around them, including relevant issues. And so for us, part of meeting them where they are is actually doing things like showing up at festivals, showing up actually in web3@roblox. That is not a commercial endeavor for us. It's really just to be part of their creative lives. We're part of a strategy around Shop City where Gen Z, the youngest members of Gen Z, starting at age 7, could actually go and create their own virtual reality world of Forever 21. And we're not commercializing that. That really is just to be present. So we want to be present, we want to help them advocate for themselves and we just want to be a partner. But that has been a big shift going from brands that are accustomed to marketing to and speaking to actually turning on your curiosity and engaging with and co creating with.

It's so interesting because both you and I grew up in the retail industry and we're leaders at different companies. I was at Gap with Old Navy and you were at Levi, and we told the customer what was in fashion, you know, whether it was denim or whether it was chinos or whether it was performance fleece. And it's such a different world. And you as a CEO, how do you think about that compared to your experience?

Absolutely. I think that, you know, my lifelong superpower is very, very simple. And that's being a student and being cur curious and being genuinely curious about people and how they live. I think my true calling was probably something like anthropology and just studying how people live. And I think that for all of us in retail, we've had to turn on our curiosity. And for me it comes really naturally. And Gen Z is so interesting because I think the segment of one is relevant. In the old days we would say market research. You need at least 10,000 people to fill out a survey and then you get to like draw all these conclusions about the rest. Because of social media, the segment of one is relevant because you can study what is happening, what is trending. And for me, a big source of inspiration and curiosity comes from how my daughter lives, what she engages with, you know, she just turned 18 years old, so she's right in the heart of Gen Z. And to know that, for instance, this summer she's spending her morning on a social change initiative related to the environment and saving Coral with a nonprofit based out of New York City. And the other half of her day working in a boutique in Chicago where she gets engaged with people and turn on her self expression. But I think that is very characteristic of what we're seeing. And again, it's about being curious, asking her and her friends lots of questions and understanding what are the gaps, what are they dealing with and grappling with. And that's been probably one of the funnest parts of actually being part of Rep 21. We live it and breathe it every day. And I get so much actually out of our Gen Z employees as well. We have a group of interns and I'm constantly just curious, what do you do? What do you, what are you following? Why is that important to you? And turning, really turning the curiosity on, plugging in has been the biggest change I think that we've all had to make.

The fact that you're able to share this experience with your daughter and learn from it to make your organization a better, stronger, more agile and innovative organization. So Lenny, how does Forever 21's alliance with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America make a positive impact? And what notable achievements or lessons has this partnership brought about for the brand and for you as a leader?

So for us, the Boys and Girl Club partnership, I think kind of started off as polling our employees and saying what organization could we touch physically through engagement and activation and what could we do to really get the customers engaged and exc. And this is one of our biggest partnerships. We've contributed and our customers have contributed, to be very clear, almost $7 million since the partnership started. And that is through roundup events that occur during Back to school, during the holidays, where you get to round up at the cash register and contribute back to Boys and Girls Club. It's also been about making product that goes back. But more importantly, where I've seen the real magic of Boys and Girls Club is we really embarked last year on a campaign to celebrate our birth story out of Los Angeles and to celebrate the cultural diversity of this city. I always say it's from the beaches to the streets of east la, you can find anything in Los Angeles. And one of the initiatives we took on as part of that campaign to celebrate our birthplace was an initiative with the Boys and Girls Club of America to actually Paint murals throughout the city with Art Bridges the Gap. And we kicked off this initiative in Hollywood, and I was so excited to join a local club to actually paint a mural. And for me, between the excitement of Art Bridges the Gap and the excitement of this club and seeing us do something in terms of beautification in a city with, like, a blank, you know, brick wall, how do you bring some. Some love of the city and the community and do something together? And that, to me, was one of the most touching stories that I've had personally with the club. But we have done so many other things, including having partnerships with FUBU as well as Boys and Girls Club, come together and really mentor and teach and bring out life lessons around what it takes to be a brand founder. But those types of moments where we can actually engage and activate. And also, our customer has voted. Our customer has voted that this is important to them. Youth is important to them. They are part of this and part of this dialogue. And for me, that's something that we're really, really proud of, and that makes it so much more authentic.

And, Lisa, what does this partnership mean to Boys and Girls Clubs of America to have an organization like Forever 21 who's so committed to helping you make a difference?

Well, I mean, the partnership with Forever 21 has truly been amazing in so many ways. And Winnie touched on a few. You know, I mean, obviously, the financial support is critical.

Right.

We can't do the work that we do without the funds. And the funds go to communities near Forever 21 stores, into clubs there. So it's an incredible opportunity to really touch communities at a local level. But partnerships are so much more than just financial investments. And that's what Winnie was talking about. Right. Our club kids had a chance to paint these murals and make a difference and express themselves. What we were just talking about earlier because of Forever 21. Right. That's not the sort of thing that we can bring to them. That's the sort of thing that only a corporate partnership of this nature can do. And you think about it too, right? There's a club kid painting a mural next to the CEO of Forever 21. Like, these are incredible life lessons. You know, yesterday when I was on the Hill, we had a youth who was with us who almost had trouble introducing herself to the senator because she'd never met a senator before. Of course.

Right.

It's an incredible opportunity. And so the thing that I think we miss sometimes when we're talking about these corporate partnerships is it's the strategic alignment all the way Around. Right. It's not just about one piece. It's not just about the AT register or the product or one standalone project. It's all of it wrapping together to lift our youth up and give them experiences and opportunities that they would not have otherwise. And that's one of the many reasons why we're so grateful to Forever 21. Forever 21 has given these youth opportunities they would not have had.

Lisa, is there a standout story that you'd like to share and with the impact from this partnership?

Yes. You know, I love the murals. I mean, I thought that was an incredible, incredible opportunity with the clubs. The other one that I was really excited about was a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley. And this was around personal branding. And why I was so excited about it is I wanted to be there. Right. A personal branding workshop. We should all be going through those. And then it was an opportunity to. About interview skills. These are truly transformational opportunities for our youth. Many of the youth are not growing up in families where you talk about interviews. And, you know, we talked earlier about Winnie's daughter knowing about what she does and being connected to that. That's not always the case in every family. And so we are actually teaching them these life skills of here's what you wear to an interview, here's what you say, here's how you introduce yourself. What is a personal brand? How do you build it? That one, to me, really stands out because it's so practical. I mean, I think pretty much every one of us needs something like that, right? So how incredible to be learning that at 17 and not 47. I mean, to me, that was what really kind of highlights the incredible impact that Boys and Girls clubs and forever 21 can make together.

It is amazing. So, Winnie, I know that our listeners, many of them are avid shoppers, and they're on the edge of their seats wanting to know what's on the horizon for fashion. What can we expect to see at Forever 21?

So much, Jeannie. And I would say, actually, if you are a Forever 21 fan or if you love Boys and Girls Club, I would encourage you to go right now. We do have a roundup event right now. We're back to school. Our back to school collections have hit, and they are incredible. We've got some amazing collaborations that are about to be released. But the roundup event goes from July 13 to the September 9. And again, part of what Forever 21 is trying to do is not just be fashion, but really lean into lifestyle and Also address the fact that Gen Z really embraces culture and now all aspects of culture. So what you're going to see is moving forward, collaborations with major fashion houses. We're going to be engaged in music and in film, and we're also going to be just really focused on the youngest and the sweetest moments in our life. So just to give you a little inkling and a little teaser, but it's not just about great trends. It really is about collaborations that matter. And we're super proud of the collaboration that we have with Boys and Girls Club. But you're going to see a steady cadence, what I like to call it, a rolling thunder of newness and new ways to think about fashion by a music film. And again, celebrating your youth.

Before we wrap it up, are there any final thoughts that either of you would like to leave with our audience? And I'll start with Lisa.

Sure. Thank you. Well, you know, it's been such an honor and a pleasure to be here today. And we're so grateful to Forever 21 for their amazing partnership. You know, I think I would just say as we wrap up, when I talked about the challenges earlier for youth and teens, this is a really serious problem facing our country right now. And even if you don't have kids, even if you've never really thought about the challenges facing children, if you care about the future of our country, our youth are our number one priority. That is the future. And so, you know, I would really just encourage you to get involved. You know, you can go to bgca.org to learn more, contact your local clubs, support boys and girls clubs across the country, but get involved in some way and recognize that youth are everything for this country. If we don't help them now, if we don't deal with some of these incredible challenges around academic success, mental health, some of the other issues I mentioned earlier, we're going to be facing really major issues as a country. So this is about all of us coming together to do what's right for our youth.

Thank you, Lisa. That was very well said. And Winnie, how about you?

Thank you for that, Lisa. And thank you, Jeannie. I really have cherished this opportunity to talk about our partnership and to shed a light on some of the most important issues facing young people today. I 100% agree with Lisa that the youth are the future. I will also say that it doesn't take a lot to make a difference. And you don't have to climb a mountain. You can make a difference every day. And I would say that activating and taking action can be very, very small or you can engage at a much bigger level. But all you have to do is make the choice. And I would say take those baby steps and learn. Learn about what's happening with youth today. And if you can show your support and again, have to say it again, please, please, Please go to Forever 21. Celebrate our partnership with Boys and Girls Club. Give back. And it can be the smallest thing you could round up 41 cents and it's going to make a difference because that 41 cents actually over the years has become $7 million of support for these local clubs. And you know, starting my career in nonprofit choose the organizations that give back and that really use the funding to help fund activities and real programs. And Boys and Girls Club is one of those organizations.

I couldn't have said it better. And that's why we have this platform now is to showcase the brands and the nonprofits that are making a difference. We all don't have a ton of time in our life to research what organizations we should be giving back to and which companies we should be shopping at. And so that's why I started this platform so that we can do the research for you, so that you can make an informed decision and get involved, whether that's through volunteering, whether that's through shopping or whether that's a donation. So, Lisa, Winnie, I am so incredibly humbled by the fact that you both came on our very first show. You both are amazing leaders and great innovators and for our listeners, thank you for being here. We'll see you in the next episode. Please share this with your friends and family which will increase the impact happen you can make together. Have a blessed day. Share your amazing talents to make a difference in the world. And together we truly can make this world a better place. Thank you.