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Getting back to school can be a whirlwind – but, lucky for us here at Her Campus Harvard, our friends at the Her Campus National Team have our backs. They’ve put together back to school survival kits for us full of awesome products and swag. And this year, the kits also include information on how to get involved in some amazing women-empowering nonprofits. We’re getting back and giving back!
Want to bake and do something great for the world at the same time? She’s the First is a nonprofit that sends girls to school in low-income countries so that they can become the first in their families to graduate from high school. From October 11 to November 1 this year the organization is having a tie-dye cupcake bake-off, and students around the world will be participating in cupcake bake sales to sponsor girls’ education. For more information on how to get involved, check out their Facebook page and follow them @shesthefirst on Twitter and Instagram.
That made me hungry. Good thing Nationals sent us a stack of BOGO Chipotle coupons for all of our study break needs. Jealous? Hungry? Chipotle loves having contests and giveaways, so follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and never miss an opportunity for free burrito bliss.
Speaking of free things, Nationals also hooked us up with Michaels coupons for Martha Stewart crafts! The holiday season is right around the corner (maybe that’s a stretch, but it’s October so just let me have this) and Martha Stewart has everything you need to become a pumpkin-decorating, gift-making theme party hostess with the mostest. Check out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and of course Pinterest for crafty inspiration.
Fall is a beautiful and festive time, but inevitably that crisp cold weather I love so much betrays me and I get sick. But it’s ok because the wonderful world of modern medicine has blessed us with Cold-Eeze, the fast-melting tablets that everyone and their mother is using for cold relief. Slip some into your tote bag now (MZ Wallace makes a great one – follow them here, here, and here) and you won’t regret it later when your hacking cough threatens to derail your physics lecture.
If you’re sick, odds are you’re also drinking buckets of tea every day. Pro tip: as an alternative to sugar or honey, try putting Zing zero calorie Stevia sweetener in your tea for all of the sweet with none of the guilt. Click here and here for more information on this natural sweetener.
If a cold has got you saying “I can’t even,” Actually She Can is here to remind you that actually, you can! The nonprofit is all about empowering women to be strong, smart, and driven. Right now you can enter their “Actually 500 Words Can” writing contest for a chance to win $10,000 cash (yeah, actually). All you have to do is tell an original and inspiring story in 500 words or less. So grab yourself a 5-hour Energy or two and get to it!
Speaking of inspiration, we’re getting inspired by My Social Canvas, a NYC-based social enterprise fashion brand that brings together students and emerging designers to create “collections for a cause.” The organization produces and sells student designs to benefit various other nonprofits. For more information (and to get involved!), click here, here, here, and here. Most recently, My Social Canvas’ #Design4HerEducation included a panel of high profile judges in fashion, entertainment, and philanthropy, including Christy Turlington Burns, supermodel and Founder of Every Mother Counts, fashion icon and UNICEF Ambassador, Dayle Haddon, Desiree Gruber, Producer for the hit show Project Runway, Anne Fulenwider, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire Magazine, and Erin Flaherty Beauty & Health Director of Marie Claire, Gossip Girl actress and women’s advocate Kelly Rutherford, and fashion designer Catherine Malandrino.
Another thing that’s grabbing our attention right now is the Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project. The organization aims to accelerate progress for girls and women around the world, taking steps toward fulfilling the 1995 UN Conference on Women’s Platform For Action that called for the “full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social, and cultural life.” To get involved, click here.
What would a Her Campus back to school survival kit be without some killer beauty products? One thing I can’t get enough of right now is TRESemmé sea salt wave creation spray (it also comes in foam!). You just spray it on damp hair, scrunch, and voilà — beachy mermaid waves. It works miracles for that sometimes frustrating hair type that’s not quite straight and not quite curly, and it’s especially useful in dry fall weather, when hair can tend to go flat.
Another life saver in our survival kits this fall is Palmer’s cocoa butter moisture swivel stick. We’re kissing chapped lips goodbye (pun intended). We’re also saying goodbye to smudged, worn-off eye makeup with NYC “city proof” 24-hour eye primer.
The last thing in our back to school survival kit? Books, of course! This semester, we’re reading for fun. If you loved Gone Girl, check out We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. Sci fi / romance more your speed? Check out David Levithan’s Every Day. In Every Day readers meet A, a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life. It’s all fine until A meets Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone to love — day in, day out, day after day. Every Day is a New York Times bestseller by author David Levithan.