News — Black Mom
Black in Business: Formerly Incarcerated Mom Wins $10,000 Grant From Beyoncé For Children’s Underwear Line
Beyoncé is a talented singer, mother, and businesswoman who is highly visible in the entertainment world, and blessing small businesses with $10,000 grants during the pandemic. The BeyGOOD Black-Owned Small Business Impact Fund has had a significant impact on small business owners.
BeyGood partnered with the NAACP to help business owners like Yolanda Perkins. She’s one of the fortunate business owners who received one of the grants. Undies by BlendiTone celebrates diversity by offering characters who may be relatable to youth who would like to wear undergarments who look more like them.
According to Black News, Perkins, a mother, noticed that there was a lack of diversity in the undergarments industry when she went on shopping trips with her children in major retail stores. Her idea to start Undies by BlendiTone was sparked in 2019. At that time, her 6-year-old daughter’s comment made her take notice.
“She said ‘I want something that looks like me on it. None of these characters look me,” and she was right,” Perkins stated.
The former inmate who embraced the liberation of becoming self-employed decided to take big leaps of faith. After conducting market research, she reportedly tested underwear sales through Facebook and Instagram. Perkins mentioned that she was surprised how quickly she sold out. Her start-up company’s success created more need for investment in production and marketing.
“All you have to do is believe AND take the first step. So glad that I didn’t give up on myself. The lessons I have learned over the years are the tools and resources I am using to build my brand,” Perkins said on Undies by BlendiTone’s Facebook page. “I hope my story continue(s) to encourage and inspire others to never give up!”
Black Development: 10-Yr-Old Boy Whose Mom Gifted Him $60 In Gamestop Stock For Kwanzaa Makes Thousands After Surge
In 2019, Jaydyn Carr’s mom, Nina, gave him 10 GameStop shares that cost $6 apiece as a Kwanzaa gift. At the time, he was only eight years old. Fast forward to 2021, Jaydyn, 10, is in the middle of a stock surge.
Share prices of GameStop tumbled following bets placed by Citron Research and Melvin Capital that the gaming company will collapse but a group of social media users rallied and skyrocketed the prices of the struggling company from single to triple digits at the blindside of Wall Street.
As a result, GameStop stock rocketed from below $20 earlier this month to more than $400 Thursday. Amidst the GameStop trading frenzy, Jaydyn is reeling from excitement after selling his shares for about $3,200 on Wednesday, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
“My phone was going off, because I have GameStop on my watch list,” Jaydyn’s mother Nina said of watching prices skyrocket. “I was trying to explain to him that this was unusual, I asked him ‘Do you want to stay or sell?'”
According to Nina, she has been teaching Jaydyn about trading. “Any time I learn something, I show him as well,” she said. “I wanted to pass on the knowledge I have now because I learned it late in life. I want to give him a step up.”
Commenting on how they plan to use the money, Nina said $2,000 of the funds will be kept in Jaydyn’s savings account while using the $1,000 for more investment. “I have to train him to let him know you can’t just buy anything, you have to read the charts,” Nina said.
Jaydyn has expressed more interest in trading after his big win. He is reportedly considering investing in Roblox, an online game hub set to make its market debut.
Meanwhile, online trading platform Robinhood has restricted trading in GameStop due to the rabid buying by small investors, thegrio reports. Per the restrictions announced, investors would only be able to sell their positions and not open new ones in some cases, and Robinhood will try to slow the amount of trading using borrowed money, thegrio added.
Also, Robinhood noted that trading in stocks such as AMC Entertainment, Bed Bath & Beyond, Blackberry, Nokia, Express Inc., Koss Corp. and Naked Brand Group would be affected by the latest restrictions.
Feature News: The Mom Who Gave Birth While Intubated With Covid-19
When two lives are at stake and it involves a baby and a mother, the tendency is for the mother to want her baby saved over her life. Monique Jones took that bittersweet decision in early September when she was intubated, and her baby girl’s life hung in the balance. The nurse who walked her through the process is now a godmother to her patient’s child.
Jones was brought in when she reported having shortness of breath and some chills. She did not link it to the novel coronavirus because she is one person who adheres to all the safety protocols.
She washes her hands regularly, uses a face mask and stays indoors except when she needs to pick up groceries from the supermarket. Sadly, according to Good Morning America (GMA), the mother of two tested positive for COVID-19 while she was pregnant.
An adamant Jones did not want to be placed on a ventilator, neither did she want to have a C-section performed on her. “It was possible that I wouldn’t live — that’s all I was thinking,” said Jones. “They asked me if it was possible to take my baby out. At first, I told them no, but I wasn’t getting any better.”
Jones was scared but her nurse, Caitlyn Obrock, gave her the assurance that all will be well with them especially her baby if she gives them the go-ahead. “She was scared,” nurse Obrock recalled to GMA. “I was very invested in her, hoping and praying for a good outcome.”
Doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis had to perform the early C-section to save her daughter, Zamyrah Prewitt’s life. Baby Prewitt arrived on September 28, weighing 2 pounds, 5 ounces at 29 weeks and was immediately rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit where she spent the first two months of her life, WVLT reported.
The new mother was moved in October after she woke up from her intubation to a rehab clinic to work on her occupational, speech and physical therapy. As Jones was working hard to get better for the much-awaited reunion with her baby before Christmas, Obrock raised $2000 in gifts for the family and organized a baby shower for her because she empathized with her.
“The way she started out motherhood with this baby was unfair and we wanted her to know how special and loved she is,” Obrock said. “She’s a miracle,” she added. “Her and her baby.”
A Christmas miracle did happen and Jones and Zamyrah were home in time for Christmas. According to Jones, she made it out of the hospital because she felt as though she was fighting for her family and not herself.
She is grateful to her nuclear family for standing by her through it all and even more appreciative of Obrock for the extra love shown her. Right after getting home, Jones asked her nurse to be her baby’s godmother and invited her to join her extended family, People reported.