Shine With Her: Wahine Rising Spotlight

Jun 4

Shine With Her is non-profit foundation based here on Kaua’i. Founded by professional surferLeila Hurst, they’re dedicated to helping girls build confidence, self worth, & positive lifestyle skills so they can thrive in society.

So many of the goals and beliefs of Shine With Her Foundation are similar to that of my Wahine Rising mission. It’s so exciting to see a young generation of wahine whose values align so closely with mine!

Their goal is to transform and brighten communities through empowering and inspiring girls to be leaders. Just like Wahine Rising, they value freedom, love, joy, strength, & confidence.

The Wahine Made Market & Festival

The 1st Annual Wahine Made is a market & mini-festival open to the public for Wahine entrepreneurs & artists to showcase their business & sell their Wahine-made products to the community.

Proceeds from this festival will be donated to Shine With Her!

I’m so elated and honored to be a part of this event on Saturday, June 19th. To celebrate this coming event, I asked Leila, founder of Shine With Her, a few questions about her organization.

1. What does Wahine Rising mean to you?

I absolutely love these words. Wahine Rising to me means strength, courage, believing in yourself, believing in others & supporting each other.

I always felt like I wanted to do more for young girls. I personally struggled so much with my self confidence as a young teenager & always felt like there needed to be more for young women. I wanted to create a day for young women to be free of insecurities and self criticism.

So! I brought in poets, group therapists, surfing, activities, dream boards, haku lei making workshops - all to make these young girls feel like QUEENS! I love it, we have so much fun and at the end of the day everyone is smiling.

3. How does it feel to have your first official donation and the support of the Wahine Made Festival behind you?

It’s wild to have my first donation to Shine With Her. The support from the Wahine Made Festival is awesome. Erin is so kind & is working so hard to make all of this possible. It takes a lot to start a business or a nonprofit, so when people start believing in you it feels so good!

I can’t wait to have an amazing Shine With Her event this year thanks to Wahine Made. I am so incredibly grateful!!!