Whole World Baby

Around my daughter’s first birthday I had a revelation about gifts for babies and kids. I remembered that when she was born we’d been generously gifted with every baby gift known to man. We were deeply touched but very overwhelmed with the sheer number of toys, blankets and gadgets. They quickly filled up our apartment and we felt guilty every time we realized we had to give away a gift because we’d never use it or because we’d been gifted three others exactly the same. I thought about all the times I’d run out to buy a unique baby gift for some child’s birthday and ended up with some plastic toy I knew would eventually end up in a land fill. I tried to be eco friendly, I really did it was either so darn cute or I was running so darn late.

A few days before my daughter’s party it dawned on me that we did not need one other thing in our house that rattled, rolled or rocked. I wanted her day to be special but also about a lot more than getting presents. I wanted it to be a day when all the other kids and parents could come and celebrate her life without rushing around to buy a gift we didn’t really need and might never use. I thought of the values I wanted to share with my daughter and made a decision. I invited everyone to donate to their favorite charity in her name and if they absolutely insisted on bringing a gift then it would have to be a homemade gift. It turned into a wonderful day that allowed people to make their donations from the comfort of their own home. One mother, Mary actually did bring a gift but it was that gift that taught me a valuable lesson.

Mary brought a beautiful little bracelet that had been hand crafted by a local child in order to raise money for some school supplies. It was a simple, unique baby gift that would keep on giving far beyond this day. It inspired me to find more socially conscious gifts to give for every occasion. I began to search for things like socially conscious clothing, green toddler gifts and socially responsible gifts online. A whole world opened up to me and I found hundreds of companies doing the right thing. So many people don’t realize that we don’t have to be addicted to shopping and when we do consume we can do so responsibly with the click of a button. We can even avert green house emissions by saving ourselves the car trip.

Whole World Baby is helping Kids all over the World by producing and promoting our eco-friendly headscarves for babies, kids and moms. We endearingly refer to our trendy headscarves for babies as WWooBies™.

If you would like to help us help kids all over the world, tell your friends (especially Moms) about our Website, our Mission and our WWooBies™.

25% of our profits go directly to nonprofit organizations serving endangered children around the World.

To all the momprenuers and greenies out there! As many of you know we market our business, Whole World Baby as Eco-friendly. I’ve got to say, there is a hectic balance between practicality and Eco-friendliness that has been quite a struggle and on a couple of occasions even compromised.

What I’m talking about is the reality of being green. We started out with our best intentions of being as green as we possibly could. Our fabrics are remnants, we drive locally to pick up and reduce landfill waste, our organics are made in USA instead of receiving from overseas, communicate 90% of the time electronically to reduce transportation and for convenience. Our mailers were going to be made out of left over junk mail we collected from family and friends, our labels were going to be left over reused cardboard we cut ourselves, our biz cards were home printed and cut using old manila folders and the label on the headscarves were going to be non toxic stamped images.

Well? Honestly? We compromised, our values were revealed as we started to make business decisions affected by branding and image, and what will “sell” and what’s “expected”. Our nerve for being “way out there” conflicted with being fashionable. We needed to sell our product if we wanted to help our children’s aid partners, right? The stamping idea came out sloppy looking and inconsistent, who would buy that? The business cards looked like we were being cheap NOT eco friendly, and they took a lot of time to make, so we settled for professionally printed cards on recycled card stock. The mailers made out of junk mail ended up looking like trash and not worthy of the headscarves for babies that are priced a little more than normal to include a bit for charitable giving. Can you image a package arriving looking like rolled up trash? A customer might throw it away! We tried to make it look better, but had to keep adding material to it, which defeated the purpose of minimal packaging. So we decided recycled paper envelopes were good enough. How could we raise money for charities if no one wants to buy the head scarves because our image doesn’t meet expectations!!  Are we making decisions for the right reasons or are we so immersed in this ideological and aesthetic driven paradigm that we crush our best intentions out of our need to sell?

Where we have been very clever and successful was with the headscarf’s tag. Each tag is made from 100% post consumed paper. The loop that attaches the tag to the headscarves is a tassel. Once untied the tag with tassel can be used as a bookmark, therefore no trash! We also use just about every inch of fabric we can, even small scraps are combined with other fabrics to make unique and charming “one of a kind” scarves you can find only at our retail partner shops. So we are very creative in our green efforts at every opportunity we can. The balance is always a challenge, but I think when all is said and done, we’ve done a pretty good job making some conscientious compromises.

Thoughts? Ideas? Love to hear some of your ideas.

It is finally nearing midnight on International Peace Day 2009. Another year passes and still 2,500,000 people of Darfur are displaced as the effects of a genocide that has claimed 400,000 lives ripples out. I have been on a 1000 calorie fast in honor of this day and the heroic struggle of all those in the refugee camps. Countless others have been on a much longer and much more difficult fast as they take a stand for those effected by genocide. I am still nursing and tried to do a water fast only all day but found myself faint and agitated.

These are not good adjectives for the mother of a toddler. It was one day AND I had a choice. I remembered all the beautiful mothers and children I’d met in the refugee camps three years ago who still have no choice about their caloric intake. I felt grateful and ashamed all at once. I salute all those at Stop Genocide Now who carry an enormous work load on a daily basis year after year for no compensation other than the knowing it is the right thing to do. I salute them because they keep the torch of hope burning for our friends in Darfur when others of us falter because we can’t seem to juggle life, work and family while staying as active as we once were. I salute them because they remind us that it is One World which is in all our hands and that we can still do something even if it’s not as much as we think we should.

I have spent the better part of this year, the last four really writing and producing a documentary about peace and nonviolence.  We have a committed team of volunteers dedicated to creating lasting change in the world.

Our mission is to redefine what peace means in today’s world. Where peace once stood for the absence of conflict we are suggesting it really means the presence of the tools to deal with conflict. Conflict is a part of life and we need to teach our children that simple truth. It’s time we stop fearing, loathing and hiding from conflict and instead learn to deal with it in constructive ways .

Change is Gonna Come

I wish they called this day International Nonviolent Conflict Resolution Day; it feels much more possible. Click Here to view the trailer for Change Is Gonna Come directed by Tasha Oldham.

I was thinking about headscarves this morning as I read some blogs about Whole World Baby. It seems that they have so often been a symbol of division. They have seemed to identify us as different from each other. We see someone in a headscarf and think, “Oh, she’s Indian, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Russian Orthodox, Hindu, Eastern European, African, a fashion model or even perhaps bravely battling cancer.” How has this simple fashion accessory come to tear us apart as we reduce the wearer to a mere label?

Scarves have been worn by Christian women in Medieval times, sports fans all the time and on the Prairies of America at one time. They have been part of traditional Armenian, Norwegian and Chinese fashion. They’ve been banned, fought over and forced on some women. They have done equal time in the fields and on the runways. They’ve been a sign of pride, respect, social distinction, culture, religious beliefs and even ridicule.

Isn’t it time that we decide to use this simple accessory as a sign of our togetherness rather than our separateness. To honor all traditions and remember that at some point all of our ancestors wore some sort of headscarf. Shouldn’t it allow us to start conversations about our unique histories rather than stop conversations in our modern world? If this little piece of fabric is going to have so much power, shouldn’t it be to bring us together?

These are the questions we asked ourselves as we created Whole World Baby and our intention has always been to be a part of the answer.

Fashion with Compassion…. Wrap Your Head Around It!

When you purchase a WWooBie you’re making more than a Fashion Statement for your Baby. You’re showing Support for Children around the Whole World… its in your hands!

WholeWorldBaby donates 25% of our proceeds to charities that support children causes all over the world. WholeWorldBaby is able to support 9 world class charities by selling our unique line of organic, remnant and recycled baby head wraps called WWooBies. We encourage you to visit our WWooBie store to view our fashionable line of unique baby gifts for girls and boys.