Rebel Girl: Empowers girls to be rebels
Hollie Fraser, ideaXme literature reading and writing ambassador interviews Francesca Cavallo, co-author of Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls and co-founder of Timbuktu Labs.
This is an incredible human story, moreover, it’s a “how to” case study of powerful methodology and strategy used to launch a successful global campaign in order to win world-wide public support for a business that moves the human story forward.
Resilience and determination of 2 rebel girls
It is a story of the determination and resilience of two women, who armed with a tiny budget and seemingly insurmountable barriers, including the “male prejudice of Silicon Valley”, created a world-wide phenomenon.
Discover how Francesca and her co-author and co-founder empowered themselves and how in turn they have empowered young girls across the planet.
About Francesca:
Francesca Cavallo is an Italian writer and entrepreneur. She is co-author, with Elena Favilli, of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a New York Times bestseller which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and broken all crowd funding records.
Francesca is also co-founder, with Elena Favilli, of Timbuktu Labs and has created 13 successful mobile apps and games for children, 6 interactive picture books, 4 award-winning theatre plays, and an International Festival to promote entrepreneurship.
The books which now have two volumes, aim to inspire young girls with stories of great women, from Elizabeth I to Serena Williams.
On 28 February 2018, Rebel Girls 2 was launched. Similar to Rebels Girls 1, it is a collection of bedtime stories about women who changed the world. The second volume features the life stories of famous contemporary names such as German chancellor Angela Merkel and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling, as well as historic figures including Dutch exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari and Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls began as a Kickstarter in 2016. Co- authors Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli had the goal of raising $40,000 to print 1,000 copies. Neither had experience of publishing books. It was the first time that either party had shipped anything physical.
To their surprise, Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls broke all fundraising records raising more than $600,000 and from 2016-2017 went on to sell more than 1 million copies around the world in 36 languages. In 2019, the second volume together with the first brought that figure to more than 4 million.
Inspiration: Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls
Both co-authors had moved to work in Silicon Valley in the hope that it would be an open and forward thinking environment in which to work. However, they had found the opposite in trying to work with men there. Favilli consequently wrote an article about sexism in the tech industry, Silicon Valley, for the Guardian and was subsequently attacked online. The vitriolic response made them more determined to do something about the imbalance “it pushed me even more to think that our next project should target girls and give them a strong, empowering message”.
The appeal of speaking to a Rebel Girl
I wanted to interview Francesca to investigate how an idea can grow into a force that changes the world. Moreover, to discover the processes and campaigns that succeed in successfully igniting public imagination to the extent that they attract wide spread participation from people to bring an idea to life.
More information: Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls.
If you enjoyed this interview, you’ll love Hollie Fraser’s interview The Power that Moves Books.
Hollie Fraser is a Creative Director working in PR and advertising. She’s the founder of Books on the Move: a world-wide book sharing initiative that started life in London in 2012 as Books on the Underground, and is now on public transport systems across the world.
Credits: Hollie Fraser, ideaXme reading, writing and literature ambassador interview video, text, and audio
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