My mother-daughter business trip with India

This post is sponsored by the Dove Self-Esteem Project

I went to Mom 2.0 Summit last month, which is a conference for influencers in the parenting space. It’s my favorite conference every year and this year I decided to take India with me. She’s always been curious about the conferences I attend, and as she’s getting older I thought it could be inspiring for her to see so many female entrepreneurs. So she attended as an “intern” and helped out where she could. She attended some of the sessions but also just enjoyed tooling around the hotel on her own.

Dove was once again the key sponsor, and it’s a brand India is familiar with because earlier this year, we took part in the #HourWithHer, a toolkit for talking about confidence and self-esteem with young women. India and I spent an hour using their resources and helping India to flip the script on a situation where she had lacked confidence. They had these resources available at Mom 2.0 as well as a beauty bar, which India took full advantage of.

While there we got to watch the latest film from Dove‘s Real Beauty Productions, produced by Shonda Rhimes. It’s called “An Hour With Her and it features Chelsea Harris, who was mentored through the Dove Self-Esteem Project ten years ago. She carries foward what she learned, and the impact it had on her life, as she mentor s16-year-old aspiring actress Caralyn Singleterry. Caralyn is struggling to overcome negative feelings around her appearance. It’s a really powerful story about the impact of mentorship with young women and Caralyn’s struggle is so resonant.

India and I also had the chance to attend the Iris Awads together. It was fun to get dressed up and go to a fancy event with her. I was up for an award and didn’t win, and I actually was really grateful for an opportunity to let her see me lose gracefully and to have her witness how we were all sincerely cheering each other on. I’m so grateful for the support and encouragement of my friends in the blogging community and I loved having India there to bear witness to this kind of female friendship.

I think she left empowered, excited, and ready to be her own boss-lady.