Meet Brooke & JoJo Friedman | Co-Founders of SheStyles

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brooke & JoJo Friedman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brooke & JoJo, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
During the early days of the pandemic, we decided it would be a good time to clean out our closets and donate our clothing. Prior to this, the older of us (Brooke) liked to wear outfits that were baggy, sporty, and kind of boyish in appearance. After gathering a pile of her clothes, we wondered, “how many girls would actually want to wear this stuff?” We felt bad for the person who was going to receive our trash bag full of random clothes, and this spurred a conversation about the shortcomings of the clothing donation process, which we realized was rooted in the convenience of the donor and largely ignored the experience of the recipient.

We believed that girls who didn’t have access to new clothes still deserved the dignity of choosing how they would like to dress, so we started a nonprofit organization called SheStyles, aiming to flip the entire process on its head. To get things going, we began collecting gently used, stylish clothes from our community and came up with the idea of distributing them through free pop-up shopping experiences.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Through our organization, SheStyles, we provide girls in underserved communities with stylish clothing options at no cost, distributed in a way that feels personalized and elevated. Our clothes look new and come from a wide variety of trendy brands, giving girls access to choices that authentically represent them. While there are various organizations around Los Angeles that collect and provide clothing for communities facing hardship, it’s often distributed in a way that feels anonymous and impersonal — so we believed there was room for improvement.

We collect clothing, but that’s just the beginning of our approach to donation and distribution. We also sort, clean, tag, and hang. At the events, our team of “SheStylists” helps the girls select and style outfits from hundreds of options displayed across numerous clothing racks, and to make the pop-ups feel even more like true boutiques, we have a real checkout experience with branded shopping bags and makeup samples. Furthermore, every piece of clothing has a branded SheStyles hangtag, which is like our own seal of approval. It means that our team has carefully curated that particular piece of clothing or outfit, and we have vetted it in terms of quality control and stylish appeal. Being in high school ourselves, we know that wearing clothes that ‘feel right’ is so important to girls’ self-esteem.

Since that very first pop-up shop at the Saban Community Clinic in 2022, we’ve learned so much. We’ve learned how to better prepare by getting to know more about our partner communities in advance, and we’ve learned the importance of asking questions. Almost 2 years later, alongside a team of volunteers from our high school, we’ve hosted 5 additional pop-ups across Los Angeles in partnership with various nonprofits that support girls and young women in need.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well first off, we’re total foodies so we have a long list of places to eat! Our all-time favorite restaurant is Din Tai Fung. You can go to the original location outside LA for a true authentic experience, but we love going to the one in Century City. There’s usually a long wait, so we suggest putting your name down and killing some time by exploring all of the amazing stores around the mall. We also love Sawtelle for its diverse food scene and overall vibe. We’re obsessed with boba (and there are tons of boba places to choose from), but we’re partial to ShareTea in Westwood. And while you’re there, head over to In-N-Out and then Diddy Riese for cookies — if you’re not in a food coma yet!

There are tons of farmers markets all around Los Angeles, and our favorite one is the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. Another fun place with lots of great food options is Grand Central Market in Downtown LA, which has been there for decades. Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice is lined with great restaurants and stores that we would definitely recommend visiting (we like thrifting, and there are some great shops in that area as well). We love the beach, surfing, and watching sunsets, so if you travel to Malibu, the beaches are amazing and you can visit the Malibu Country Mart and the Malibu Pier for shopping, people watching, and even MORE food.

Finally, no trip to LA would be complete without a visit to either Six Flags Magic Mountain or Disneyland. If you’re an outdoors person, there are lots of hikes around the city, and some of our favorites are the Will Rogers hike and the Hollywood Sign hike. You can also check out the myriad of outdoor concert venues such as the Hollywood Bowl or the Greek Theater if you’re a live music fan. Lastly, there are also so many sports teams here, and we love going to Dodger Stadium, which is iconic and THE BEST place to watch a baseball game.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’d like to dedicate our shoutout to our mom, who bought into our mission from day one and supported us along every step of the way. She’s been there to help us through paperwork, logistics, partner outreach, event planning, and more. We really couldn’t have done it without her! Also, shoutout to the Saban Community Clinic. They believed in our idea long before we had any experience to show for it, partnering with us on our very first pop-up and giving us the opportunity to serve their community. Our process was very experimental at the time, but they took a chance on us.

Website: https://www.shestyles.org/

Instagram: @shestylesofficial