Recently, Colombian actress Sofía Vergara became the highest-paid actress in the world in 2020. She uses her net worth and her name to help other women succeed and make their dreams come true.
The founders empowering their fellow entrepreneurs are truly impressive, and that’s exactly what the Modern Family star is doing with her underwear subscription company EBY, whose initials stand for Empowered By You.
Vergara is teaming up with her business partner, Renata M. Black, to deliver beautiful panties every month. The actress joined forces with the empowered founder of the Seven Bar Foundation, and together they created feminine undergarments with a purpose. 10% of the proceeds go to the Seven Bar Foundation, which provides microfinance to underprivileged female entrepreneurs.
The EBY co-founder told A Plus, “With the underwear you wear, 10% of our net sales go to empowering women to overcome poverty and do business through microfinance.”
Renata’s Journey empowering women began in 2006 when she decided to travel around the world for a year as a volunteer. That brought her to India right after the tsunami, and as she was cleaning the villages, a woman came up to her and said, “Hey, I don’t want your money, can you teach me how to do it?”
Renata and Sofía used the insights provided by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and pioneer of microfinance. Yunus believed that credit was a fundamental human right, so he set out to help people escape poverty by establishing a bank that provides affordable loans to build small businesses.
Since then, its banking model has been replicated in more than 100 countries around the world. Now it is being applied to a new space: underwear for women.
After studying this topic, Renata returned to India, where she spent the next two years teaching microfinance to women. Now, Renata and Sofía help increase the number of women entrepreneurs around the world.
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Some testimonials about EBY
Blanca from Nicaragua was suffering from serious problems of domestic violence. However, she found a way out of this situation in microfinance with a small loan. Then she started her rocking chair business, helped by her son, and now they have the most beautiful jungle rocking spot in their country. Since then, she has been able to get out of a very abusive relationship.
These women are from all over the world and have different needs. Vergara told Entrepreneur: “I want to be able to give women tools so that they can start their own business as a way out of poverty. There is nothing sexier than being your own boss.”
Today when you open your box of EBY underwear, know that you are joined with an empowering group of women who truly gave panties a whole new purpose.
“We are giving them that little push. We are empowering them to take control of their lives, make money, and help themselves.” Sofia told Inc.