Welcome back to our Women’s History Month Series! We are so excited to be back highlighting yet another incredible woman and her inspiring journey in empowerment through community.

In case you missed our “Empowerment Through Literacy” highlight from last week, our goal for this month is to highlight the various ways that women can inspire and empower each other through diverse forms of empowerment! 

This week, we are highlighting Andi Kay, founder of Bloom Foundation — a 501c3 organization helping teen girls overcome bullying and build emotional resilience and bloom into confidence as leaders. Having gone through bullying myself, her commitment to building a stronger, more compassionate community serves as an inspiration to us all, reminding us that through empathy and support, we can overcome even the greatest challenges.

Words To Describe Andi Kay 

Resilient 

In just the 6th grade, Andi became a victim of bullying for the first time and later experienced it again in college. It was an incredibly confusing and hard experience for her, as it would be for anyone. Instead of being a victim of these hardships, Andi was resilient in taking it upon herself to address the lack of resources she had when she experienced cyberbullying, so the next generation of teen girls didn’t have to. 

Role Model 

Andi refused to let negativity define her and instead uses her experience to spread positivity and advocate for kindness in the digital world. Andi embodies what it means to be a role model through showing by example that they too can overcome adversity and thrive with the proper support, community, and resources. From emotional resilience to instilling confidence, Andi is a leader to young women by equipping them with the proper resources to face and overcome the same hardships she experienced. 

Community-Builder

A core focus within the Bloom Foundation is to equip and empower teenage girls through community. Andi channeled her strength and empathy into creating a supportive community championing young girls to grow through what they go through. She founded a safe space where girls can come together to share their stories, receive guidance on how to navigate their emotions, and bloom into confident, empathetic leaders. Aside from speaking engagements at schools and events, Andi cultivates meaningful communities through her podcast, in-person pop-up events, school clubs, and local partnerships.

Andi’s Journey and Milestones 

Andi’s journey first began when she experienced cyberbullying in 6th grade. At the time, there were very few resources that fostered emotional resilience in children when faced with these issues or received the proper help needed. 

Andi’s mission was created based on filling the gap in resources needed to deal with cyberbullying, and to provide the resources for teenage girls that she knows her younger self would have benefitted from. 

Now, from when Bloom was founded in 2018 to the present day, Andi has achieved so many amazing milestones to be proud of, all of which have helped teenage girls cope with and overcome bullying by building emotional resilience so they can bloom into confident young women. 

Here are some of the highlights and milestones Andi has achieved since founding the Bloom Foundation: 

• 2000 girls reached by Bloom’s curriculum
• 10+ local partnerships 
• Three consecutive years of 5+ partners 
• 15 speaking engagements 
• 100+ bloom sessions completed 
• 100+ bloom session graduates 
• Recipient of several grants, including grants from the Sun Family Foundation and The Samueli Foundation

How Andi Empowers Through Community 

As someone whose main focus of their business is to empower through community, Andi has cultivated a safe and inspiring community for young teenage girls to build emotional resilience and confidence through various branches, both on and offline! 

Andi’s creativity in finding ways to empower through community is not only impressive, but fun and engaging! While Bloom Foundation offers educational curriculums and speaking engagements that are taught in schools and provided by their local partners, Andi has ventured into creating empowering community-building events and resources that are fun, approachable, and brings girls together. 

🌷 Ambassador Program 

What better way to create and expand a community than by giving the girls who are a part of the Bloom Foundation the opportunity to become community leaders? The Bloom Foundation’s Ambassoador Program does just that, recruiting teenage girls and young women to be ambassadors who host workshops, meet-ups, and journal pop-ups in their own towns! Not only do they get to experience the empowerment of being a leader in their community that Bloom teaches, but they also expand Bloom’s reach across the country! 

💐 Journal Pop-Ups 

Bloom Foundation Journal Pop-Ups have been hosted all across the country by Bloom Ambassadors and in collaboration with Bloom’s partners! These events are community-based, where teen girls and young women gather together to meet other Bloom members and work through the How To Bloom Journal (designed by yours truly!), a guide book to the Bloom Foundation program, “designed to help girls and women navigate the challenges of growing up and develop inner strength and confidence.”

These pop-ups are a safe space to meet like-minded individuals and be empowered by the supportive community Andi has cultivated with Bloom. 

🌸 How to Bloom Podcast 

The How to Bloom podcast is a new addition to Bloom’s various resources for young women and teen girls who have experienced cyber-bullying, and are needing support through an online community.

How to Bloom is hosted by Andi, and is a space where listeners, whether they’ve been bullied or not, can learn how to “grow through what they go through” through empowering coping mechanisms. Each episode features a conversation with a guest who shares their personal journey of overcoming bullying and how they used their experiences to create something meaningful and impactful. 

🌹 Become a Bloom Club Member! 

A new project that is in the works for Bloom, Bloom Club is an online space where members can be empowered through community! Bloom Club is a digital platform that offers various spaces to learn, socialize and share with the community all things empowerment and emotional resilience. 

This includes:

• Offerings from the How To Bloom curriculum
• Tips and tricks from in-house therapists and fellow members
• Message boards where you can share your “rose, thorn and buds”, daily gratitudes, and fill out journal prompts! 

If meeting and socializing in person feels a bit too much, this online platform that is coming soon is the perfect in-between safe space to find empowerment through community! 

Our Takeaway 

Andi’s work with the Bloom Foundation is a beautiful example of the power of finding and creating community. 

Sometimes, it’s not enough to have the resources to overcome something when you’re on your own. True healing and growth can come from having the proper resources and guides to overcome hardships, while also being supported by a community which empowers and uplifts each other. 

As women, we are stronger and more resilient when we come together, and feel empowered through finding community.

🌸 If there’s one more thing we can learn from Andi’s stroy, it’s that there is great strength and healing in becoming what you needed when you were younger, and offering that support to others. That is how you can change the world! 

Seeing Andi’s vision come to life and create such an amazing community of strong, emotionally resilient and wise young women and girls has been nothing short of amazing. 

I am so proud to have been a part of something that is shaping and helping the next generation of women for the better. 

If you’d like to stay up to date with Andi and the Bloom Foundation, be sure to follow her on Instagram, subscribe to her podcast “How To Bloom”, and check out Bloom Foundation’s website to be a part of the movement!