Meet the Inspiring Women Behind the Fashion Mamas Cause Committee

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Photo: Rach Dodson

From leading social justice campaigns to our various activism efforts, Fashion Mamas has always been passionate about paying it forward and using our influential voices for change. We understand how fortunate we are to have this platform to speak for those who cannot, and we’ll never take this privilege for granted. This is why we’ve created the official Fashion Mamas Cause Committee — our new advisory board comprised of five supportive Fashion Mamas members who will lead our charitable and cause-related initiatives, which we plan to bring more into the fold of our FM events in 2020 and beyond.

Our goal is to redefine what being aspirational means by being of service to others. We want to inspire our members and fans to give back in a variety of ways to a variety of causes, ranging from women's rights to immigration rights to diversity and inclusion to poverty to mental health to education to climate change.

We’re honored to introduce our first five FMCC advisors. Get to know them below, and keep your eyes peeled as we announce future cause-driven events.

PRISCILLA VEGA

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Name and title: Priscilla Vega, Founder of PR Vega

What are the names and ages of your little ones?

Ina - 7 years old, and Ozzy - 3 years old

What are some of the many hats that you wear, career-wise?

Founder of PR Vega, a PR agency focused on women-owned brands. Board member for Carry the Future, a non-profit committed to providing critical aid for refugee families.

What are some of the causes that you are most passionate about and why?

I tend to support causes driven towards supporting families because this is where I am in life. Prior to becoming a mother, I was a volunteer for the Humane Society and MusicCares since I worked in the music industry and considered myself the world's #1 dog mom. Now I'm a mother of fur babies and human babies so my current cause list consists of; Carry the Future (supporting refugee families), Every Mother Counts (supporting maternal health), and Giveback Homes (supporting building safe homes for deserving families). 

What is your earliest memory of giving back or learning about compassion?

Losing my great grandmother was devastating to our entire family. I remember dreading the anniversary of her death when I was 11 years old not knowing how we would all approach this day, but instead, my family celebrated by making meals for those in need. We packaged them up as a family and distributed them throughout Skid Row. This memory was burned into my soul. Not only as a lesson of giving but I saw children who looked like me and women who looked like my mother and I felt so deeply connected to everyone. I learned to honor those we love by doing things that would make them proud. I come from a long line of givers so giving is something I am committed to doing for the rest of my life. 

What are some practices or activities you share with your children to encourage paying it forward?

Kindness is the backbone of our family. We are constantly talking about doing the right thing and community and privilege. The kids know right from wrong because it is part of our core values to have these important candid discussions with them. We are very vocal about the things that make us proud and giving, compassion and caring for community is our very top priority. 

Besides joining FMCC, do you have any exciting projects coming up that you'd like to share?

Oh, I'm always brewing something up. I have the extreme pleasure of guiding give back campaigns for all my clients. There's always an opportunity to give in a creative way. I'm currently working on three holiday campaigns and brainstorming a handful more. Stay tuned!

Felicia La Tour

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Name and title: Felicia La Tour, makeup artist and founder of MindfulFee

What are the names and ages of your little ones?

Peace, 5, and Zen, 10 months

What are some of the many hats that you wear, career-wise?

Makeup artist, content creator, women’s empowerment advocate, small business owner of MindfulFee, creative director, and public speaker.

What are some of the causes that you are most passionate about and why?

Women’s empowerment advocate and mental health are two causes I am passionate about [because] I love speaking life into women. I love building women up around me and helping them see their unique superpowers, especially [other] mothers. We tend to think we lost our magic when in reality, having babies was only the beginning of the activation!

Mental health is a cause I'm passionate about because all humans should take care of [themselves in that sense], as they do everything else; emotions, feelings, thoughts. It's not easy being a human so I believe that taking care of our minds will make the world a more peaceful space.

What is your earliest memory of giving back or learning about compassion?

As a child, my mother would always teach us how to donate items to families and people who had nothing. Teaching the importance that things are replaceable. My compassion memory is probably in grade school [after] consoling a crying or hurt friend.

What are some practices or activities you share with your children to encourage paying it forward?

We donate, I teach her the power of making someone’s day by just a smile, or holding doors open for people. There are little things we can do to give back that are literally that simple, like giving to the homeless [and] educating my daughter on the issue, sharing with people. [There are] endless ways to give back in our day-to-day lives.

Besides joining FMCC, do you have any exciting projects coming up that you'd like to share?

I have exciting things for 2020 that I will soon share!

Daisy O’Dell

Photo: Leyna Ambron/Yellow Heart Photography

Photo: Leyna Ambron/Yellow Heart Photography

Name and title: Daisy O’Dell, DJ and co-founder of woman. collective

What are the names and ages of your little ones?

Henry, 6, and Faye, 3

What are some of the many hats that you wear, career-wise?

Award-winning music producer, curator, DJ, and activist

What are some of the causes that you are most passionate about and why?

This is an extraordinarily difficult question for me to answer succinctly! The list of “causes” is seemingly endless so I will focus only on local issues that I believe we can actively be working toward solving like the climate crisis, reproductive freedom, the homelessness epidemic, family separations, immigrants rights, gun control, systemic racism, wealth inequality specifically as it relates to children living below the poverty line, gender parity, and LGBTQIA rights and representation.

What is your earliest memory of giving back or learning about compassion?

I have been sitting here for a long time trying to think about why I am drawn into this work. I can’t summon a moment or memory that was the catalyst. I have always felt pulled to serve and must assume that it was my parents’ modeled altruism – it is ingrained. I don’t know when it started but by high school, I was already canvassing for Greenpeace and producing the annual school AIDS benefit.

What are some practices or activities you share with your children to encourage paying it forward?

I believe that the most effective way for children to learn is through modeled behavior and participation. My kids engage with me – they volunteer; donate; protest. They are immersed in the Artivist scene where art is vivid tool for social change and the conversations that seed it.

On a deeper level, I explore concepts of privilege and race and look for teaching tools that I can apply in my own parenting. I sometimes flippantly say that it’s really hard to raise a white male. How do I teach him that white male privilege is actually a bad thing – for him, the patriarchy isn’t. It is important to me that my kids understand systemic racism and oppression and their role it in while work toward making the world a more equitable place. I remember reading a study by Margaret Hagerman where she observed, "while there is a lot of writing about white kids, there is not a lot from a critical race perspective.

Much of the developmental psychology literature uses white kids as the sample, but doesn't interrogate what whiteness means or how it situates them in society." White children are everywhere, but their whiteness is effectively invisible and unspoken.

Besides joining FMCC, do you have any exciting projects coming up that you'd like to share?

I will be with Gobble Gobble Give in Echo Park this Thanksgiving morning and want to share what a great opportunity it is to be of service to our less fortunate neighbors. If you volunteer on the Eastside, I will be running the DJs at the Echoplex — come say hi!

My company, woman., has a robust soteria. initiative that is the first comprehensive brave-space/ safe-space activation strategically designed for large-scale cultural gatherings and festivals. We will be announcing out 2019 partnerships in the coming weeks and look forward to making the world safer, more inclusive, and more fun.

I am in the process of putting together a coalition to address sustainability in LAUSD. It’s a big job – all hands on deck for the future of our plant! Please reach out if you have any interest in supporting this endeavor.

I would love to shine a light on the amazing Nithya Raman and her bid for LA City Council, District 4. I met her as executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment and I truly believe that she can make a tremendous positive impact on Los Angeles if elected. Please consider learning more about her and her work in this community with SELAH and getting out the vote if you live in district 4 (Silver Lake, Los Feliz) on March 3, 2020. Also, she’s mom to twin preschoolers and we all know that moms get shit done!

There are also a couple of really big votes are coming up in the LAUSD, and we could really, really use your calls.

Please contact your LAUSD Board of Education member and tell them:

  • a) to VOTE NO on the establishment of The West Hollywood / Fairfax Academy, co-located with existing schools.

  • b) To VOTE YES on “Transitioning Los Angeles Unified School District to 100%Clean, Renewable Energy Resulting in Healthier Students and More Sustainable, Equitable Communities (Res-018-19/20)”

If you don’t have time to call, please send them a quick email.

If you feel so inspired, write to the four members below who haven’t yet co-sponsored the renewable energy Resolution at the below addresses and urge them to get on board. If you need further incentive, refer them to the latest devastating warnings from the UN about where we’ll be in 20 years if we don’t take action.

Eileen Rosete

Name and title: Eileen Rosete, founder of Our Sacred Women

What are the names and ages of your little ones?

Celine, 4.5, and Vera, 9 months

What are some of the many hats that you wear, career-wise?

I am the founder of Our Sacred Women, a movement to restore women to a place of reverence through specialty gifts, events, and campaigns that help women feel seen and honored. Currently, I juggle being an entrepreneur with being full-time with my little ones. My career background also includes being a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher and an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. In my early twenties, I spent several years working in the non-profit sector on increasing racial diversity in the legal profession. As varied as my career path has been, I realize now that a common denominator has been my drive to help people feel seen and heard, and to help them to know they are deserving of respect.

What are some of the causes that you are most passionate about and why?

I am most passionate about helping women feel seen, heard, and valued, which stems from my own life experiences in which I felt mistreated, dismissed, and even violated sexually. I have found it to be incredibly healing to use my experiences as motivation to enact positive change and in doing so reclaim my individual agency.

Over the years, I have volunteered at a number of places where I have helped women who have experienced trauma including a domestic violence shelter, a rape crisis center and more recently a grief support organization. When I lived in Chicago, I worked as a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher for a residential treatment center for women and girls recovering from eating disorders, addictions, and co-occurring disorders. And as a clinician, many of my clients were women bravely navigating trauma, grief, unhealthy relationships, and self-esteem issues.

What is your earliest memory of giving back or learning about compassion?

This is not an early memory but one of the most profound memories for me. I was sitting in my very first session with the woman who would become my long-term therapist. I was incredibly distraught as I explained how I was struggling to deal with really painful relationship issues (many of which had to do with important women in my life). Looking at and into me, she reflected back what I was trying describe. I can’t remember the exact word she used, but it honestly felt like time stopped and I was overcome with a sense of relief and peace.

I was so moved in that moment that I decided then and there to become a therapist and help others feel the way she helped me feel: Witnessed with compassion. I was so excited about this revelation that I even called a girlfriend immediately after I stepped out of that session and told her about my newfound conviction to become a therapist. I began graduate school soon after!

What are some practices or activities you share with your children to encourage paying it forward?

We love taking our daughters to national and state parks to hike and explore the visitor centers. We want to help them cultivate a connection to nature while also instilling a need to protect it from human negligence so that they and future generations can visit and enjoy these same places. Did you know that many of our national parks have Junior Ranger Programs? Kids get to learn about that particular national park and earn a badge from a park ranger after completing simple activities. It's so fun and Celine has become a junior ranger at two parks so far.

Besides joining FMCC, do you have any exciting projects coming up that you'd like to share?

In the past five years, I have been pregnant and postpartum four times. I have birthed two live children and experienced two miscarriages. It has been such an emotional, physical, and spiritual roller coaster and I'm turning more of my attention to helping women who have gone through pregnancy and infant loss.

I have successfully hosted three Our Womb Loss events in LA—elevated dining events dedicated to helping women feel held in love as they grieve and heal—and am looking forward to hosting more in 2020 and hopefully in other cities. And although it has been in my heart for several years, just this past October I put out to the universe that I'd like to finally write a book about childbearing loss. As it happened, I learned about a four-week book writing workshop and signed up!

So I am now in the midst of gestating my next baby: a book to help women after pregnancy and infant loss. There are a number of books out there on the topic already, but I'm excited to add something new that reflects my professional and volunteer work as well as my own personal experiences with grief, trauma, and somatics.

Kristiana Tarnuzzer

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Photo: Courtesy of subject

Name and title: Kristiana Tarnuzzer, founder of The Cause Bar

What are the names and ages of your little ones?

Luka, 6, and Kosette, 3

What are some of the many hats that you wear, career-wise?

Being a solopreneur and founder of a young company, as many in this community are, I think everyone can relate to the reality that we are literally wearing every hat there is to be had. From marketing and tech, to strategy and office assistant.

What are some of the causes that you are most passionate about and why?

There are many, so I’ll name just a few:

  • Environment: My birthday falls on Earth Day, enough said!

  • Human Rights: This runs the gamut from LGBTQ rights (my sister is gay and I witnessed the challenges she faced coming out 20 years ago) to gender equality to migrants and asylum seekers.

  • Bullying: Having been a victim personally as a kid, to now having two kids of my own, it’s a high sensitivity topic for me because of the danger we know too well can be caused on both sides – the bully and the victim.

  • Homelessness: This was a passion point while living in NYC, and now living in LA, it’s an epidemic that must be cured.

What is your earliest memory of giving back or learning about compassion?

The concept of being of service and feeling grateful for what I had was instilled in me at a young age largely due to my Ukrainian heritage – I still had family living there who I knew didn’t have a lot of the things my family and I had here in the US, so I started volunteering and donating items to support them.

What are some practices or activities you share with your children to encourage paying it forward?

I get this question a lot, and while my kids still err on the younger side (3 and 6 years old), the most impactful way I’ve seen the concept of giving back is through age-appropriate, honest conversations. Opening their eyes to new things and having some of the more difficult talks about real-life situations has been tremendous in implementing a real sense of empathy in each of them already. We also travel a lot as a family — I traveled a lot as a child myself with my family — and the ability to explore other countries and cultures opened my eyes at a young age to understanding that while we all may be different in our own ways, we are still very much the same.

Besides joining FMCC, do you have any exciting projects coming up that you’d like to share?

2020 marks a powerful evolvement for The Cause Bar where I’ll be launching Set The Bar: A highly-curated program designed to cultivate personalized, authentic and high-impact giving plans for aspiring philanthropists ready to go deeper and be more intentional in how they are giving back. It’s powerful work, excited to see what’s ahead.

Danielle Directo-MestonFM Cause Committee, Renee Garcia, Felicia La Tour, Daisy O'Dell, Eileen Rosete, Our Sacred Women, Kristiana TarnuzzerComment