This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey, what's up, Chris Guillebeau here. Thanks for tuning in today. This is Side Hustle School. Also, this is Throwback Thursday, our weekly segment where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Recently among others, we have featured the owner of a California meal prep company. His business continues to put food on the table.
We have also had a voiceover artist who went full-time. Today in our latest feature, we'll hear from Tamika Swint in Chicago. Tamika is the founder of Stiles for Kids, a Chicago organization that helps transracial and white parents of black kids learn to do hair care. Really important project. I also remember it being a really fun story to work on, I think long ago, maybe more than a thousand days ago. But I'm so glad to know that Tamika
is still going. In fact, she has recently gone full-time herself and has lots of other updates as well. So let's hear directly from her. I'll come back at the end with a super quick wrap up. This is Tamika Swint. I am the executive director of Stiles for Kids and we are located in Oak Park,
Illinois. I was originally featured on episode 868. So my original hustle was doing hair. I've always loved to do hair from the time that I was 10 years old. And over the years, I've grown to love it. And through the passionate part of loving to do hair, I discovered a community
of people who desperately needed help. And that community is a group of transracial adoptive moms or white moms who are caring for black kids. So I came alongside them and provided hair care services and education and have been doing that now for over 15 years. Something else I'd like to add is that hair care for kids is so important and especially for black kids. Hair is an important part of our history. It's an important part of our culture. And in many ways, our hair is our
crown. It's one of the things that throughout history we've been so proud of. And it's an honor and a privilege to serve kids in the community who don't feel good about how they look with beautiful hairstyles. So since the last time that I was on this show, Stiles for Kids has grown astronomically. We have gone from serving just a few families in the local Oak Park community to now serving families all over the world. And I'm so excited that we were able to do that through
our new online workshops and training. So this is something new that Stiles for Kids launched as a result of the global pandemic. We have to try to figure out a way to get our education and resources to families who were at home struggling, trying to figure out how to do their kids hair when all the salons shut down and all the resources even in their local communities were not accessible to them. And because of the six feet distance requirement that surfaced, many families were just struggling. So we try to try to figure out a way. How do we reach these
families? How do we give them quality education at home and to make it effective so that they're really learning? And so what we did is we took all of our in-person training and classes and we put them all online through video conferencing. It has been greatly successful. We have reached over 400 families in the last year. And these are families that we would not have reached
if we had not put the training online. We reached families in the UK. We reached families in South Africa. We've reached families all over the United States. And so I'm just excited to see the impact that Styles for Kids is having as a result of our online education and training. The advice I would
give to someone who wants to follow in my footsteps is to not be afraid of the challenges because there are challenges when you're dealing in a cultural space where there are lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds, socioeconomic status. You're dealing with people who, you know, just don't know, you know, and sometimes they're ignorant. So when those challenges come, you have to press on and not be afraid, not be afraid to say the truth. And I think for a lot of us, sometimes we hesitate when it comes to being truthful, but to seek the truth and love in a way that it can be received open, honestly. That's the advice that I would give.
Thanks to Tamika for sharing her updates with us. As I mentioned briefly, if it wasn't in her update, she has recently gone full time, or at least she has since we first featured her long ago. So congratulations there. Listeners, check out her website stylesforkids.org. Now, here's a spelling challenge. Kids is spelled with a Z. So you got styles with the number four kids,
K-I-D-Z.org. If you Google it, you should see it right at the top. You can also follow her on most social networks, including YouTube, at Styles for Kids NFP. I was watching one of her videos about all the different tools and accessories and accoutrements one needs to do hair care for black kids. And I was like, wow, if I personally was in that situation, I would love to know that somebody is out there providing resources. Because as I said, of course, it is a very important thing
for identity and so much else. So good work, Tamika. And listeners, let us know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories. If you have a question or an update for us about your hustle, www.sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you'll subscribe or follow and come back.
I got a new episode coming out every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
