Jasmine Diane: ‘My Girl Story’ empowerment is bigger than T-shirts, Instagram

Jasmine Diane Cooper dreams of inspiring women across the world with the My Girl Story movement, she said.

“[As women] we will tear ourselves down or we look for things that kind of separate us, but we all have the same struggle,” said the social media influencer and rising star on the Kansas City marketing scene. “So why not come together?”

Every woman — regardless of her characteristics — is already enough, Jasmine Diane emphasized.

“‘Girl’ is enough,” she said of the My Girl Story effort. “You don’t have to change. You don’t have to look like somebody else. You don’t have to write like somebody else or do what somebody else is doing. You, in all your glory, is enough.”

My Girl Story begins with Jasmine Diane’s blog, where she posts stories of other women’s struggles and successes and sells T-shirts, she said. Instagram and Twitter campaigning augment the movement.

It’s foundation began to form in 2012 when she started the blog, which led to a journey across media platforms as she discovered which ones worked best for her Jasmine Diane brand. Next came internships managing social media for various entrepreneurs and companies, she said.

Success followed her at Kansas City-based marketing giant VML, which she joined in 2017 as a social media manager. Jasmine Diane launched the movement at the same time, starting with two shirts in black and white that read simply: ‘girl.’

After the shirts became her best sellers, she set up pop-up stores in St. Louis and Atlanta, with Kansas City in her sights next for her fall collection, Jasmine Diane said. A team of influencers, designers, and models are ready to push the ‘Girl’ deeper into her own community, she said.

“Right now, the movement is really on fire in Kansas City with a diverse group of women, different backgrounds, different races, different ages, just excited to share their stories,” she added.

In the future, My Girl Story will move into schools to help lead middle and high school-aged girls around stereotypes about women and their bodies, as well as building better self-esteem and confidence, she said.

“There’s so much negative stuff on social media related to women: how we look, or trying to be the perfect shape, what we think is perfect, because of what we see. This movement, ‘My Girl Story,’ is all about authenticity and growth, empowering, and positivity,” said Jasmine Diane. “Just girl power to the fullest.”

Since most women have similar struggles, she said, the movement empowers them to share the issues they have faced and the steps they took to overcome.

“This is bigger than T-shirts. It’s bigger than Instagram. It is a movement of the future,” said Jasmine Diane.

Empowering women feels like a calling, she said, noting other brands already focus primarily on men.

“I think men can take from ‘My Girl Story’ the same principles from reading the stories, but it’s geared toward women,” she said. “I think the more specific you can be with your target, the better off you’ll be.”