10 Black-Owned Businesses Founded & Run By Women

As promised, the year has been sprinkled with a lot of Black girl magic.

We saw 16 black models light up the runway at the Victoria's Secret show in Shanghai, we watchedGirl's Tripmake a historic debut at the box office, and we watched Black women show their impact at the polls.

But, our most important asset is not just our ability to vote, but our ability to spend. Consumerism drives advertising, which drives corporations which in turn drives our government. It's a pretty obvious chain of events and we are the most important link. In cosmetics, we saw what happened after Fenty Beauty launched their historic 40-shade concealers and foundations. It was named by TIME Magazine as one of the best inventions of the year.

Just recently, Neilson published a report titled, "Black Girl Magic and Brand Loyalty is Propelling Total Black Buying Power Towards $1.5 Trillion." According to the report, Black women are trendsetters, and brand loyalists who are self-made and self-reliant, and the number of businesses majority-owned by Black women grew 67% between 2007 and 2012, more than all women combined.

Now that the industry is hip to the demand by darker complexions, everyone is clamoring to rethink their business model.

Cause, meet effect.

This year, I'm reclaiming my Black power and steering my coins back into the community by buying Black. So, I have been deep diving into the hashtag universe of social media and scouring the Internet in search for Black women-owned businesses that I can support by spending my coins.

Scroll below to learn which Black women-owned businesses deserve your coin.

1. LIT Brooklyn.

LIT Brooklyn

Founded by Denequa Williams in Brooklyn, New York. LIT Brooklyn offers a line of hand-poured soy wax candles in rich, homey scents that are sure to warm up the vibes indoors.

Featured image by Getty Images.

Originally published December 2017.