Black History Month – Highlighting Families Building Legacies Rooted in Love.
Happy Black History Month, Fam! This year, we’re paying homage to the rich history of the past while celebrating the change-makers of the future. For the entire month of February, we’re highlighting couples, siblings, and families building a legacy rooted in Black love that are making history in their own way. Support these business owners and also let us know in the comments if there’s anyone you’d like for us to highlight next year! Wishing you a month of Black love, Black pride, and reminders that Black History is truly happening every day.
Meet the owner of Call Me Sparkle and Creative Director/Momager
Summer (Sparkle) and Simone Gittens
Location: Hillside, New Jersey
Their Story:
Summer Gittens, affectionately known as “Sparkle” is a eight-year-old style blogger/influencer and Kidpreneur. Her mom, Simone, previously owned a children’s boutique and Sparkle began her fashion journey taking #StreetStyle photos for the shop. Her purse line, Call Me Sparkle, was birthed when Sparkle began to draw interest around textures and color. She is drawn to bright colors, hence why most of the products are bright, colorful, and fun!
Black Love: How did Sparkle become an influencer?
Simone: I had a shop. That’s what most people don’t know that I had a children’s boutique.
Black Love: So, we know that Sparkle is always fly, but how did you develop her personal style?
Simone: I always dress my kids based on their personality.
Black Love: And, Sparkle, what would you say your personality is?
Sparkle: (Confidently says) Bougie.
Simone: (Laughs) It’s very vibrant. It’s very girly. So you’ll see her in a lot of dresses, a lot of sequins, a lot of bright colors, because that’s just her personality. Right now, her style is definitely more of a collaboration. Like, I know what she likes. I’ll pick her clothes, but she’s very much into styling herself these days. Sometimes she’ll ask me for help, but if I go to a store and I know what she likes, that’s never a problem. When I bring her home, she’s like, okay, this is perfect.
Black Love: We love that Summer is a free spirit. But often, people in your comments will try to tell you “you shouldn’t let your child do this or that.” But we love how you gracefully clap back and encourage her to be herself. It’s really important that moms, especially Black moms, allow for their children to be their full selves. Was that something that was always important to you? And what would you tell any Mom that has a child with a lot of personality that wants to help nurture it?
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Simone: Summer reminds me of myself, but my Mom was very conservative. So I wasn’t allowed to dress how I wanted to until I got my own job and got my own stuff. There was a lot of “You can’t wear that out the house. Take that off. We have people looking at us, etc.” And so I felt like that startled my creativity a little bit, and it kind of made me question, like, who I really am. And I knew I didn’t want to do that for the. I just wanted my children to be free. And I feel like that’s really how it’s supposed to be. I don’t want to try to make her into who I think she should be or who I want her to be because it’ll confuse her. It’ll make her feel like she shouldn’t be herself or who she is isn’t really accepted. And I don’t really like that. It just opens the doors for so many avenues of confusion and low self-esteem. No confidence. And a lot of black girls, I feel like, go through that. I see a lot of kids her age who walk with their heads down, and nothing breaks my heart to see some girl or anybody walk with their heads down you know what I mean? I want her to have pride.
Black Love: How did Sparkle go from being a young style influencer to creating an entire handbag line?
Simone: Summer has always loved different textures so that got me to thinking. What’s your favorite texture Summer?
Summer: Velvet.
Simone: So she always loved textures, and then I went to a Myleik Retreat, and she said something that just I will never forget it. It was the way she said it “It pains me to see so many influencers not create something of their own.” And when I got on that plane, I said, I got to figure this out. And I remember at that time, Jojo Siwa was so hot. She was everywhere. I mean, you cannot walk in the store and not see a Jojo. There was no representation for our girls. And I couldn’t find Black handbag designers creating handbags for little girls. There was a window for us and we took it. We found the manufacturer, and Summer got involved with the textures, and I oversaw the creation.
Black Love: How do you two balance working together as mother and daughter?
Simone: What many people don’t know is that I have three other children, so it’s a family business. We all work together and help each other. Everybody is working together because we have one goal in mind. A lot of people see Summer at the forefront. But once the door opens for Summer, it’ll allow the other girls to have an opportunity. My younger daughter Star just had her first sponsored collaboration with Summer, and more will follow for all of them.
Black Love: So about this amazing Nordstrom collaboration, how did that feel? And what did that mean to you to have other little Black girls, like wearing your handbags and seeing your designs in person, going from just your idea to coming to fruition?
Simone and Sparkle: It was amazing.
Simone: The best part was I am a former “Nordy” girl, and that’s why a lot of people were really excited for our story. When I decided to go full-time to manage Sparkle, I was working at Nordstrom. I designed her first purse on the back of Nordstrom receipt paper, so this was a very full-circle moment for us.
Black Love: Share your first memory of Black History Month.
Simone: My Mother is big on education, so her taking me to museums and giving me the knowledge of how important it is to know your history.
Black Love: What does it mean to build a legacy alongside each other?
Simone: It makes me feel proud.
Summer: Me too.
Simone: It makes me feel proud because we’re doing and that’s something that has never been done before. In my family, there were no entrepreneurs at all. I’m the first to really say, like, I’m going to figure this out. We’re going to do this. I don’t care if I have to stop. I don’t care if I’m having a hard time. I’m going to do this. We’re moving at the pace that’s comfortable for us. We’re seeing results, and I’m really proud to be doing this with her. I really am.
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