The Chronicle

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News
Last update: 11/9/07 at 6:54 AM EST

Media Credit: Laura Beth Douglas Julie Hellwich, founder of Girl Babies Inc., spoke to an all-female audience about her value-oriented company.

From coffee mugs that make you think to temporary tattoos that encourage women to vote, Smart Women products work to prove that a business can be both socially aware and commercially successful.

Thursday evening Julie Hellwich, founder and president of Girl Babies, Inc.-which produces Smart Women products-gave a speech sponsored by the Hart Leadership Program, Baldwin Scholars, Women's Center and the Fuqua School of Business's Social Impact Club.

The event was held in a small lecture room in the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, creating an intimate atmosphere for discussion and audience-speaker interaction.

Smart Women products include pencils, bumper stickers, chapstick and many other gift items and feature encouraging statements such as "Smart Women Protect Free Speech" or "Smart Women Vote."

Hellwich was invited to speak because of her unconventional approach of combining business leadership and social activism, said Rachel Seidman, associate director of the Center for History, Public Policy and Social Change.

She added that Hellwich's success story is equally unconventional.

Smart Women products began in 1999, when Hellwich started producing them out of her home as a married stay-at-home mom with a young child and no income of her own. Initially she used them as small gifts for friends that included witty and inspiring slogans about women. A friend of Hellwich's then contacted a local store about the products and soon that store and many others were requesting more Smart Women products.

"I started making products that would reflect my social values," Hellwich said, adding that all of her products were recyclable, did not speak to the vanity of women, used simple straight-to-the-point labels and were made in the United States.

Today, Hellwich is a single mom who supports herself. Smart Women products are sold across the country and on the Internet and have gained renown for their unique message.

Hellwich, who never intended to go into business and once thought of the business world as "evil," said her goal is to bring the issues she feels are important to the attention of consumers.

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