ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Intuit Mailchimp (Nasdaq: INTU) announces the second edition of Bloom Season, our community-centered digital magazine for underrepresented entrepreneurial communities, celebrating LGBTQIA+ identifying business owners, entrepreneurs, and advanced marketers.
Launched in 2022, Bloom Season was brought to life by Mailchimp and the impact-focused creative company Kin to serve as a valuable resource for those given less visibility in business literature and fewer opportunities in the business world. It’s full of first-hand stories, resources, and actionable insights from people with lived experience starting businesses, enduring challenges, and refusing to give up.
Where the first iteration of Bloom Season celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) individuals re-writing the small business playbook—Bloom Season 2 is focused on uplifting the voices within the LGBTQIA+ community, and continues to shine a light on the first-hand experiences, insights, and actionable possibilities for LGBTQIA+ identifying individuals in business.
Bloom Season 2 continues to grow the platform as a place for everyone, of any identity, to find useful guidance for helping turn their plans into positive momentum for their businesses. Focusing on the LGBTQIA+ community was a natural step for Season 2.
"We've woven together a powerful combination of voices and resources to celebrate this latest edition of Bloom Season," said Christina Humphrey, Senior Manager of Mailchimp Studios. "With so many LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs breaking the status quo, we moved to craft a digital space that shines a spotlight on their stories and experiences."
It was essential for Bloom Season’s second edition to allow communities to tell their own stories, so Mailchimp and Kin worked to ensure all business owners, writers, illustrators and photographers assembled identify as LGBTQIA+. Over 50+ collaborators are featured in Bloom Season 2, including:
- Lisa Cannistraci, owner of Henrietta Hudson, the oldest lesbian bar in the US. Now 32 years old, Henrietta Hudson has thrived by evolving with the community
- Cora Hamilton, founder of Uns*, a Berlin-based model and talent agency that exclusively represents LGBTQIA+ people, advocating for representation of all identities, ethnicities, bodies and abilities
- Robyn Exton, founder of the HER social app for all lesbian, bi, queer, non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming folxs
- Kelly Rakowski, of lex.app, an app to explore what's happening in your local LGBTQIA+ community
- Sarah Moore, co-founder of the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre
- Ryan Lanji, founder of Hungama, a London-based collective for QBIPOC
- Nolan Hanson of Trans Boxing, based in New York City
Kin centered this edition on the creative concept Bloom River, to reflect the constant fluidity and movement within the community, or collection of communities that have come together to make something stronger. The visual identity is based on the many colors of the Pride flag, reimagined in a state of flow to represent the diversity of the community and embrace all walks of life.
“The idea of a river worked in two ways,” says Kin co-founder Kwame Taylor-Hayford. “A river is historically a place that brings all people together—to drink, bathe, travel, play—and it’s simultaneously ancient and always changing. It encapsulates the community and constant evolution of being LGBTQIA+. It’s also fluid, like gender and sexual identity. We wanted to pull that into the visuals, bleeding the rainbow colors together. There are no hard lines. Everything is connected, intersectional and builds to represent growth and a future between binaries.”
The magazine is divided into three focus areas, each targeting a different aspect of the entrepreneurial journey for LGBTQIA+ individuals—from starting and growing a business, to tackling mental health, to looking towards the future:
Business: A new resource with first-hand experiences for starting, running, and growing the business of your dreams.
- Building a Community for the Long Haul
- A Queer Guide To Raising Capital
- Disrupting Convention and Championing Queer Values
- “I show up as my authentic self every day”
- Successful Founders Answer Your Questions
- How Companies Can Celebrate Pride All Year Long
- How to Take Your Business to the Next Level
Being: A space for conversations on identity, mental health, building and nurturing connections, creating inclusive workplaces, and practicing self-care.
- HAGS: Rewriting the Rules of Your Industry
- 10 Tips Businesses Can Use to Help Improve LGBTQ+ Inclusion
- The Challenge and Beauty of Creating Safe Spaces
- New Models for Community Care in the Workplace
- Rekindling Your Creative Spark
Beyond: Innovative entrepreneurs reimagine the future of business and beyond.
- Empowering the Queer Community Through Design
- Reimagining the Future of Healthcare
- Queering the Tech Industry
The new collection of content also includes the feature film Sirens, an award-winning documentary following the Middle East’s first all-women thrash metal band, produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph, and directed by Rita Baghdadi. The film is available to stream for free at mailchimp.com/bloomseason and mailchimp.com/presents.
“Like all historically excluded groups, LGBTQIA+ business owners face unique obstacles,” says Sophie Ozoux, co-founder of Kin. “Our research showed LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs find it harder to secure capital, identify relatable mentors and can face isolation. The difficulties are different in every country, so we looked across the globe to find people changing the world.”
You can explore Bloom Season at mailchimp.com/bloomseason.
About Intuit Mailchimp
Intuit Mailchimp is an email and marketing automations platform for small and mid-market businesses. We empower millions of customers around the world to start and grow their businesses with world-class marketing technology, award-winning customer support, and inspiring content. Mailchimp puts data-backed recommendations at the heart of your marketing, so you can find and engage customers across email, social media, landing pages, and advertising—automatically and with the power of AI. In 2021, Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit.
“Bloom Season may contain explicit content and the views, thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writers and interviewees and may not necessarily represent those of Intuit Mailchimp. The material and information presented is for general information purposes only, and information provided should not be considered legal advice.
About Intuit:
Intuit is the global financial technology platform that powers prosperity for the people and communities we serve. With more than 100 million customers worldwide using TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to prosper. We never stop working to find new, innovative ways to make that possible. Please visit us for the latest information about Intuit, our products and services, and find us on social.
About Kin:
Kin is a new breed of creative company working at the intersection of innovation and purpose to help brands, organizations and individuals create the change they want to see in the world. Founded by Kwame Taylor-Hayford and Sophie Ozoux, Kin works with clients including Intuit Mailchimp, Delta Airlines, YouTube, Hinge, and Ben & Jerry’s. https://workwithkin.com
