Sarah Breedlove (Madam C.J. Walker)

Sarah Breedlove was born the daughter of formerly enslaved parents, lost her mother at seven, and started working before she was ten. By the time she was done, she had built America's first female-owned beauty empire and put her own face on every product. This lesson asks the question at the heart of her story: who gets to decide what is beautiful? Students will analyze beauty ads from Sarah's era to today, make their own self-portraits, walk their neighborhoods looking for problems worth solving, and pitch their ideas to each other. Come ready to see yourself differently.