Conversations with Jaida Elyse Nelson and Joia Erin Thornton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaida Elyse Nelson and Joia Erin Thornton. Them and their team share their story with us below:

The QueenEsteem Foundation was launched in February 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee when biological sisters; Jaida Elyse Nelson and Joia Erin Thornton designed a project-based foundation for girls identifying as a female 6th-12th grade. The foundation’s core mission is to promote “astronomical self-confidence” through projects, initiatives, creative content, and educational tools.

Both Joia and Jaida felt girls in this demographic often succumb to body image, identity, and overall self-worth issues through the lens of social media, reality television, and generational influences. Joia and Jaida knew they received healthy socio-emotional support from engaged parents, mentors, community members, faith leaders, and small groups; all paved the way for a healthy transition to strong, confident, and charismatic women. Joia and Jaida felt compelled to share this model with as many young women as they could reach both locally and nationwide.

After 20 years of speaking at large to mid-level conferences, leading small groups, serving as keynote speakers, and facilitating workshops; Joia and Jaida wanted to share more knowledge, life skills, curriculum, and positive affirmations with girls, parents, youth leaders, communities, and friends in a unique and valuable way. The QueenEsteem Foundation has already served countless girls and organizations through conferences, initiatives, and social media. Both Joia and Jaida have Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English, Communication Studies, French, Public Policy, and Administration and have a total of 30 combined years in youth leadership development.

The QueenEsteem Foundation is a project-based organization of friends, individuals, and other nonprofits who care about girls grade 6th-12th healthy development and life skills that bolster confidence, leadership, and professionalism. The QueenEsteem Foundation is not a sorority, exclusive club, or group, all girls 6th-12th grade identifying as female are welcome. The QueenEsteem Foundation does not discriminate based on race, sexual orientation, appearance, socio-economic status, religion, creed, or color.

The QueenEsteem Foundation does not operate daily, but rather responsively when issues are presented by current events, schools, groups, and local influencers who seek to build power through collaboration.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road is still winding for the foundation. We are now in our 4th year and we have operated solely on the contributions from family, friends, and other groups that share our mission.

We understand that there are multiple groups that serve the needs of youth, but where we differ, are operating responsively rather than daily. We desire to one day offer sizeable resources to groups that engage more frequently with girls in our target demographic.

Ideally, in our 5th year (2022), we want to be on a strong path to providing in-kind donations, interns, and small financial gifts to other organizations that serve girls in our target demographic daily/weekly. Both of us are professional women with other careers. Joia works in policy and law and Jaida works in property management and real estate investment.

Our goal is for the foundation to be recognizable, impactful, and strong enough to operate beyond our capacity for years to come.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Joia is the National Policy Strategist at The Southern Center for Human Rights. Her work involves strategizing with states and federal leaders to pass equitable laws in their legislature.

Jaida works in property management and real estate investment for H&H Real Estate Property.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes! We’ve learned that girls need support in an insulated at-home environment. Social media is the number one tool that can cause teens to be distracted throughout the day, provoke mental/emotional exhaustion and create unnecessary stress due to peer pressure.

This year’s conference is entitled, “Confidence vs. Clout; Influence-Her Culture”. At this year’s conference, we have conversations with girls about what is Positive vs. Toxic content consumption and creation. We are all still under CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the fear of missing out, bullying, or feeling invisible on social media can affect the development of a teen girl today.

Contact Info:

• Email: queenesteem901@gmail.com
• Website: https://queenesteemfoundation.com/
• Instagram: @queenesteemfoundation
• Facebook: The QueenEsteem Foundation
• Twitter: @queenesteem901
• Youtube: The QueenEsteem Foundation

Image Credits
Headshot photographed by Fred Hawkins