Catherine Mellett Felix

The idea of centering on financial education was born out of my family’s story. My grandmother, a woman with a University degree in primary education, was unfortunately the victim of a long case of domestic violence by her husband that left her several times in overnight hospital visits. When my mother recalled this story, she always pointed out how her mother’s lack of funds was the reason she did not decide to leave with her four children, even with a college education. Simply put, she did not have the money to leave. My project is about asking the question, what if she did? 

After pondering this question, I reached a conclusion that the best way I could help women like my grandmother, was by giving them the tools to escape. It was not until I started High School in the US that I noticed how mobile apps have a great impact in our lives. With a clear purpose and a medium, Girley was born. 

Being raised in LatinAmerica, I have observed and experienced how financial standing is a consequential factor in social dynamics and relationships, putting women at a disadvantage, as many sexist gender roles are still active in Latin society. This creates an uneven power dynamic between men and women that when exploited can lead to truly tragic cases of financial and physical abuse. My project centers on giving the millions of young latinAmerican women who want equality but are unaware of how to achieve it, the tools to break apart from antiquated roles and end the cycle of violence through financial education. 

I truly believe the knowledge my project provides is the key to preventing injustice and forging a path towards true gender equality. 

Girley will be a mobile application because recent studies show that across all mobile devices, around 87% of all time spent is devoted to apps - and it jumps to 90% when looking just at time spent using smartphones. Therefore a mobile application is the clear choice when marketing towards teenage users. 

Girley’s main competitors are apps that use traditional long form content (videos/written explanations) which are not the best option when marketing towards younger generations like Gen-Z, who have an average attention span of about 8 seconds and have a wider target audience who normally have previous knowledge in the topic and only wish to improve or expand it. Because of those reasons, Girley will be using a short form interactive learning system with   a  point- reward system  and a daily Streak reward system to keep young users engaged.   

Because Girley is targeted to a more specific audience, it is able to create lessons based on their learning priorities and provide different learning paths  depending on their immediate financial needs and use straightforward and concise language that users are more likely to engage with . A student, for example, would go through the following topics on their journey: Budgeting, bank accounts, savings, debit cards, credit cards, credit scores, the basics of investing and creating a passive income. 

For my project to have the best result possible, I will be collaborating with a team of software developers to code the app interface in the next three months. In terms of marketing, since the app will be marketing towards young users, most of its marketing will be through social media. This will be done of two ways: 

Organically: The creation of social media accounts for the app for promotional purposes. 

Paid:  Promotion of the app will also go through influencer marketing of similar topics as finance wellness and activism. 

However, for the app to reach the maximum audience possible, there will need to be networking with mainstream media sources to promote the app. Possible media sources include newspapers, magazines, news shows and collaboration with the Mexican consulate. 

A general timeline has been created for the app launch in the US, with a tentative release date in Mid-March of 2023. My project has the potential to change the way we teach and relate money to girls across the American continent. Previously established similar humanitarian projects have proved that giving women financial empowerment is not only beneficial in reducing gender inequality but also boosts the economy, which will be especially helpful when the app launches in Latin American countries. 

Because the project is humanitarian in nature, it has been crucial  that my target audience is involved in every step of the process. Interviews were conducted to determine which financial topics and goals were more important to them and therefore prioritized in the app. Beta testers of this same target audience experience each lesson as it is developed and with the feedback they provide it is altered and re-released with those changes. Because of this, I have created a group of 20 girls that previously did not have any knowledge of finance and a small minority with negative feelings towards it, now feel more confident in their own abilities concerning money. I am very happy with the results on this small scale and am looking forward to having similar results on a larger scale in the future.