Today we’d like to introduce you to Carmen Lidia Fajardo.
Hi, Carmen Lidia; we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The Fairy Godmother Project was established in Fall 2011 when I needed a dress for a college military ball. A local shero had a small collection of dresses in her home coat closet, and she blessed me with a purple dress to wear. Those photos still make me cringe, but that dress marked my life with rich purpose and passion for the next generation. Through this personal lack, I received the greatest gift of my life, and it was becoming San Antonio’s Fairy Godmother. I initially began by meeting the same need I once had. I hosted dress drives, and through the outstanding generosity of the San Antonio community, we dressed over 300 girls in our first two years. Although the joy a girl radiates when putting on the right dress is gratifying, I was uneasy about giving her a dress that would change one night of her life. I was hungry and felt an urgency to impact girls for a lifetime, not just one day.
In early 2013, I met a local mentor who encouraged and empowered me to create and give girls the broader impact I longed for. Through some incredible local partners like H-E-B, Girl Scouts, and Generation TX, we hosted the first Significant U Empowerment Conference, and this became the catalyst for an impact that surpassed my little heart’s dreams but ignited even bigger dreams. In 2014, I put my head down to pray and dream about what this all could be, and I realized that the things that changed my life time and time again were the people and the conversations I was privileged to have. Through that reflection, our motto became “We change the story by changing the conversation.” Young women face so many true limitations and antiquated lies that young women believe that I eagerly believed we could change.
By this time, I had rallied a team of ladies and girls who were crazy enough to believe it, too, and in 2015, we rebranded as Significant U, committed to providing education, encouragement, and empowerment through our no-cost boutique experience. The Significant U Empowerment Conference is now a full-day event of girl fun, learning, and listening sessions, and every girl gets to shop in our no-cost boutique experience. I want to note that we serve any girl who needs it; we have no restrictions based on income or conference attendance. We serve any girl that asks for our help. We are currently in a state of research and understanding as we prepare for the 2024 Significant U Empowerment Conference; we do our best to curate the annual event to the real-time issues teenage girls face. I am also incredibly grateful to our friends at Aid the Silent; through their partnership, we can make our entire conference experience deaf-accessible. We are eager to collect dresses in March and seek out local partners to host dress drives and rallies to donate new or gently used dresses. We will have our city-wide dress drive on Friday, March 22, Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, 2024.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In some ways, it has been a very smooth road; in others, it has been challenging in unique aspects. An aspect of Significant U that has come very smoothly is the generosity of the San Antonio community! We have never experienced a shortage of dress or in-kind donations from day one. In 2013, Michael Quintanilla, fashion and style writer at San Antonio Express-News, did a story on us for the Thanksgiving week paper, and that led to KLOVE Radio learning about us and calling to ask if they could host a dress drive.
The greatest struggle was me, my insecurities, and my imposter syndrome. For so long, I would pray, “Jesus, I think you picked the wrong girl.” I was 21 when I started with great vision, but I needed more experience organizing, planning strategically, and believing I was a leader. This led to great limitations on our growth and efficiency. Still, I was gifted with incredible mentors who believed in me more than I believed in myself and fought for this cause wholeheartedly. I fell in love with Brene Brown’s work and learned that belonging is up to me and no one else. Now, as a 34-year-old woman, I have so much more mercy for the ambitious young woman I was in my twenties; I try to forgive myself for what I see as missed opportunities and also thank that twenty-year-old spirit that fought every day for the magic of being the Fairy Godmother. Before COVID, I felt like a failed architect who had hoped to build a 10-story building and ended up with three stories. Still, the pandemic truly taught me to be grateful for a life lived imperfectly compared to the perfect life only in my imagination. I think, like every other young person in their twenties, I didn’t know what I didn’t understand, and I needed the love and support of my tribe to press on.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Organization: Significant U?
I love to believe that what makes Significant U different is our love and support for every girl we serve. A young woman who came to us for help to attend her junior prom is now a young woman on our board. We want to establish more scholarships, and our huge dream for the future is to create and provide affordable housing for young women pursuing higher education. Volunteers, including myself, fully run Significant U. My business that pays the bills is Guarding Every Memory; we are a special event company. We provide event planning, coordination, rentals, and designs. My mission is to help clients guard every moment of their special event, from office Christmas parties to annual galas and everyone’s favorite proposals and weddings.
What do you think about happiness?
This is a layered answer. With Significant U, one of my greatest joys is seeing the giddy and sometimes teary reaction when we put a girl into a dress we love. I love seeing them walk away with peace for their special event. I also love watching our girls graduate from high school and college. No matter how long the ceremonies every time I get to see a young woman cross the stage, it wrecks me! With GEM, I love hearing my clients say how much fun they had at their event! You know you did your job well when a client remembers the fun rather than the logistics. With my family, it’s watching all my nieces and nephews play together. Seeing them have built-in best friends is such a joy; I love it even more when they invite me to play with them. It’s talking, laughing, and dancing with Joshua, my fiancé and very soon-to-be husband. Finally, meeting my person in my thirties had been such a sweet new season. He is my best friend in every sense of the word, and sharing life and dancing with him is heaven on Earth for me. Last but not least, coffee, cake, and a good book! My body prefers gluten-free, but I’ll endure the pain if it’s as good as Oh Yeah Cakes on South St. Mary’s. On any hard or “treat self” day, I pick up a carrot cake cupcake and walk it over to Brown Coffee, where I order a perfect Cortave and enjoy a good book on my favorite swivel leather chair.
Pricing:
- A monthly $25 donation can go such a long way.
- A one-time gift of $150 can provide a quality dress rack.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/significant_u/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SignificantU/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXDPZrt3MkA
Image Credits
carmen.lidia.colorful are by Gabriel Garcia Photos @gabrielgarciaphotos suec2016 are by Ben Pelayo suec2015 are by Artemisa De La Rosa-Jacobo carmen.lidia.sheiscampaign Benji Rodriguez @benjirz
