Congratulations to Charlotte McLean and Amy McKendry on receiving an Outstanding Nominee Award in the 2022 GirlBoss Awards.

The GirlBoss Awards were designed specifically to help continue growing confident, energised and resilient leadership from young women across the motu. Targeted at young women aged 11–18 the awards look to identify inspiring young leaders, facilitators, role models, and innovators. 

"A GirlBoss is someone who is not afraid to defy stereotypes, push boundaries, and create change."

Charlotte and Amy have received an Outstanding Nominee Award in the 2022 GirlBoss Awards for their small business - Marlborough Rentals - an Instagram driven business which rents out clothes. Charlotte shares their journey and vision below.

Charlotte McLean

We started our small rental business in mid-2021 and from there we have grown to over two thousand and sixty followers. Our goal was to have affordable sustainable rentals for girls over the country to help with the climate change crisis due to clothing waste. The business is run through Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marlboroughrentals/

Why did you start the business?

In early 2021, I found out the shocking statistics of clothing waste releasing 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. After this, I knew I needed to make a change for future generations. Amy and I noticed the waste of specifically buying dresses and only wearing them for one night. This is is where we decided to create our own business Marlborough Rentals, a sustainable cost-effective outfit hire business, which allowed young girls to find their dream outfits without the waste of materials and fibers and paying excessive amounts of money. We began our business with the aim to make a change for the environment as both Amy and I have a passion for eliminating climate change and have both attended all local climate change protests. We ensured that all the clothing that we purchased was second-hand off Facebook, and we fixed ourselves to be appropriate for renting. Our business is finally taking off as we now renting to not only local Blenheim girls but young girls all over NZ.

What was the impact of the project?

Feel free to provide data, testimonials, or any other information to demonstrate the impact.
The impact of Marlborough rentals is not to only help save our environment but inspire other young girls to believe in themselves, especially in our amazing school, Marlborough Girls College. We were 16 when we began our business, with very little knowledge of having our own business and dealing with the finances. We want to show other young girls to pursue their dreams and not listen to society and begin their own side hustle even if it has a large chance of failure. We want to show others that it is not necessary to buy a new outfit every weekend and continue to add to the horrific statistics of clothing waste that is destroying our beautiful world. On average we rent two-three outfits a week, although that is not a lot, we feel as if these tiny steps are slowly making a difference in our world. People need to be aware of the climate crisis and how the global fashion industry is a large contributor.

Describe one or more challenges you/your nominee have faced, and explain how you/they responded.

Our first challenge was our target audience, from living in Blenheim a small town, we instantly thought our business was going to fail as we would not have enough customers. This all changed after we were approached by a young girl from Christchurch. This is where we decided to take our business nationally. After this, we went straight to the postal shop to discuss the most sustainable opinion for shipping our clothes. Another challenge we faced was the negativity and judgment we received. Going to a small school the rumors of us beginning our own small business spread like fire. We faced constant bullying and we almost lost hope. To move on from this Amy and I decided to ignore the cruelness and work as a team to show we are stronger than they think. We continued to pursue our dreams even when no one around us believes in us. As our business began to become more successful the comments started to die down and we want to use this example for others that sometimes people are mean due to jealousy. And never to give up.

Describe how you/your nominee are a GirlBoss.

The resilience myself and Amy to continue to pursue our business dreams is something I will be forever proud of. We are aiming to continue our business as we move on to university in Otago together. Although we were nearly defeated, we stayed together as a team to make a difference in our world. Today's society continues to ignore the scary reality of climate change and not do anything to make a difference. We never let the stereotyping of young women not being in business defeat us, instead it motivated us. All of the profit we make goes straight back into the business. We want to be a role model for all future young businesswomen to come and to show caring for the environment and the world is cool.