Boss Beauties Founder Lisa Mayer on Creating More Opportunities for Women Using NFTs

For the past ten years, Lisa Mayer has been supporting the next generation of girls and women through her non-profit organisation, My Social Canvas. To explain, the social enterprise provides mentorship and professional opportunities to high school and college-aged girls worldwide. To further her mission, Mayer launched the Boss Beauties NFT collection in September 2021.

At the time, Boss Beauties gained prominence as one of the few NFT collections focusing on women. On top of that, there were only a handful of projects led by women in the overwhelmingly male-dominated NFT space. An extension of My Social Canvas’ mission, the collection features 10,000 female avatars in different, empowering roles. 

“Boss Beauties is on a mission to remind women and girls that they can be everything they want to be,” Mayer told NFTevening. “We hope to help women and girls design the life and career of their dreams through mentorship programs and scholarships. We’ve built a global community around the world and we’re excited to build on this and expand our impact in the years to come.” 

What is the Boss Beauties NFT collection?

At first glance, Boss Beauties is an NFT collection featuring 10,000 unique, female avatars. However, it is more than your average PFP project. Founded as an extension of the same purpose and values My Social Canvas has championed, Boss Beauties focuses on creating opportunities for women and girls. 

“For the past 10 years, My Social Canvas has helped provide mentorship and professional opportunities to high school and college-aged girls all around the world,” Mayer said. The team’s aim is ​​especially to empower those at the forefront of technology, leadership, and creativity.

Accordingly, My Social Canvas is building a global community of Gen Z girls and social entrepreneurs. The firm has worked with global brands, companies, and inspiring women mentors to host hack-a-thons, mentorship panels, and events. The connections Mayer and her team have built over the years further helped them launch Boss Beauties.

“We saw opportunities in the NFT space for women that seemed untapped,” she explained. “Boss Beauties became a natural extension of My Social Canvas’ mission, but with the goal of using NFTs to create more opportunities for women.”

Eventually, Mayer launched Boss Beauties in September 2021. Back then, the NFTs cost ​​0.08 ETH each and sold out in an hour. At the time of writing, the project’s floor was at 0.68 ETH, having amassed around $36 million in sales volume on OpenSea.

Boss Beauties’ success stories don’t merely end with its sales figures. As a matter of fact, since its launch, the project has built some incredible partnerships in the space and achieved some impressive feats.

Boss Beauties: The first NFT project displayed at NYSE

Soon after its launch, Boss Beauties created history as the first NFT to be displayed at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This is especially significant considering NYSE’s history. Founded in 1792, NYSE was initially off-limits to women in trading and visiting capacities. 

It was only after 1943 that the exchange started employing many trailblazing women. In fact, Muriel Siebert, known as the “First Lady of Wall Street”, was rejected nine times before making history as NYSE’s first female member.

“Muriel joined the 1,365 male members of the exchange on December 28, 1967,” said Mayer. “This is incredibly symbolic and it represents that women can be anything they want and have everything it takes to set new precedents in male-dominated spaces. Women can own their strength, they know their worth, and they can take their seat at the table.”

These sentiments are at the core of the Boss Beauties collection as well. Needless to say, their NYSE debut is a historic feat in itself. Currently, seven Boss Beauties are on display at NYSE. Of these, six reside outside the historic Muriel Siebert Boardroom, which honours Siebert for becoming the first woman to own a seat on NYSE. 

The project has set up a scholarship fund

As with My Social Canvas, Boss Beauties is committed to supporting the next generation of female leaders and changemakers. For this, the project has set up a scholarship fund. Within the first two months of the launch itself, the collection raised over $3 million to continue its mentorship program.

“NFTs gave us the ability to continue our mission,” Mayer said. “From our initial mint, 5% was held back to fund our mentorship program to help the next generation of female leaders.”

In addition, the project donated a further 5% to Fame Lady Squad to support the launch of its initiatives to educate women in the NFT space. Besides, to celebrate the International Day of the Girl on October 11, 2021, Boss Beauties auctioned a 1/1 NFT. The complete proceeds from the sale went to an honorary scholarship in the name of Louise Jones, the youngest woman to own a seat on the NYSE. 

This will, in turn, support women and girls in finance. The 1/1 NFT used for the auction is now displayed outside the Muriel Siebert Boardroom.

“Moving forward, everything we do will help fund even more mentorship and scholarship programs for women and girls,” she added. “This is what we’ve been doing for the past 10 years and will always be at the core of Boss Beauties.”

Meet the Boss Beauties Role Models collection

In honour of International Women’s Day, Boss Beauties launched a new limited edition 1/1 NFT series called Boss Beauties Role Models this March. Created in collaboration with Cathy Hackl, a world-renowned metaverse/ Web3 strategist, the collection celebrates some of the most iconic women across the globe.

“This collection features inspiring change-makers and trailblazers throughout history as well as in the modern world,” Mayer said. All in all, there are 25 female role models in the collection. This includes Amelia Earhart, Cleopatra, Frida Kahlo, Princess Diana, Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Maya Angelou.

After displaying the collection in New York City, Boss Beauties auctioned the NFTs on OpenSea. A portion of the proceeds funded the project’s scholarships and mentorship programs. In addition, the team partnered with “world-renowned brands” to “co-create life-changing opportunities for women and girls with us, who will help them design the careers they love.”

What is the future for Boss Beauties? 

Already, Boss Beauties offers its collectors several utilities. This includes free access to mentorship events, free books through the Boss Beauties Book Club, and free NFTs, to name a few. There is also the Boss Beauties Convention, a music and arts festival with inspirational talks by women leaders. 

Besides, the project continues to partner with some of the biggest names in the industry. Late last year, Marvel announced its partnership with Boss Beauties to “spotlight their work on women empowerment”. The two are yet to announce more details about the collaboration. 

Further, early this year, the project teamed up with the leading doll manufacturer, Barbie for a Role Models drop. It has also partnered with Hugo Boss, Rolling Stone, Neiman Marcus, and Coinbase. Through these partnerships, the project either gave away free mints to holders or held auctions that fully funded scholarships and charities. 

Boss Beauties to be stored inside the Arctic World Archive

What’s more, Boss Beauties will print the collection on special archival film and store it inside the Arctic World Archive. To explain, situated 300m below the permafrost of an arctic mountain, the Artic World Archive stores monumental artefacts from human history. This includes Vatican manuscripts, art masterpieces, and crops essential to repopulate the earth. Together with other historically and culturally important artefacts, Boss Beauties will live on for over 1000 years.

“We have more exciting displays and partnerships coming up,” Mayer said. “Over the next year, we plan to bring on more female artists to work with us on NFT collections, fund more scholarships for women, and bring more mentorship opportunities to the table.”

Mayer has a simple message for female artists who are aspiring to enter the NFT space—“Don’t wait to start.”

“Currently, women only account for 16% of NFT artists,” she added. “Be true to who you are as an artist and start putting yourself out there.”