Pin Up Girl

The Cause

Pin Up Girl was founded in 2017 by Calgarian Steph Colangeli to provide safety and support for women if they find themselves in dangerous situations in public. The idea for Pin Up Girl was formed when Steph, herself was alone in a parking lot and afraid. She thought about the Block Parent program and how wearing a pin could indicate you as a safe person, just like the Block Parent signs in the window of a house.

Women are encouraged to wear the Pin Up Girl pin when in public to identify themselves as available to assist if another woman feels unsafe. Pins can be requested on our website where the order is fulfilled locally and sent to women all over the world, which includes India, Greece, Honduras, Dubai, the US and Canada. To date, 7,000 pins have been distributed to women worldwide.

The movement has grown from a one-person operation and on to form a Board of Directors, register as an incorporation and is on its way to registering as a non-profit. The organization is 100% volunteer-driven and funded by people who believe in the work that we are doing.

Our priority is to create a sustainable operation that allows us to obtain requests for pins and fulfill those requests in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Who Will it Benefit?

It is our wish that our organization will benefit women locally and worldwide. By giving every woman who requests a pin a chance to stand up for their own and other’s safety, we intend to influence the conversation for safety for everyone.

Being a Pin Up Girl is a low-cost and easy way to advocate for your and other women’s safety in your community. Simply wearing a pin identifies that you are someone who can assist or support someone who feels they may be in danger in a public setting.

Because of its simplicity, the Pin Up Girl initiative has the potential to benefit hundreds, even thousands of people with just one pin. One Pin Up Girl going about her normal daily activities has the potential to demonstrate her availability to every woman she encounters. For example, on the bus, at her work place, as she walks on the street, at the grocery store, at her children’s school and so on.

In the next year, one of our strategies is to engage universities and colleges, municipalities and forward facing organizations and businesses in Alberta to share the benefits of our program, with the intention of partnering for distribution of the Pin Up Girl pin.