I am proud to announce that Princess Free Zone was able to reach its goal on Kickstarter.com! The funds will enable the brand and character to be further developed in new and exciting ways with hopes for a broader audience and entryway into the children's market. I am so thankful to everyone who supported PFZ through their very generous donations and look forward to developing some fantastic product. I will work hard to give our girls more choice!

Help Princess Free Zone further its message by donating through the site Kickstarter. If the goal is reached, the funds will go to the design and production of new and really fun t-shirts for little girls as well as the publication of Lula/Super Tool Lula's story among other things! If you really believe there should be more choice for our girls, please give what you can.

This is a great article from Susan Engel who is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the teaching program at Williams College, and Marlene Sandstrom who is a professor of psychology. The focus of the piece addresses ways in which schools can effectively combat bullying.

They compare Norway's anti-bullying campaign that was implemented in schools after 1983 when the problem hit a high point to the latest laws, specifically in Massachusets, here in the United States. Norway's system is holistic and involves everyone who works at a school, including janitors. They say that "[m]ost important, educators need to make a profound commitment to turn schools into genuine communities. Children need to know that adults consider kindness and collaboration to be every bit as important as algebra and reading. In groups and one-on-one sessions, students and teachers should be having conversations about relationships every day. And, as obvious as it might sound, teachers can’t just preach kindness; they need to actually be nice to one another and to their students."

Princess Free Zone believes that Super Tool Lula could be used as an educational tool in schools around the country for elementary school children. Clearly, there needs to be a concerted effort, a full court press, to combat bullying. It is not enough to legislate, we must practice, practice, practice.

It's been about five months since I launched this site and put Princess Free Zone and Super Tool Lula on the map, so to speak. Initially, it was quite nerve-wracking to open my ideas up to the public--this was my brainchild based on my own life experience so, though I hope for it to be a profitable business, I am very tied to it emotionally. I'm happy to say that, to date, PrincessFreeZone.com has had almost 2000 visitors! And the amazing thing about the Internet is its uncanny ability to reach people across the globe. Because of some of the connections I've made with various organizations, specifically the non-profit organization, Pink Stinks which is based in London, I have had many visitors from other countries.

I believe PFZ has begun to gain a solid following from the website, Facebook, Twitter and just general word-of-mouth. There are so many people who are eager to see the way we market to girls change and there is evidence of this everywhere you look, but there is still a major gap when it comes to providing true choice, especially for girls. As a result, I recently posted PFZ on the site Kickstarter.com where fans of the brand can pledge as little as five dollars to further the goal of creating some tangible product to be placed in the right markets. Also, with so many news stories recently on bullying (cyber and otherwise), Super Tool Lula could not be more of a relevant character for today's times with a specific message to all children. Her story is one, I believe, that would work well as a book series among many other applications.

My hope is to continue on this journey and eventually find likeminded partners who can transform my property to an even broader audience in terms of materializing the brand. In the meantime, I continue to spread the word that all girls are not the same. Go PFZ!

There are some new items on Zazzle featuring our super hero, Super Tool Lula! You can view and purchase them under the "Gear" tab.