The Examiner.com - November 14, 2009

Stop Traffick Fashion Makes Shopping Meaningful
By Tamia Stinson

Stop Traffick Fashion founder Emily Hill
Emily Hill

Shopping for a cause has to be one of the best ideas, ever. At least, that’s what Emily Hill hopes. Hill is the founder of Stop Traffick Fashion, a retail site dedicated to raising awareness about the horrors of human trafficking and providing a place for fashionistas to shop for stylish goods created by trafficking victims.

The Cincinnati native graduated from Miami University with an MA in Economics and currently works for Nielsen in addition to acting as the president, buyer, blogger, and media contact for Stop Traffick Fashion, which launched this past summer.

“I wanted to hand-pick products and sell them to a new set of consumers to raise awareness.”

Her passion for the cause was solidified on a trip to Thailand while in college, when she visited a school for high-risk young girls in danger of becoming victims of human trafficking. “That brought it home for me because they were your average 12-year-old girls.” Over time, she became more deeply involved, and at an industry event she noticed some of the vendors sold products made by survivors of trafficking. That was when the initial idea took root.

Running the business
Emily runs Stop Traffick Fashion mostly on her own, with help from friends and family as needed. She works directly with organizations with offices and distribution in the US, buys the products wholesale, and people are paid fair wages for fair trade products. She also donates a portion of her sales back to the organizations.

Most of the inventory resides in her home, where she’s “set up a little area for packing and shipping.” All orders are carefully packaged by hand with attention to detail. She hopes to add new lines and carry clothing soon, and eventually open a brick-and-mortar shop to sell products.

“I try to stay focused on success of Stop Traffick Fashion as awareness, not necessarily the business side.” For Hill, the most rewarding part is when people become more engaged in the cause and try to make small changes, “When I can get people thinking about what they buy and where it comes from.”

Changing the way we shop
She advises gradually making adjustments to your shopping habits. “Start by investigating some of the sites that provide information about the consequences of trafficking and the companies who participate in this practice, and think about what you can change.”

You can check to see which companies are on the watchlist at Free2Work.org, and visit Chain Store Reaction for a list of companies that may play a part in the exploitation of fellow humans. The Stop Traffick blog also has a page of resources to consult. “Organizations out there need our support.”

Emily notes that organizations need monetary donations as well, since economic empowerment is a very big part of rehabilitation for victims of human trafficking. Funding leads to teaching people job skills, which leads to confidence, which leads to hope.

“It’s amazing to see how much hope they do have.”

Shop online at Stop Traffick Fashion and visit the blog at Stoptraffickfashion.com/blog.STFSTF