14 Sep New Educational Leaders: Mimi Valdes & Pharrell Williams’ Kidult Youth Enterprise
As one half of the legendary production tandem, The Neptunes, Pharrell Williams has experienced numerous triumphs in his career. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry today, but his work outside of the musical arena is where his legacy will be forever defined. His other non-musical ventures include the Billionaire Boys Club clothing line and a partnership with Bionic Yarn, a textile firm that develops environmentally sustainable fabrics using recycled plastic bottles. But perhaps his latest undertaking will leave an indelible mark on the minds of the next generation.
Alongside his longtime friend, Mimi Valdes, he has co-founded a new venture, called Kidult. Mimi Valdes is the former editor-in-chief of VIBE and Latina magazines respectively. She has been in the entertainment industry for close to 20 years and has worked with some of the all-time greats in the business.
In 2007, Williams reached out to Valdes to express his strong desire to build something geared toward his young fan base. In 2009, both Williams and Valdes went to work on constructing a blueprint for success and in January of this year they officially launched Kidult.com, a news and entertainment website for teens, created by Pharrell Williams.
“This is something I wish I had when I was growing up as a kid,” says Williams. “Most of the other kids I went to school with didn't understand me as an individual and it was always more fun to have conversations with adults.”
Kidult was created with that premise in mind; a place where kids who were misunderstood by their peers would have a place to voice their opinions and ideas with like-minded individuals with a desire to change the world they live in.
This weekend, I had the esteemed pleasure to speak with Kidult Co-Founder, Mimi Valdes to learn more about the partnership she has embarked on with Williams and the vision they have for the venture as a whole.
For the past four months, a grandiose ecological problem exists in the waters located in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010, the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill took place in the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum (BP) has claimed responsibility for this environmental disaster, but has blamed Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton for their hand in building the rig and the well casing exploding and causing the oil to leak out into the Gulf at an unfathomable estimate of 100,000 barrels a day.
BP has a long history of committing transgressions against nature sanctuaries and paying dubious fines for their disregard of policies and regulations protecting these valuable commodities. Mother Jones Magazine named BP as one of the "ten worst corporations" in 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records.
According to Sharon Beder, 'bp: Beyond Petroleum?' in Battling Big Business: Countering greenwash, infiltration and other forms of corporate bullying, “In 1991, BP was cited as the most polluting company in the US based on EPA toxic release data. In July 2000, BP paid a $10 million fine to the EPA for its management of its US refineries.”
According to PIRG research, “between January 1997 and March 1998, BP was responsible for 104 oil spills in the Arctic alone.”
As recently as October 2007, four BP energy traders in Houston were charged with manipulating prices of propane and as a result they settled with the US government for a record breaking $303 million.
How are they still in business?