The young fashionista reworks jeans, jackets and other items by tie-dying, sewing material or adding jewels & studs. You can read more about D’Anna and another teens in this article from the Miami Herald that also talks about how you can also start your own business this summer instead of wading through the current unpredictable job market.

Photo Source: The Miami Herald

See Also:

• Ramona & Beezus Movie Starring Selena Gomez & Inspiration From Beverly Cleary
• Inspiring ENT: Video for “Moments That Matter” From Corbin Bleu
• Motivating Young Women: Faithful Sister Magazine
• Video Pick: Mary Mary “Get Up”
• Do Something After School Grants
• Merry Christmas!
• Girls Talk About Bullying
• Dreamer ENT Site Launches Officially This Fall

After hearing about the oil spill in the Gulf that is affecting many people and animals there 11-year-old Olivia Bouler was moved and decided to take action. The Gulf Coast was a familiar place to her, where she spent many vacations with her family who live in Louisiana and Alabama.

Olivia, who describes herself as an “aspiring ornithologist, artist, and saxophone player,” decided to put her artistic skills to work, creating and selling original artworks of birds, because she knew birds would be affected and could likely suffer as a result of the spill.

She contacted the National Audubon Society to ask for help, in hopes of giving her illustrations to raise money for clean up costs. The response has been enormous and, Olivia has raised thousands and has over 27,000 members on her Facebook page: Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations. Her story has appeared in several news outlets like BBC radio, AOL News, Newsday, Italian news, and Belgian news. Her work is now also featured as an AOL Artist, with AOL giving The Audubon Society $25,000 in honor of Olivia’s efforts.

What an amazing effort; we love Oliva’s artwork and commend her for the work she’s doing! Want to donate or contribute to her efforts? Visit http://www.aolartists.com/projects/help-the-gulf to donate and visit Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations to find out how you can get a print of her work for your donation.

Read more about Olivia in this feature from AOL’s Good News Now and read the letter she wrote here.

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• Dreamer ENT Founder Featured in NFTE Entrepreneurship Textbook
• Montel Williams’ Daughter Creating a Revolution for Healthy Eating
• Save Our Music with Nick Jonas and Do Something
• Behind the Scenes of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog
• Class of 2010 Spotlight: Congrats Ashley Argota!
• Teen Rocks Out On Cool Custom Guitars
• Ramona & Beezus Movie Starring Selena Gomez & Inspiration From Beverly Cleary
• Links We Love: Teen Baker & Tween Bloggers

Check out this video from Teen.com TV’s Craft Club with step-by-step instructions on how to make a special stationery set. Get creative and show your Mom how much she means to you!

Similar Home-Made Gift Ideas:

- Print up a special poem or “World’s Best Mom Award” on pretty paper and stamp the edges of the paper with flower designs like in the video. Frame the poem when it’s dry and give it to your mom as a special gift she can hang in her room or office.

- Instead of stamping paper, why not buy fabric paints and stamp colorful flowers onto an apron, canvas bag or t-shirt? You can use a fine bristle brush or fabric marker to write your mother’s name to make a personalized piece of art she can wear.

- Get a large poster board and cover it with colorful flower stamps as shown in the video above. Print out pictures of you and your siblings and glue them onto the board to create a collage of photos. You can also buy an affordable frame from somewhere like Wal-mart to make your masterpiece even more special.

(Note: All of the art supplies mentioned above can be found at your local Michaels, or other art supply stores.)

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• Video Pick: Never Say Never – Justin Bieber & Jaden Smith From The Karate Kid
• Creative Career: Puppeteer Kevin Clash
• A Tribute to Service: Variety Power of Youth 2009
• Become a Nike Field Reporter – Contest Deadline June 15, 2009
• Dr. Maya Angelou Speaks About Finding Your Creative Voice
• Montel Williams’ Daughter Creating a Revolution for Healthy Eating
• Happy New Year!
• Watch the Do Something Awards 2010

Here are some cool links and stories of young dreamers to inspire you:

Sweet Success

Check out this article, Teenage baker turns hobby into profitable company and video about a teen girl from Florida who runs her own bakery, and has more than 50 clients that range “from music superstars to local civic clubs.” Visit her website Shea’s Bakery (via NBC WPTV).

Presidential Bloggers

Check out the “Malia and Sasha Fan Club” blog by two tween sisters whose creative coverage of the President’s daughters got them invited to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll 2010 (click here to see pictures and videos of their journey). The blogging duo even published a book called Our Journey with Radiance and Rosebud, and were featured on ABC News Nightline and other news outlets. Though they still haven’t been able to meet the Obama girls they’re still blogging away hoping their dream will come true.

Related Posts:

• Monique Coleman Preparing To Launch Gimme Mo’ Her New Talk Show For Teens
• Corbin Bleu Wants Your Help To Change the World
• Balancing Act – Interview With Chelsea Staub On Living Her Dreams and Her Role on JONAS
• Read ALL About It: Interview with Adele Ann Taylor Founder of Adele’s Literacy Library
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April 12 is the birthday of beloved author and Newbery Award winner Beverly Cleary, and this year she celebrates her 94th birthday. Many schools also celebrate the day as “Drop Everything and Read Day” where students do just that – drop everything and curl up with a good book, something I like to do all the time.

When I was younger I loved the books by Ms. Cleary, like the Ramona Quimby books and Dear Mr. Henshaw. Ms. Cleary is one of the authors who inspired me to read and want to become a children’s author one day. She also has several books for teens you can check out, like The Luckiest Girl which I read and thought was a cute love story.

You can visit Beverly Cleary’s website at www.beverlycleary.com for more information about her life and her works. Have you read any of her books?

Beverly Cleary Tip for Young Writers and On the Love of Reading

Read widely. Master the tools of writing. I know that spelling, punctuation, and grammar are boring, but they are necessary.”

“I think I was fortunate in growing up before television and before many people even had radios, because my mother read aloud every evening to my father and me, and I was — I — I don’t know what I would’ve done in the evening if she hadn’t… She really read quite a variety of things, and I loved those evenings. I wish more people read aloud.

- Beverly Cleary (From her website)

This summer the movie Ramona & Beezus based Ms. Clearly’s books, will be in theaters starring Selena Gomez as older sister ‘Beezus’ and Joey King as the little sister ‘Ramona’ who always finds herself in a new and crazily imaginative situations. (Click here to read the book for free online; even though the book is aimed at kids you could probably relate with Beezus the older sister and it’s a pretty fun read for people of all ages).

Watch the trailer for the movie “Ramona & Beezus,” in theaters July 23rd, below:

Graphics Credit: “Ramona & Beezus” Movie Website

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• Become a Nike Field Reporter – Contest Deadline June 15, 2009
• Links We Love: Florida Student Flying High
• Keke Palmer’s Class of 2010 Contest
• Dreamer ENT “Field Trip” to the Hispanic Youth Symposium
• Rising High & Staying Grounded: Interview with Actor Jason Dolley

Here’s a great opportunity for high school students with a passion for music. GRAMMY Camp, sponsored by the Grammy Foundation, is now accepting applications for summer 2010. The program is a ten-day residential camp that focuses on the music industry, held at the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.

GRAMMY Camp offers students the opportunity to work with GRAMMY-winning and -nominated professionals and industry specialists affiliated with The Recording Academy over a number of music industry career tracks. Over the past three years, approximately 70 percent of campers who applied for financial aid received assistance to this immersive, interactive and highly collaborative residential summer music camp. GRAMMY Camp is sponsored in part by Converse and Epiphone. At GRAMMY Camp, you’ll work, learn, and play with top music professionals from across the industry to kick your music career into high gear:

Musicians – Producers – Engineers – Music Journalists

Singer/Songwriters – Concert Promoters

The final application deadline is March 31, 2010, and for the first time applicants can submit their video essay and audition videos online at www.mystudio.net. Applicants in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz., can also record their application videos free of charge at MyStudio locations in those cities.

To apply CLICK HERE or visit http://www.grammyintheschools.com for more information, and for photos and blogs from previous years. Financial assistance is available; for questions call (800) 423-2017 ext. 8682 or email grammycamp@grammy.com.

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• Behind the Scenes of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog
• Dreamer ENT “Field Trip” to the Hispanic Youth Symposium
• Shooting for the Moon: TEN9EIGHT Film Features Young Entrepreneurs
• Corbin Bleu Wants Your Help To Change the World
• Monique Coleman Preparing To Launch Gimme Mo’ Her New Talk Show For Teens
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• Opportunity: Girls Going Places Entrepreneurship Award Program & Conferences
• Video Pick: “Who I Am” – Nick Jonas & The Administration

Fashion Forward

Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Zoë (pictured to the right), a 17-year-old high school student and fashion designer. She started creating hand-made dresses, shirts and accessories for friends a few years ago and soon began to get so many orders that she started her own business. Her success and creativity allowed her to win several entrepreneurship awards, and she even recently got to visit the the White House! In the interview she’ll tell us how she got started and will give tips for other aspiring fashionistas and future CEOs.

Check out the cute, creative critters on the custom made dresses above by Zoë – we love her creativity and drive!

Related Posts:

• Monique Coleman Preparing To Launch Gimme Mo’ Her New Talk Show For Teens
• Corbin Bleu Wants Your Help To Change the World
• Balancing Act – Interview With Chelsea Staub On Living Her Dreams and Her Role on JONAS
• Read ALL About It: Interview with Adele Ann Taylor Founder of Adele’s Literacy Library
• Links We Love: Teen Baker & Tween Bloggers
• Youth Venture Spotlight: Oakland Teens Planting Seeds of Change
• Rising High & Staying Grounded: Interview with Actor Jason Dolley
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Black History Month Spotlight: Sojourner Truth

You may remember the Ron Clark Academy students from their “You Can Vote However You Like” video that went viral around the web and was picked up by CNN during the 2008 Presidential Election. In the video below the students perform a tribute to Sojourner Truth, who was an influential civil rights leader of the 19th century. They did their creative performance at an event a few month ago to unveil a bust by sculptor Artis Lane of Sojourner Truth. Esteemed guests like First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Members of Congress, were attendance.

The bust is the first sculpture to honor an African American woman in the U.S. Capitol and was donated by the National Congress of Black Women. You can learn more about the bust at http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/truth_bust.cfm.

Sojourner Truth

“Sojourner Truth was perhaps the most famous African-American woman in 19th century America. For over forty years she traveled the country as a forceful and passionate advocate for the dispossessed, using her quick wit and fearless tongue to fight for human rights.

“She traveled around the east and midwest speaking out for human rights. This illiterate ex-slave was a powerful figure in several national social movements, speaking forcefully for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and suffrage, the rights of freedmen, temperance, prison reform and the termination of capital punishment.”

Find out more about Sojourner Truth at http://www.sojournertruth.org.
Photo Source: http://www.nps.gov

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Join in the action by entering The Battle of the Bands competition, and find out how you can support the campaign at your own school with this list of ideas. Also check out the teens who won the “Save Our Music” grant from Do Something and VH1 to support music education programs at their own schools.

Speaking of Nick Jonas and bands, be sure to check out the great new debut album, Who I Am, from his group Nick Jonas & The Administration.

From DoSomething.org
School music programs are being cut across the country and Nick Jonas is joining teens nationwide to do something about it! Nick, along with DoSomething.org and The VH1 Save the Music Foundation, is kicking off the Battle of the Bands campaign to save music education. Tune into VH1 on Thursday February 4th at 9pm ET to see the winners from this fall’s Save Our Music campaign and the debut of Nick’s PSA for Battle of the Bands. The spots are part of the Pepsi Fan Jam concert in Miami, Florida featuring Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Timbaland, and more!

The Battle of the Bands campaign will run from March 1st through April 16th. You’ll be able to submit your videos of your own musical performances with a testimonial telling us why music ed matters to you! Then, a panel of judges will evaluate the entries and the Grand Prize winner will be flown to NYC to perform at the Apollo Theater in front of major music execs! Other winners will be chosen to receive up to $5,000 for your school music program, and other prizes like concert tickets and Rock Band video games!

So what are you waiting for; join Nick and sign up for the mailing list on Save Our Music to stay informed on the upcoming campaign.

Got questions about the upcoming campaign? Email battleofthebands@dosomething.org

More about the VH1 Save the Music Foundation:

The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in American public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education. Since 1997, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation has provided $45 million worth of new musical instruments to more than 1,700 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of more than 1.4 million public school students.

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• Do Something After School Grants
• Motivating Young Women: Faithful Sister Magazine
• Links We Love: Teen Baker & Tween Bloggers
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• Ramona & Beezus Movie Starring Selena Gomez & Inspiration From Beverly Cleary
• Inspiration On Dreams From Langston Hughes
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14-year-old Alexander Niles, a middle-school student from South Florida, is mixing his love of guitars with entrepreneurship, creating custom guitars that he will sell on his online store. He constructs each guitar from scratch, and creatively embellishes them to the customer’s liking.

Alexander received his business training from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship NFTE, a great program for elementary to high school students that helps them build their own businesses. You can learn more about his company in this article in the South Florida Business Journal. Watch Alexander rocking out on his own custom guitar in the video below from the upcoming documentary Ten9Eight: Shoot For the Moon, which features several other young entrepreneurs. For more information about NFTE, visit http://nfte.com.

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• Corbin Bleu Wants Your Help To Change the World
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• Merry Christmas!
• Video – Inspiring ENT: Jordin Sparks “One Step at a Time”
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• Crafty Creative Costume: “If the Shoe Fits, Wear It”