“Those signals are telling us that connecting these two worlds is incredibly powerful, and people are very interested in this intersection of beauty, culture, and entertainment,” said Marchisotto. 

Marchisotto told ADWEEK that a study Hello Sunshine ran shaped the brand’s involvement with Sunnie. Seventy-six percent of Gen Z girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years old don’t feel seen in today’s media, Marchisotto said.

In addition to E.l.f. Cosmetics, Sunnie has partnered with organizations like Être, Step Up, AnitaB.org, Women’s Sports Foundation and the Child Mind Institute, as well as Purdue University. 

With mentorship company Être, Sunnie has formed the Sunnie Gen Z Advisory Board. The board consists of 20 diverse teenage girls from across the country that range in age from 13 to 21. The board doubles as a mentorship program and girls were chosen based on their realness, curiosity, and willingness to speak honestly about what it means to grow up right now. Sunnie asks the board open questions and tests ideas, co-creates content, programming, and messaging with them.

Sunnie wants to bring women into STEM

Purdue is partnering with Sunnie to develop curriculum to inspire girls to pursue careers in STEM. While the programming is still in development, Kelly Hiller, Purdue’s CMO told ADWEEK that Purdue is interested in launching a STEM workbook that makes different career paths accessible to teen girls by showing how their interests might match up with STEM careers.

Purdue will also provide career development offerings to Sunnie’s target audience’s of caregivers. Eventually, Sunnie will include a landing page of certificate programs and STEM development aimed at caregivers. These certificates might include anything from Google Career certificates in topics like project management and data analytics to pharmacy technician certificates.

The partnership between Sunnie and Purdue aligns with Purdue’s objective of bridging the gender gap in STEM, and it allows the university to reach its core-intended audience of prospective applicants, 13 to 17-year-olds. In partnership with Sunnie, Purdue will host more hands-on events to encourage interest in STEM careers.

Sunnie reached out to Purdue after the university partnered with E.l.f. for an activation last year to spark girls’ interest in STEM tied to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Indianapolis. The “STEM Era” event was open to the public and featured activities like making friendship bracelets using binary code and designing social media backgrounds using computer graphics technology. It drew 10,000 attendees.

“We’re going to work with Sunnie to help develop their STEM curriculum for young women, as well as making courses and professional development opportunities available to their caregivers,” Kelly Hiller, Purdue’s CMO told ADWEEK.