Browtober: Put Down the Tweezers & Support A Good Cause

Last week I got an email from Olympia’s Teal Russell who said she’s been listening to us talk about
Safe Place, so she decided to start a little fundraiser to help out.

I, of course, assumed she was talking about the Safe Place that we’ve been talking about: a place where foster kids can stay while they wait to be placed in a family.

Turns out, there is another Safe Place, in Olympia, and it supports victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. It’s a very worthy cause, so I’m glad that the miscommunication is resulting in another non-profit getting some public support.

So, what is this Olympia woman doing? Teal Russell has launched Browtowber. She vows to let her brows grow long and wild all month, in exchange for donations.

“You know, men have Movember. I mean, why don’t women have something cool like that?”

Movember is when men grow mustaches to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. But this month, let your inner
Frida Khalo free and grow out your brows to support Olympia’s Safe Place.

“I have a Facebook page where people are posting pictures of their eyebrows and how they’re getting bushier as time goes on,” Teala said. “They’re also getting sponsors, telling people about what they’re doing.”

And it’s not just for the ladies.

“This is non discriminatory. I have a couple of men on the Facebook page that have posted pictures. Men do manscaping and so they vowed not to pluck their unibrow for the month.”

“I think this is incredibly adorable. This is really quite unique. I think this is very exciting that someone would actually think about us,” says Mary Pontarolo, the executive director of Safe Place.

Olympia’s Safe Place is a non-profit that runs three 24- hour programs and provides legal services, survival support in the form of walk-in advocacy and more.

“We have a 24-hour help line. We provide weekly support groups. We have legal clinics and of course a 28-bed residential shelter. So we are a dual domestic violence and sexual assault program.”

Four to five hundred people attend Safe Place’s weekly support groups and they get 4,500 calls to their hotline every year. They rely on donations to fund half their yearly budget.

Go to Teal’s website to join the brow brigade or simply send a donation to Safe Place. If you do, your eyebrows will be greatly rewarded at the end of the month.

“I have some aestheticians who have volunteered to be at the event, at the end of the month, and do free eyebrow waxing for people who have donated $25 or more.”