peaches monroee deserves better

Who is Peaches Monroee (aka Kayla Newman)? If you've ever uttered the words "on fleek", you can credit her for that. Kayla originated this phrase in a Vine that she posted back in 2014. This phrase has since been ultra-popularized in our culture and has been used on t-shirts, in social media campaigns by numerous different brands, and basically used by anyone who owns an smart phone.

Her original words have been used to advertise and sell a multitude of products, and yet she is the only person who is not profiting from her own success. If Kayla had a dollar for every time someone said "on fleek", she would be a multi-millionaire, if not a billionaire. Right now, if you look up #onfleek on Instagram, you're going to find over 2.1 million posts using the hashtag. Brands like Taco Bell have used her phrase on social media (without crediting her), as did Forever 21 on a t-shirt (again, without any credit or compensation given to Kayla). Cardi B even has a song by the same name, and Kayla has not been mentioned, credited, or compensated from that either.

As of recently, Kayla has decided to take ownership of her original phrase and create her own brand that includes a line of hair and related beauty products. Earlier this year, she launched On Fleek Extensions by Peaches Monroee online. The brand offers a line of hair bundles, lashes, wigs, extensions, and edge control.

Back in February, she had started a GoFundMe page to fund her dreams and even mentioned that she felt that she had been wronged by the people who had taken advantage of her phrase and not given her proper credit upon its use and success. Her creativity, originality, and humor have been exploited to the highest degree. Without the resources to fight back against these wrongful uses of what would normally be considered grounds for a lawsuit, she decided the best route would be to look to her followers to help her fund her dreams. She originally set a goal of $100,000, and ended up raising about $12,000 by mid-September of this year. With the help of her mom, On Fleek Extensions has been thriving for a few months now.

While it's always a difficult conversation when it comes to intellectual property, this is a blatant example of large corporations taking advantage of the creativity of a young woman of color in order to profit off of her phrase. This is a tactic they knew they could essentially get away with because this girl was not ever in the financial position to pursue a serious lawsuit with any of these brands. I hope that in the future, Kayla gets the justice she deserves.

I, for one, couldn't be happier to see this bright young woman come to collect her coin and get whatever use she can out of what rightfully belongs to her. I remember seeing different ads using her phrase and in the back of my head always thought that it was incredibly wrong to be knowingly taking advantage of this girl. That phrase has become a pop-culture phenomenon and is incredibly well-known. When I discovered that Kayla Newman had begun making these entrepreneurial efforts, I was more than happy to support her.

In March of this year, Kayla told Teen Vogue that she was creating her collection not only to receive the rightful credit she deserves for the cultural impact she’s made, but also to promote inclusivity within the beauty industry. Kayla plans to launch a line of makeup products in the near future, and I wish her all of the success in the world.

(P.S. If you want to follow Kayla on Instagram, her @ is: peaches__monroee)