Gabby Estep and Emma Hartman's crafty accessories are helping the planet--one bow at a time.

Last spring, Gabby Estep and Emma Hartman discovered colorful duct tape at a craft store and started experimenting with designs in their free time. Gabby, thirteen, crafted a pink hair bow and wore it to dance class, where it was a huge hit. The next day she and Emma, fourteen, grabbed some extra tape Gabby had in her locker and made more bows in study hall. Realizing they could parlay their creativity into positive change, the girls decided to sell the bows and donate the proceeds. "We are both really interested in the environment, so we started researching different charities," Emma says, "and We Can Solve the Climate Crisis, or the We Campaign, seemed like a good one, since Al Gore started it." They decided to operate under the name Gem!--"G" is for Gabby; "em," for Emma--and have sold the bows on their Web site, at Gabby's dance school, and at family reunions, earning them a feature on the We Campaign home page. The girls sold 750 bows and donated $850 to the We Campaign in 2008, and they're in the process of filling orders for 2009 now.

Visit Gem! blog at gembows.blogspot.com to learn more.

Source: Teen Vogue; author: Jackie Randell.