Lancôme brings its female literacy initiative to the USA

Lancôme USA has announced that it wants to reduce illiteracy rates among women in the United States.

The prestige beauty label has joined forces with the adult literacy nonprofit ProLiteracy to launch its ‘Write Her Future' program in the US, via the ‘Write Her Future Institute.'

The cosmetics giant hopes to help some of the 28 million low literate adults in the US, by offering free access to the personalized language learning platform Voxy for one year. The initiative has been made possible via a donation to ProLiteracy, which the beauty brand's ambassador Zendaya presented to the nonprofit in the form of a check this week.

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"Lancôme's wish is to empower women by working to end illiteracy and also to raise awareness of this too often silent issue," said Suriya Parksuwan, President, Lancôme USA, in a statement.

"We know that women who lack basic reading and writing skills have a hidden handicap that can seriously hamper their own lives as well as those of their families. This partnership seems natural for Lancôme, whose mission since the very beginning, was to help women on their journey towards happiness and self-fulfillment."

"Through this exciting partnership, ProLiteracy and Lancôme foresee a world where women increase their literacy skills, get better jobs, improve their health, leave abusive relationships, break the cycle of poverty, learn English language skills, and support their families," added Kevin Morgan, president and CEO, ProLiteracy.

Lancôme first unveiled ‘Write Her Future' last year in partnership with CARE, an NGO operating in 94 countries that works to combat extreme poverty.

The brand pledged to donate €2 million to CARE over the course of five years, funding a literacy program in Morocco, as well as two further planned programs in Guatemala and Thailand. The campaign was fronted by some of its biggest celebrity ambassadors, including Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet and Penélope Cruz.