A friend of mine, after reading Z Recs BPA report, sent me an email wondering about the dangers of parabens, talc, and other cancer-causing agents in products and make-up. Growing up, she was my make-up guru, spending many, many hours at her house steaming our faces over bowls of just-boiled water with big towels over our heads. It got me wondering about what teenage girls are buying these days (although one trip to Sephora speaks volumes), and if the word is getting out to them about chemicals in product they buy all the time.

Lucky for me, the wonderfully green site ecofabulous has led me to Teens for Safe Cosmetics, an amazing offshoot of the cancer education and charity program “Search for the Cause”. Teens for Safe Cosmetics is getting the word out about their “Dirty Dozen” chemicals found within popular products with teen-inspired programs and events nationwide. On April 4th, TFSC is hosting Turning Green, an eco-fashion show and spa event at the Broad Street Ballroom in New York City. TFSC will present a show and have many samples on hand for green beauty. With sponsors such as EO organic hair and skin care, Jane Iredale mineral cosmetics, and Elephant Pharm herbal pharmacy, you may even find some new products make their way into your home! And you don’t want to miss their top picks on ecofabulous - a great starter to helping your teens build a healthy beauty regimen.

On March 31st, 2007, Sydney, Australia went dark - on purpose. Earth Hour 2007 was a huge success in Sydney, and unified the city in the fight against global warming. Organizers estimated that 2.2 million people participated, as well as 2100 businesses including the landmark Sydney Opera House. Apparently “if the greenhouse reduction achieved during Earth Hour (2007) was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road every year”. Amazing stats - can you imagine what can happen as it goes global?

This year, the entire world is taking part. Earth Hour 2008 is March 29th from 8-9:00 PM local time, and cities around the globe are participating, as communities or individually. Sign up at Earth Hour and you’ll get emails highlighting which cities are taking part, ideas for what to do when the lights go out, and information about climate change. Check out the Earth Hour cities list to see if your city is participating, or simply turn your lights out, tell your neighbors, and party in the dark! I asked my older daughter how we can support Earth Hour at home. Since Earth Hour is during my girl’s bedtime, we decided to have a ‘flashlight’ storytime. Our new favorite book, Whoo’s There, is a perfect flashlight entertainment companion. I even relented and am allowing cookies and milk for the special occasion!

Image courtesy of sarabcanada.  Note: Earth Hour homepage takes a little time to load - be patient, it’s worth it!

Happy almost Spring! I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the arrival of warmer weather and more time outside, especially with Easter this Sunday. While the weather is still chilly, why not reenergize your kids with new, eco-friendly cards and coloring fun! I’ve written about Stubby Pencil Studio for Valentine’s Day, and I asked Kate Rosenthal, Stubby Pencil’s creator, to make party invitations for my daughter’s third birthday party. What a hit! I am so loving this paper company, I thought it was time to share with all of you. Stubby Pencil Studio’s “Green to the Letter” Stationery basket includes:

• 4 packs of Color ‘n Kids cards (winner’s choice of styles) - click the categories under “multi-pack sets” to see the styles
• Set of 10 Smencil pencils
• NEW! Set of 10 Colored Smencil pencils
• Box of 24 Soy Crayons
• One ’spring top’ pencil sharpener (winner’s choice of style)

This is an artsy kid’s dream! My girls love these cards, and it’s a great feeling to have them handy and not have to run to a card store for every holiday or occasion. The cards also have letter tracing and fun, unique, kid-centric designs.

You know the rules - leave a comment here with an answer to the following: what’s your favorite Color ‘n Kids pack? You have until Thursday, March 27th at midnight PST to enter. Good luck!

This contest is closed!  Congrats to Donna! 

I’m always on a quest for the perfect sling, if not for me, than for my friends who are having first babies and NEED to know the joys and benefits of babywearing. With my first daughter, slings were rare and usually just loooooong bolts of heavy fabric with rings that I though for sure would unhook at any moment. With my second daughter, there were a few more options, but the sling I chose was stiff - it did the job, but I never could truly relax with her in the sling. It wasn’t until a brave friend let me carry her baby in her HugaMonkey sling that the heavens opened and I found - albiet very very past due - the sling I would have used if I needed one. Instead, it became the sling I send to people who I know will love it. Lightweight, versatile, in every style you and your better half will be proud to sling across your chests, not to mention totally within your budget - I mean, come on, you know spit-up and other fluids are going to end up on it, don’t you want something durable? - HugaMonkey delivers. Did I mention I love them?

How exciting to find out that HugaMonkey is adding a line of organic fabrics to their slings, and they’re enlisting you for help! Vote for your favorite fabric and styles, and then sign up for their newsletter - totally harmless, I swear. To celebrate, they’re giving away five organic slings. Choose from 100% bamboo, recycled plastic blend, bamboo/cotton blend, seaweed/organic cotton blend, linen, and 100% organic cotton. You only have until THIS THURSDAY, March 20th to enter! Good luck!

A report Friday that had green blogs buzzing revealed that almost half of 100 ‘green’ and ‘natural’ products tested by the Organic Consumers Association have come back not so people friendly. Turns out, these products contain an FDA-known carcinogen (in lab rats) named 1,4-dioxane, which is actually a byproduct (meaning, the companies did not intentionally include this) created during production to help soften foaming agents. Your favorite brand may be here - Kiss My Face, Alba, even Seventh Generation do not escape. Here’s the complete list of products that were tested, and the parts per million 1,4-dioxane levels contained. On labels, look for “polyethylene glycol” or the syllables “PEG,” short for polyethylene glycol, -eth or -oxynol-.

Now, let’s not all throw out all our products yet again. There’s still sodium laureth sulfate and parabens hiding out in my shower, make-up case, and kitchen cleaners. The point of our reactions to this is sort of the whole point of why I started teensygreen in the first place. You spot what needs changing; you do what you can to change it. To me, running the dishwasher after we’ve turned out the lights for the night, and changing lightbulbs is a more immediate change that scouring products for PEG. However, does this taint how you view green products? Do you feel deceived? Does it make a difference to your buying habits, or, maybe more important, do you still trust these companies? The cynic in me wants to say “you can’t win,” and surely we won’t be able to entirely eliminate carcinogens from our homes. There will always “be something” to deal with!

If you really want to dig deep, you can run products you have in your home through the Environmental Working Group’s “Skin Deep” Cosmetics Database. My only caveat is you may get carried away and end up wanting to trash everything in your home, makeup included!  Whatever you do, don’t empty your wallet over this.  Responsible companies will for sure be correcting this problem!

What does it mean to you to be a ‘hot mom’? I may not feel hot when I’m writing about recycling in my pjs while my kids are at school, but after finding Hot Moms Club website, I’m feeling a bit - hotter? Definitely. Hot Moms Club was started by friends Jessica Denay and Joy Bergin, as “an emotional, inspirational and informational resource” for moms of all backgrounds. The HMC magazine is a wealth of knowledge about the joys, trials, and tribulations about motherhood, but in a positive and empowering light. Their ‘about’ page features the many moms who have becoming invaluable resources and advisors for Hot Moms Club, and HMC has been featured in press from Good Housekeeping to Playboy.

I’m so thrilled to tell you about a teensygreen/Hot Moms Club partnership for their just launched “super community” just for moms! It’s easy and free to join, and is bringing a wealth of already established mom-centered websites together with moms (and moms-to-be) all over the world for discussions, fun, and a wealth of social networking. Create your own blog and join a group (or many groups) - groups range from your favorite sites such as Celebrity Baby Blog and Savvy Mommy to groups for moms of all ages, working moms, single moms, rocker moms, any kind of mom you can think of. It’s a great way to meet and interact, without having to navigate or deal with Facebook apps or Myspace creepiness. For teensygreen, it gives me a chance to expand content from this site, including posting green events, forum discussions, even a book club I’m going to debut soon. So feel free to check out HMC, and when you join, give me a shoutout! I can’t wait to see how teensygreen and Hot Moms Club members share and grow.

For an added bonus, there’s even a rewards program for goodies, a point system for every picture or video you upload, friends you invite and sign up, blog posts you write, etc. The more involved you are, the better chance you have to score amazing swag - go get going, you hottie you!

I love singing the praises about yoga - anyone can do it, and there’s never enough that can be said about the benefits to the body and mind. With information constantly being put out there about getting kids outdoors, turning TVs off, obesity, and alternative ways to get kids active, yoga may be the key to kid’s physical success. It’s an indoor or outdoor activity, that’s especially fun when it’s with a parent! It’s amazing to see my girls immediately mimic my yoga moves (that sometimes take a little more time for me to get right!).

One book that we love at our house is My Daddy is a Pretzel, written by Baron Baptiste and published by Barefoot Books. Giving simple visual aids to basic yoga poses, My Daddy is a Pretzel gives kids (and parents unfamiliar with yoga) a gentle start to yoga. It also helps kids see yoga in everyday life, as the poses reflect nature and animals around them. Paired with a PVC-free, non-toxic, and biodegradable kid’s sized yoga mat from Lotuspad, your kids will be pretzel-ing in no time! I’ve written about Lotuspad before, and can’t get enough of how durable and accessible these mats are - not only for yoga, but as a great protective activity mat.

We took a giveaway break last week, but this week we’ll celebrate with two winners - each will win one copy of My Daddy is a Pretzel along with a Lotuspad kid’s yoga mat to help your little yopi get a healthy start to a lifetime of healthy habits! As usual, please leave a comment here with an answer to this question - what’s your favorite Lotuspad yoga mat carry strap style? This giveaway will be open until next Thursday night at midnight PST. As an aside, please note that all comments are moderated, so there’s no need to leave comments over and over - they will be posted! Also, please limit your entry to one per household. Thanks, and good luck!

This contest is closed!  Thanks for entering, and check back for the winners! 

This week, I was so lucky to have a guest product tester for an adorable line of bamboo clothing and towels from BabyBam Collection. BabyBam products, a 70% bamboo/30% cotton blend, are naturally anti-bacterial, hypoallergenic, and thermal regulating, so it wasn’t too difficult to get this seven month old to quickly snuggle into his footie pajamas! Created by Jody Graziano Jonas, a mom with not one, but two sons with severe milk allergies and sensitive infant skin, BabyBam is a safe bet for moms looking for comfort without worry. Aside from BabyBam’s “eco-luxury” look and feel, I love the non-snarky saying on the clothing and the classic, muted colors - as natural looking as the fabric it’s made from!

If you’re thinking ahead - I know I have a few friends having April babies - BabyBam will be running a coupon for 10% off all BabyBam products for the month of April in honor of Earth Day! Use the coupon code “EarthDay” at checkout.

Thanks to Mr. Man for your hard work wearing the clothing!

My daughter’s preschool always has a yearly drive to help those in need - this year, boxes are around the school asking for first aid and dental kits. Obviously, these are quite a necessity for people, but since our kids are learning about the environment and recycling in the classroom more and more, I asked the school if they would participate in a teensygreen campaign for the month of March. The next step is to extend this call to my readers - so, for the first time in this blog’s history, I’m going to try a campaign for an entire month.

This month, I’m urging all of you to participate in the SolesUnited / Crocs footwear drive to put shoes on the feet of men, women, and children who can’t affort this luxury necessity. There is no money involved except for shipping. Here’s the process. Send in your used, grown out, holey, sunburnt, water-crusted Crocs - SolesUnited cleans them and completely shreds them, so don’t worry about grime and extreme wear and tear. They then make completely new Crocs made out of 20% of the recycled Crocs, called “croslite”, that are distributed to a specific organization. The next 10,000 pairs are headed to Haiti through Yele Haiti, a humanitarian charity established by musician Wyclef Jean.

So, get in your closets and start Spring cleaning early this year! I know my Floridian friends have a few outgrown pairs from their kids hiding somewhere. Get a group of friends together to send in a larger shipment, saving packaging and money! Ask your school to have a SolesUnited drive and really get your community involved. Click here for the addresses of where you can send in your Crocs. Email me at stefani@teensygreen.com when you send shoes in and how many, and I’ll try to keep a running tally on how many pairs of crocs are on their way (this Wordpress outline is a bit limiting, but I’ll do my best!) I’d love to hear how you’re getting people involved in this simple yet revolutionary upcycling process!