Three sisters want to bring women’s empowerment to the palm of your hand with their new app, Womaze.
The free app, which launches April 18 on Apple and Android platforms, will be a collection of shareable articles and content from other outlets centered around positive messages for women on topics like body image and sexuality. Twins Leah and Becca Wiser, who are both juniors, decided to create the app with their mother and younger sister as a way to connect and share stories between women.
Leah Wiser, who is majoring in journalism and mass communications, described the app as a curation of “the best content for women from all around the web.” This content includes a variety of articles, videos and podcasts that can be found and shared on the app.
“We made it very clear from the beginning that we don’t want this to be a traditional social media platform where you’re focused on how many likes and followers you have,” Leah Wiser said. “It’s really a community experience where everyone just feels comfortable sharing their own wisdom and their voice.”
The twins are currently on a leave of absence from the University to work on the app out of their South Florida home with the help of their mother Corin Wiser and 16-year-old sister Hannah Wiser. It was their younger sister, Hannah, who first conceived the idea for the app based on the Wiser family group chat.
Each morning, the family sends empowering videos, articles and quotes to one another to start the day off on a positive note. The sisters found themselves sharing the content with their friends and saving the content to “toolboxes” they created for when they were feeling down. They soon realized they were onto something bigger.
Although many women’s-based media platforms focus on fashion and beauty, Leah Wiser said the app emphasizes topics that impact women.
“We cover mental health, spirituality, body image,” Leah Wiser said. “Womaze is really born out of our desire to talk about what we want to be talking about and what our friends want to be talking about. We really want to mainstream the real talks and have everyone feel totally comfortable and safe.”
The search feature on Womaze allows users to search for specific topics based on their moods, and then they can save their favorite content to their own toolbox to revisit when you need a boost. It also serves a platform where, similar to Pinterest, women can upload their own content to share their own stories with others.
Becca Wiser, who is majoring in sociology, said the community and sharing aspects of the app were most important to the family as they developed this idea.
“Our biggest priority is really establishing a community of these amazing women who are ready to make their mark on the world,” Becca Wiser said. “And we have many different ideas as to how we can expand from there.”
When the sisters first conceptualized the app while hanging out in Leah Wiser’s District House room, they were not sure where to begin. Now, they are working with an app developer in Los Angeles to bring Womaze to life and have been involved in every step of the process, from brainstorming the app’s features to designing its layout.
The family said the biggest challenge after a successful launch will be building a user base that is as passionate about the project as they are. They have built a network of 60 app ambassadors around the country to spread the word about the app and gain more users.
They also plan to work with media outlets to create a steadier content output for women. Becca Wiser said the sisters are looking to make Womaze a well-known source of empowerment, one that may redefine a woman’s space on social media.
“We want Womaze to be part of the dictionary,” Becca Wiser said. “We want women to feel like they have the tools and the sense of belonging to completely revolutionize what it means to be an amazing woman.”
