The woman behind the highly successful Afro Unicorn brand, April Showers, will be in St. Louis next week to speak with young girls about never giving up their dreams.
Showers is founder and CEO of Afro Unicorn, the first fully licensed character brand owned by a Black woman. The brand’s distinctive unicorn logo aims to represent women and children of color and celebrate how magical, mythical and unique they are.
“I was repeatedly referred to as a unicorn by a friend because I was doing it all at an extraordinary level – running my businesses, taking care of my boys, and enjoying a bustling social life,” Showers said. “I researched these magical creatures to learn more and found that unicorns were white, so I set out to find a unicorn emoji that represented me better. When I couldn’t find one, I hired an illustrator, who also happens to be my cousin, to create it myself.”
Showers built the brand from the ground up and started selling items online in 2019.
“Back then, Afro Unicorn was an organic, grassroots brand, and I was pressing shirts and selling them through my e-commerce store, adding logos to T-shirts and bags at my customers’ request,” she recalled.
Showers says everything changed in August 2021 when a video of a little girl named Cassidy Brianna wearing an Afro Unicorn shirt went viral.
“I then received an email from Walmart with the subject title ‘Afro Unicorn x Walmart’ collaboration, marking my start with Walmart, with Afro Unicorn gaining prime shelf placement [in the party supplies category] next to Marvel characters and Disney princesses,” she said.
Now, the Afro Unicorn character is ubiquitous on t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, bags, luggage and other accessories and can be found at retailers such as Walmart, Target, JCPenney and Amazon. Despite reaching success on a national level within just a couple of years, Showers stresses Afro Unicorn is still very much a grassroots brand.
“Our biggest challenge is competing against Disney, Marvel and Nickelodeon who have billion-dollar budgets and are fueled by content,” Showers said, adding the company is in the process of releasing content and also recently signed a production deal for animation with Pure Imagination Studios in Los Angeles. “So we are in the race to compete but we are far behind. But, hey, so was the tortoise with the hare!”
Showers, who grew up in South Central, Los Angeles, started her first business at age 19.
“I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. “My last two businesses are still going strong. Founding my Afro Unicorn is another leg of my business marathon to positively uplift and impact women and children of color.”
Her early challenges as a businesswoman taught Showers many valuable lessons, which she imparts to aspiring entrepreneurs and business students whenever she can.
“The possibilities are endless,” she said. “My mantra in life is to help enough people get to where they want to be so I can get to where I need to be. I am proud to say that my vision and ideas have directly positively impacted others.”
Showers stresses that mindset is everything.
“Once you develop the mindset of ‘all gas, no brakes,’ you will be unstoppable,” she said, pointing to her brand’s upward trajectory. “I always knew that Afro Unicorn would be a household name. We are expanding the brand globally, and we are doing so now with our entrance to the Canadian market earlier this year. Our goal is to be bigger than Hello Kitty.”
On her march toward that goal, Showers has created a new line of Afro Unicorn books to be released this fall under the Random House Books for Young Readers imprint.
Showers will be reading her original book, “A Magical Day,” to students at Girls Inc. in St. Louis on May 10 as part of a reception with 50 girls and their parents. She will also give an interactive motivational speech with a special message.
“I will ask them to think about their passion. What drives them? What do they think about in the morning and what keeps them up at night? I’ll ask them to consider what makes them happy and what they would enjoy doing the most,” she said. “I would ask them to visualize their dreams and never give up. If they put in the time and effort, anything is possible.”
See and Be Seen: St. Louis Public Radio’s Annual Celebration 2023
