While most parents and teachers help kids learn to do the right thing, it’s not fun to listen to authority figures when you’re young. However, listening to smart, sharp dressed millennial women who know a thing or two about doing good? Well, that’s much better. And it turns out, it might be more effective, too.

Meet The Young Roses

There’s a squad of young women, which Vogue dubbed the “young roses” who are part of high society, but use their sway and money to help others.

Cécile Winckler, Amy Sall, Nieves Zuberbühler, Cleo Wade, and Nell Diamond all have work interests that are diverse and influential, which allows them to give their time and money to unique projects.

Cécile Winckler and her partner Sophie Tabet cofounded Unemployed, a magazine that features unknown artists’ work. Most of the work is out-of-the-box, and creative—great for the art world, but not exactly commercial. Vogue reports that the magazine is like a “nonprofit gallery.”

Amy Sall is a lecturer and model who recently started “SUNU Journal.” SUNU publishes African cultural expression works and art in print and online.

Nieves Zuberbühler is a budding news producer who also dedicates time to meaningful causes, such as the International Rescue Committee.

Cleo Wade uses social media to place attention on criminal-justice reform and ending mass incarceration. She does this by staying positive and vocal.

Nell Diamond has used her education to launch Hill House Home, a lifestyle destination firm, and her money to give back. Diamond helped found UNICEF’s Next Generation, an organization that helps fight child malnutrition.

So, why do these young women who give back help inspire others? Because their actions are inspiring.

People have a tendency to do what they’ve always done unless they see something that truly inspires them, that flips the script on their reality, April Masini, New York-based relationship and etiquette expert and author, says.

“For those not involved in philanthropy, seeing may be the catalyst for doing it. Role models are important when they bring lest known or misunderstood actions, like philanthropy, to the forefront to allow others to emulate them.”

Experienced, expert help

Even though reading and hearing about the positive actions of others is influential, getting involved helps broadcast the difference between good philanthropy and so-so philanthropy.

That’s why Katherine Davies, CEO and founder of iguacu, created her soon-to-be-launched online service that makes it easy for people to give to individuals in need. Iguacu aims to help well-intentioned people to give to charities that actually do “the best” good.

Davies created her service because she tires of hearing people say they can’t change the bad in the world.

“The decline in extreme poverty worldwide has been remarkable,” she points out.

“Yes, there remain serious challenges and great need, but there are millions of us with the capacity to make a difference.

“When we say there’s no point, or there is nothing we can do, we are giving our power away. What I love right now is that there are many young people, and in my generation as well, that are staking a claim in the planet and its defense, and that identify as being a member of the human family. They know they have power and they act on it. That thought fills me with joy!”

Davies hopes her service and positive actions will fuel a future generation filled with “young roses.”

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Step inside the Radisson RED, a hip millennial haven with a fierce commitment to local talent, fashion, music, and art. 

Art. Fashion. Music. Apps. A Tesla Powerwall Battery. What more could a millennial want? Ahem, authenticity. The Radisson RED Brussels — affectionately known as “The RED” — delivers just that along with a healthy dose of eco-consciousness. This un-hotel lifestyle brand is a self-proclaimed revolution that aims to disrupt the conventional hotel industry. There’s no staff but a Cast of Creatives. Forget a front desk. And the concierge is 100 percent virtual. Expect the unexpected. You’ll never see even a hint of beige at the Radisson RED. Even their website professes we hate dull.

In a time when the hotel industry hopes to capture the attention of millennials – which all too often becomes a gimmicky marketing cliché of itself – the Radisson RED Brussels brilliantly pulls it off, brings the fun, inspires creativity, and delivers hospitality via an app.

Sans a front desk, the Creatives (staff) offered a warm welcome and within minutes, I was in my keyless room digging into the sweet His and Her amenities. After a quick refresh in the artfully tiled bathroom, I headed out for the day. But I didn’t get far. The RED’s lobby sucked me in. There was much to explore in this private gallery with monthly installations. It’s the “social hive” of the hotel, where local art, fashion, and music curated by Cristabel Cabanier collide. A lobby DJ set the beat while I braved the Tinder Couch and graciously received a green light. The board room table transformed into a ping-pong table for an impromptu game, and the artists were milling about engaging in fresh conversation about city art and inspiration.

Eventually, I did make it out the lobby doors to discover Brussels and found myself smack in the city center next to Place de Luxembourg and the Royal Quarter. Brussels’ well-heeled French air perfectly mixes with a funky alternative bohemian vibe. Some might call it culture clash. I see it more as a fusion of opposite flavors perfectly blended.  As fortune had it, that weekend was the multi-cultural Zinneke Parade. The streets were filled with parading troupes of costumed musicians, dancers, and entertainers of all ages grooving to a Bohemian beat. I explored the old market hall and crowded bars of St-Géry square where locals and tourists alike basked in the sun enjoying Belgian blonde beer. Then there’s Rue Antoine Dansaert where I discovered alternative fashion pop-up boutiques and marveled at the gilded 17th century Grand Place. Not to mention, the elegant Les Galeries Royale Saint-Hubert.

Back at the RED, I flopped on the comfy bed after a fun but quite long day out. With the RED app, I synced my iPhone to the 50″ flat screen TV and watched a slideshow of pictures from my day. I also dipped into the minibar for one last glass of champagne. Rooms are light, bright, and of course, red and artsy. The 149 studios are equipped with free-flowing high-speed Wi-Fi, and an app that manages check in, room service, restaurant reservations, and check out. Technology is definitely part of the experience. Yet I didn’t feel that I missed out on the personal touches that make a hotel stay my home-away-from-home.

A fierce advocate for global street art, the Radisson RED’s artist of the month is Alice Pasquini, whose art is seen both in galleries and on city walls. Both a street artist and classically trained painter, the Roman-born Pasquini says in her interview with Radisson RED that her creativity “is influenced by many things—the light and the colours of the surroundings (one of the reasons I paint during the day), the people who pass by and their reactions, the fragility of the surface, and spontaneity of my stroke (necessary due to the rapid action). I usually pick walls that are already beat up, often already built up with tags. The scars of the city make the best canvases.”

It’s not only art that Radisson RED Brussels is passionate about. Count in fresh and organic cuisine. Brussels’ burgeoning foodie scene is represented at the OUIBar + KTCHN and their Van Rouge Food Truck. I caught breakfast at KTCHN and it was excellent. Quite the opposite of a dreary hotel heating lamp buffets, breakfast was made to order and was European perfect. Crusty artisanal bread, poached eggs, and creamy cappuccinos that rivaled my favorite coffee bar in Rome. The freshness and quality of the ingredients shone through and set a high bar for hotel breakfasts.

Extra perks for Radisson RED Brussels guests are free parking (seriously, what hotel in a city center offers free parking? Talk about a hotel revolution!), and for a few extra euros, bring your pooch.

Whether you find the Radisson RED Brussels’ “ageless millennial” hotel concept gimmicky or it’s music to your ears, the truth is that the RED brand brings the fun and is worth a stay. With the American flagship newly opened in the art mecca of Minneapolis, more Radisson REDs are landing soon in Miami, Capetown, Glasgow, Portland, and Campinas.

Go RED for a day. Be bold. No boundaries. Be sassy. Express your style. And see what happens. If you’re not already, you just may become a RED convert, even if, like me, you’re a non-millennial.

Find Donna on Twitter and Instagram

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Images via The Radisson RED Brussels 

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Food trends of late have highlighted the importance of eating a bit more like our grandparents, at least when our goal is eating healthy. 

Even Michael Pollan is on the record as saying, “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” But it turns out, millennials don’t actually eat healthy the way their grandparents do, at least not if their grandparents are baby boomers.

A new survey from the International Food Information Council Foundation compared perceptions of healthfulness along generational lines and showed some blatant differences between the way baby boomers and millennials approach healthy eating.

First off, boomers and millennials aren’t even looking for the same things when they define a food as “healthy.” Whereas boomers are keeping an eye out for foods that help manage weight, cardiovascular health, and digestive health, millennials seek out superfoods with specific benefits, such as foods that improve mental health, augment muscle health, and boost immunity.

Millennials and boomers also look to different professionals for advice when their goal is eating healthy. Boomers are far more likely to rely on registered dietitians, nutritionists, and healthcare professionals than millennials, who seek out fitness professionals, farmers, and bloggers for much of their healthy eating advice.

But perhaps the biggest difference the survey found was the specific strategies that each individual group used for assessing whether their diets were healthy or not — boomers appear to take on a quantitative definition, reducing portion sizes or eliminating carbs, sugars, and sodium to eat healthier. Millennials, on the other hand, define healthy eating less by what they don’t eat and more by what they do.

The term “superfood” only emerged around fifteen years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal, and millennials make many of their dietary choices by seeking out these nutrient-rich foods, rather than cutting out specific food groups. Millennials are also far more tapped into not only what a food is, but how it is produced: a 2012 article in Forbes highlighted artisanal, small batch, and specialty products as keys to a millennial heart — and stomach.

Organic is yet another label that millennials love, according to another recent survey, this time from the Organic Trade Association, Food Business News reports. This survey showed that an overwhelming 52 percent of organic shoppers are millennials with children, as opposed to a mere 14 percent of boomers who shop with the organic label in mind.

But according to Laura Batcha, CEO and executive director of the Washington-based Organic Trade Association, this choice actually has everything to do with millennials’ Gen X parents.

“Many (millennials) were raised on organic products,” she says. “It’s not a new idea they’re embracing; it’s just something that’s incorporated into their way of thinking.”

Add the familiarity of the organic label to the desire to shop healthfully, ecologically, and sustainably that seems to pervade the millennial sensibility, and it’s no surprise that millennials are eating differently than their grandparents. And what’s more, as millennials begin to acquire the power of purchase that baby boomers are slowly giving up, this distinction is going to continue to change the way the rest of us shop and eat, too.

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Couple shopping at market image via Shutterstock

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Millennials: You can now breath a collective sigh of relief because everyone is starting to get tired of your boring, aging selves. Generation Z… It’s your turn. And the thing that the media and researchers are zeroing in on is, not surprisingly, your sexuality.

Gen Z and Gender

Generation Z is totally over gender and sexuality norms, a survey from J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group reports. The trend forecasting agency has discovered that unlike previous generations, people who are aged 13-20-years-old are more likely to be gender fluid. In fact, only 48 percent of Generation Z views themselves as exclusively heterosexual.

The report was done to further study research conducted in May 2015. That preliminary research showed that 81 percent of Gen Z said “gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to,” Shepherd Laughlin, director of trendspotting at J. Walter Thompson, said.

That may not seem like a huge percentage, but when compared to the percentage of Millennials (age 21-34) asked the same question, 65 percent said they identified as purely heterosexual.

The study discovered the above information by asking Gen Z study participants to rate their sexuality on a scale from zero-“completely straight”-to six-“completely homosexual.”

“More than a third of the young demographic chose a number between one and five, indicating that they were bisexual to some degree,” Vice reports. “Only 24 percent of their older counterparts identified this way.”

Changing the Gender Norm on Every Level

The study also delved into how the younger generation views gender as a whole:

• The survey found that 56 percent of Gen Z “said they knew someone who went by gender neutral pronouns, such as they, them, or ze.” This was compared to 43 percent of Millennials.
• The findings also revealed that more than a third of Gen Z “strongly agreed that gender did not define a person as much as it used to.”
• And Generation Z also tends to reject the gender binary. “Only 44 percent said they always bought clothes designed for their own gender, versus 54 percent of Millennials,” Vice reports. “They also felt strongly that public spaces should provide access to gender neutral bathrooms, with 70 percent of Gen Zs coming out in support of the move compared to 57 percent of 21–34-year-olds.”

One Notable Flaw

Although this survey is quite interesting, it has one major flaw: it polled less than 1,000 respondents.

When asked about this issue, Laughlin said that “he has 90 percent confidence that the results are accurate and can be generalized for the whole country”-much of that confidence comes from “clear patterns across the different questions that show that Gen Z has a more complex and less binary approach to gender than Millennials.”

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Image of young couple via Shutterstock

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You probably don’t think of Texas when you ponder which states produce great wine. Beef and BBQ, sure, but not wine. Well, if you ask a gaggle of Texas-based young adults if they’d like to try a bottle of Texas wine, they’d say, “hell yes, and bring me another.”

Believe it or not, Texas is beginning to grow unconventional varietals. And, surprise: Texas is now the fifth largest wine-grape-growing state. In fact, in 2013, “wine and grape production created nearly $2 billion in economic activity for the state,” reports CBS. West Texas has a high altitude, deep sandy soil, and a dry climate, which is optimal for wine production.

Recently, CBS reported on the Texas wine trend. The story featured a few notable wine makers in Texas. One of the wine-grape growers was Neal Newsom, owner of Newsom Farms. According to CBS, Newsom began planting almost 30 years ago. Currently, his West Texas farm is 144 acres. He sells 12 different varieties of grapes, sold to 12 different wineries.

The other wine producing family the CBS story focused on was the McPherson family. The McPherson family has been bottling their wines for over 40 years. Currently, the family is well known for their unique wine varietals, which are popular with Millennials, reports CBS:

“They are not drinking what their parents drink. The mom and dad might be drinking Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot. And they really don’t want to drink that. You give them a weird wine like Carignon or Mourvèdre or Cinsault or Viognier, they’re going, ‘Oh, we like that. We love this,’ McPherson said.”

In addition to Texas’ grapes popularity, the vines also take less water than cotton plants.

And speaking of water saving and sustainability: As wine production “booms” in Texas, some vineyards are creating sustainable and organic wines:

Bending Branch Winery: This winery resides near Comfort, Texas. It features “sustainable practices” and has an “organically focused operation.” It sits on 20 acres and carries 16 varietals.

Pedernales Cellars: This estate has quite a few vineyards, but the Kuhlken family runs the Cellars’ Kuhlken Vineyards. Kuhlken Vineyards keeps its operation sustainable by using “ecologically sound agricultural practices that minimize the impact on {the} landscape.” The estate is 17 acres and is in the Texas, Bell Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area). This estate grows:

– Tempranillo
– Touriga Nacional
– Albarino
– Mourvedre
– Grenache
– Small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot

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Image: John Tornow

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This week’s Link Love we feature some goodies including a chance to win a KitchenAid food processor, some good news out of France and for dolphins, what women in the military face in addressing sexual assault, and what Millennial women look like around the world. 

Win a KitchenAid Food Processor valued at $649 from our sister site. [via Organic Authority]

France’s top chef goes vegetarian, sort of. [via Eat Drink Better]

These women took huge risks in exposing sexual assault in the military. [via Mother Jones]

More good news for captive dolphins. [via Ecorazzi]

A gorgeous photo gallery of Millennial women. [via Elle]

The post Link Love: Millennial Women + France’s Vegan Chef + Captive Dolphins appeared first on EcoSalon.

Part of Elite Daily’s series “Millennials Making A Difference,” this story follows Vanessa Black as she steps into Ukraine during the peak of the crisis. It’s absolutely moving and totally inspiring.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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