This past weekend, my family put up our Christmas tree, and I did most of the decorating this year, using only about half of the ornaments that have been gathered over the years. If I’d used them all, you probably wouldn’t be able to see that there was a tree underneath. The tree topper, as it has been for the past couple of years, was a little plush Hedwig, Harry Potter’s snowy owl. I find that no matter what else you put on a Christmas tree, the topper is what really gives it its personality. You can go with a star or angel for a classic look, or you can have a nerdy tree like my family, or you can go the feminist route by putting one of your female heroes on top of your tree.
Web site Women To Look Up To has developed three angel tree toppers in the form of inspirational women, 3D modeled and 3D printed in careful detail. They’re in the form of Beyoncé, Serena Williams and Hillary Clinton, who was the winner of a vote on who to make the third tree topper. Winning this vote should be a comfort to Hillary, who’s not new to being 3D printed, in this holiday season – she’s still got it – and she’s portrayed in full pantsuit regalia and an angelic look.
Beyoncé has also been given top status for the holidays, ready to drop another Grammy-winning production from the top of a festive tree. She looks quite angelic, too, in a white dress and holding a microphone. Serena Williams, meanwhile, sports a tennis racket along with her angel wings, looking like she’s about to smash a ball right to the gates of heaven.
It was hard to choose from a long list of inspiring women, so Women To Look Up To has opened up a fourth vote, with names such as J.K. Rowling (so you can celebrate your feminist AND nerdy side!), Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama, Ellen Degeneres, the Queen and many others. If you’d like to weigh in, you can do so here.
Each tree topper is £100 and made to order; at this point, due to the time the process takes, they’re no longer available to order for Christmas 2017, but you can still pre-order them for next year – or wait to see who the fourth one will be. Women To Look Up To Uses a unique process that combines 3D printing – which is done by My3DTwin – and sculpting. The detail is quite beautiful in these figurines, and they’ll look great on top of your tree if you decide you want a woman to literally look up to.
Women To Look Up To decided to create the inspirational tree toppers to update the image of the woman on top of a Christmas tree and show that women are made of more than just plastic and glitter. There’s also an option to create your own custom tree topper, as long as the person you want to put on your tree is available to come to the organization’s London studio to be 3D scanned. In addition to the tree toppers, the company is selling Christmas cards featuring female heroes.
Women To Look Up To is a nonprofit that invests all proceeds back into causes related to equality for women. It may be too late for you to put an inspiring woman at the top of your tree this year, but you can start thinking ahead for next year – and give an extra gift by investing your money in women’s empowerment.
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[Images: Women To Look Up To]
