洗净铅华，英国娃娃脸超模莉丽·科尔致力于用科技帮助女性创业

    As a British supermodel and actress, Lily Cole has lived a life of glamour, but it is her new role as a social entrepreneur using technology to do good that she hopes will inspire women.

    Scouted on a London street in 2002 at age 14 and featured on the cover of British Vogue at age 16, Cole became a fixture on catwalks and in fashion magazines with her trademark red hair and then in films such as “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

    But Cole, 28, with a double first degree from Cambridge University, wanted more, so she started tracking the supply chains of fashion companies she was working for, hoping to drive some good.

    In 2013, amid a wave of publicity, she founded impossible.com, a “social giving” website and app where people post money-free requests and offers of assistance.

    With a new-look app launched in September and on Android last week called Impossible People, Cole said Impossible is now accessible in more than 120 countries, using the power of technology to create social good.

    “I threw myself into a totally different world, with so many awesome people, and I was so amazed by the impact that technology can have,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    Cole said the use of technology was critical to help build a shared economy and stronger communities.

    The whole point of Impossible is taking people back to a time when communities thrived and trust played a major part in everyday exchanges, although the international reach makes that challenging, she said.

    With the tagline “We reimagine the planet one product at a time,” the app lets people post requests and offers of “small favors” and matches posts with users based on friendships, location and interests “to make sharing easier.”

    A quick trawl of the app found one man offering to give visual design lessons, a musician seeking help with artwork for an album cover and a Chinese resident of Spain offering to help people practice their languages skills.

    Cole, who has quit modeling and has a 1-year-old daughter, said she wants to keep Impossible evolving as needed, continue acting and find some more artistic projects in coming years.

    Although Cole said she does not see herself as a role model, she is increasingly being called upon to talk to girls about career options.

    “I do wish there were more women in tech, as I wish there were more women in most industries,” she said. “I don’t think I will inspire anyone to be an engineer as I am not an engineer, but I do hope I can inspire more women to run their own business,” she said.

    (SD-Agencies)