“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

A phrase that I’m sure we’ve all heard countless times, and if you’re like me, you can agree that it’s almost impossible not swoon over big, beautiful diamonds.  

But what if I told you that the cost of your diamond was violence, environmental degradation, and unspeakable human suffering.  Would you still be willing to don your bling?

In today’s world, diamonds with a violent history are still being mined and entered into the diamond supply, where they are indistinguishable from other gems.  After unknowingly purchasing a conflict diamond herself, and finding out the truth about the industry, Anna-Mieke Anderson knew that something had to be done, and that she was going to be the one to do it!

In this week’s ILTV Interview, I sit down with the beautiful and compassionate founder and CEO of MiaDonna and Greener Diamond, Anna-Mieke Anderson, as she tells her story of how she entered the diamond industry as an activist in 2005, and has since led the evolution of the lab-created diamond industry.

As soon as Anna-Mieke found out the truth about her own conflict diamond, she started sponsoring a little boy in a mining community in Africa.  In one of the letters that this little boy sent her, he wrote “I had a great summer, because only one of my classmates was killed”. This was the light bulb moment that ignited Anna-Mieke down her path to creating a conflict-free diamond.  Her compassionate heart could not sit back and watch children dying, as a consequence of mining diamonds.

After much research into the industry, she discovered that the only true diamond free of any conflict was going to be a man-made diamond. This idea made her a visionary in the field, seeing the benefits of laboratory-grown diamonds, even before the technology to create these diamonds was available.

Not only has Anna-Mieke created a revolutionary, beautiful, ethical, and affordable diamond, but she has also founded Greener Diamond, which is a foundation that works in tandem with MiaDonna, to help free innocent children oppressed by the active conflict diamond mining industry, as well as rebuild communities that have been negatively impacted by the harvesting and trading of earth-mined diamonds.   

In this episode, Anna-Mieke shares with us:

• How her mother’s death from cancer, and her other childhood experiences set the stage for her to take on this global responsibility.
• How she dealt with those who did not support her, and her idea in the beginning stages.
• How she never played “victim”, and always used her experiences to propel her forward.
• How she was given the ultimatum of choosing her marriage, or her foundation.
• How it took hitting rock bottom to get the courage to pursue her dreams unabashedly.
• What Inspired Living means to her.
• Why her biggest advice is to Trust Your Intuition!

I highly encourage you all to tune into this awe-inspiring sit down with Anna-Mieke!  

You may read more about her story, as well as shop her beautiful, conflict-free diamonds here.   

As a primarily web-based business, you can even order several settings to try on, then send the ones you don’t like back, free of charge! She really has thought of everything!  

I truly believe this is a topic we need to start spreading the word about, so please share this interview with your friends and loved ones.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section!

Until next time…Dream it. Live it. BE it!