Lèi

About Lèi Lèi means “she” or “her” in Italian. Lèi is a safe space for women to connect, share, support, and grow together. One space. Every woman..

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🌸 Lèi — The Women's Sanctuary Ecosystem

“Everything for HER. Connect. Discover. Grow.”

Lèi (named after the Italian word for "Her") is a private, secure, and gated digital sanctuary built exclusively for women (cisgender and transgender). It combines the best elements of social connection, mutual aid, student support, and safety infrastructure into a cohesive, trauma-informed web ecosystem.

✨ Core Features & Architecture

1. 🛡️ Strict Authentication & Safety Gateway

  • Zero Pre-Login Previews: Unauthenticated visitors see only the entry gateway (mauve theme with a blooming vector lily). No community feeds, chats, or member spaces are visible until successfully verified and signed in.
  • Credential Uniqueness: Enforces strict 1-account-per-device rules, preventing duplicate registrations using the same email address or mobile phone number.
  • Real SMS Verification: Generates a genuine 6-digit verification code with a direct device SMS link and validation input.
  • Biometric Liveness Check: Integrates real-time camera self-scans (MediaDevices API) during onboarding to deter bots and spam profiles.
  • Community Covenant: Mandatory zero-tolerance agreements on gender identity and safety before entry.

2. 🏛️ Sanctuary Spatial Access Control

  • First-Time Commitment: Members choose their primary sanctuary space (Cis Lèi Space or Trans Lèi Space) strictly during initial signup. Returning members sign in directly to their designated space.
  • Universal General Realm: All members can freely toggle into and participate in the shared All Welcome (General) Space.
  • Cross-Boundary Protection: Direct switching between Cis and Trans spaces is locked to protect community comfort, requiring a formal Affiliation Appeal reviewed by the moderation council (with a respectful "View Mode" available).

3. 🎓 Campus SOS & Student Mutual Aid

  • College Networks: Members register with their university/college name (e.g., Georgia State University).
  • Campus SOS Beacon: Students can broadcast urgent, location-sensitive campus requests (e.g., needing a sanitary pad in Library North, dorm safety escorts, or textbook swaps) to verified peers nearby.

4. 🌸 Wellbeing Space & Microsoft Teams-Style Status

  • Current State Selector: A dedicated Wellbeing module featuring a Teams-style status picker ("What part of HER are you today?" with 16 emotional and energetic states like Ambitious, Healing, Sad, Empowered).
  • Algorithm Neutrality: Status selections update the member's profile badge and wellbeing circle without interfering with or biasing their primary content feed algorithm.
  • Grounding Resources: Access to trauma-informed nervous system resets, guided breathing, and self-compassion check-in prompts.

5. 📍 USA City Meetups & Activism Hub

  • US Meetup Circles: A location-based community board allowing members to post and filter meetups across any US city and state (e.g., "NFS in Atlanta", coffee runs, study groups) with automated group chat integration.
  • Planning Arrests / Protest Safety: A specialized safety module providing encrypted legal rights guides, National Lawyers Guild emergency hotlines, and automated jail-support check-in timers for reproductive rights marches and activism.

6. 🤖 Lèi AI Sister Concierge

  • A built-in, confidential AI assistant trained to offer trauma-informed wellness guidance, resume/career coaching, cycle insights, and instant campus emergency routing.

7. 🤫 Fizz Vent Wall, Discord Hubs & Mutual Aid

  • Anonymous Vent Wall: 100% anonymous, unidentifiable confessions and support requests with empathy reaction counters.
  • Discord-Style Hubs: Specialized life-stage channels (Post-Partum, New Brides, Women in STEM, First-Gen Graduates) and age-gated sanctuaries (18+, 21+, Teens-Only).
  • Sisterhood Mutual Aid: GoFundMe-style crowdfunding for medical bills, emergency relocation, and childcare with zero platform fees.

🎨 Design & Visual Identity

  • Front Gate (Pre-Login): Deep mauve radial backdrop (#120b10), glowing gold stamens, and smooth SVG bloom animations.
  • Sanctuary Workspace (Post-Login): A complete theme transition into a clean, warm Ivory aesthetic (#fcfbf9, espresso typography #241c17, alabaster borders, and brushed champagne gold accents #c29352).
  • Streamlined Navigation: A sleek top header paired with a clean Left-Side Sidebar Drawer housing all module navigation.

🚀 Local Setup & Installation

  1. Clone or download the repository to your local machine: ```bash git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/lei-sanctuary.git

SMS Verification Deployment

The real SMS flow uses Twilio Verify through the Vercel functions in api/. GitHub Pages cannot run these server-side endpoints.

  1. Import this repository into Vercel.
  2. Add these Vercel environment variables:
    • TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID
    • TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN
    • TWILIO_VERIFY_SERVICE_SID
    • FRONTEND_ORIGIN set to the Vercel app URL
  3. Deploy the project and use its Vercel URL for signup and SMS verification.

Never place Twilio credentials in frontend files or GitHub Pages.

For private developer testing only, add ALLOW_DEVELOPER_BYPASS=true and DEVELOPER_BYPASS_CODE in Vercel. Keep this disabled for public production use; the bypass code is intentionally never stored in the repository.

Hackathon Materials

  • Presentation: presentation/lei-hackathon-pitch.pptx
  • Speaker notes and demo order: presentation/speaker-notes.md

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