Nonprofit provides all-female ride-sharing service at Carolina
She’s Not Here gives Tar Heel women another option for getting home safe at night.
Launched on Instagram in 2022, She’s Not Here is now a nonprofit organization poised to offer its all-female ride-sharing service through a new app in spring 2026.
The group’s original members saw a need for an all-female ride-share service for the Carolina community. They wanted to offer rides for women who would feel safer being driven home than walking back to their dorm or off-campus housing late at night.
She’s Not Here began on Instagram, with women direct-messaging the group to book rides home, similar to Uber or Lyft. While they still use Instagram direct messages to provide rides, the group is developing an app to make rides easier to book. The She’s Not Here app should be available through Apple by spring 2026.
App users can select their current location, add their destination and book their ride. They can also schedule rides in advance. (She’s Not Here)
With the app, the group hopes to expand its service to the broader Chapel Hill community.
“It has grown substantially. The community that it’s built has become so strong,” said Aditi Yerra, She’s Not Here vice president. “So many girls and guys know about it and want to be involved in it. We’ve had a lot of people who want to become drivers, and people are excited about using the app once it’s launched, which will make our services more accessible.”
Campus collaboration
To develop the app, the group worked with TechX, which develops apps and software for Carolina student organizations.
The app will use a feature similar to Apple or Google Maps to allow users to select their current location, add their destination and book their ride. Users will also have the ability to schedule rides in advance and secure a lower price.
Drivers have two-to-three-hour shifts Thursday through Sunday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. She’s Not Here pays their drivers the entire earnings from each ride, hoping to give college students extra cash.
The group also worked with the UNC School of Law’s community development law clinic to register as a nonprofit organization. Law students helped them to form a nonprofit corporation, establish a board of directors and apply for tax-exempt status. They met twice a month, the law students gaining invaluable hands-on experience with real clients as they provided guidance to the She’s Not Here staff.
“It’s an intense, collaborative experience over a couple of months. Those undergraduate students who are our clients have to make it a priority and put in the work,” said Tom Kelley, the James Dickson Phillips, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the community development law clinic.
The She’s Not Here staff members were “fabulous,” he added. “They were on top of it, determined and answered the law students’ questions promptly.”
Over the years, the She’s Not Here team saw momentum build and student support increase as they talked to students in the Pit, put up flyers in apartment buildings and got the word out on social media. Now the group looks forward to expanding their collaboration across campus and in the Chapel Hill community to build brand awareness.
“Their faces light up when they hear about this program. It’s something they never really thought they needed, but it’s so helpful and useful,” said Yerra. “It creates a strong community and there is a great buy-in from students.”
When they were sophomores, Yerra recruited her roommate and best friend, Ameek Chaddha, to join She’s Not Here. Now they’re seniors, and Chaddha is the group’s president.
“She’s Not Here means a lot of different things for me, but mainly it is about love for my community,” Chaddha said. “It’s knowing that the work we do helps women feel safer and more supported right here in Chapel Hill.”
