A note from the Founder on International Women's Day 2023

I've never really been much of a girl who celebrates "International Days." However, with running a public brand, comes an obligation to stay in the know of current affairs, and with International Women's Day coming up, I took out some time to actually learn about the origins of this day and why it came about. 

It's true, that in life, you can only really connect the dots when you look back. I was born and raised just outside of Manchester, in a small place called Bowden. I attended a very academic all-girls school, made famous by the pioneers of the Suffragette movement who were students at the school in the early 20th century. The Pankhursts were spoken about so much, I almost got bored of hearing their name during my school days. But it is only now, with the wisdom and maturity of 17 years of growth since leaving high school, that I realise just how much influence the Pankhursts had on my life. They affected every ounce of the culture of the school I went to. A culture I was immersed in for 18 whole years, and one that championed women in every way possible. I grew up never seeking validation outside of myself and with the very real belief that I really could do anything I put my mind to, characteristics I realise we're really fostered during school, from being immersed in a culture where women were always seen as equals. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a big champion of women. I am well aware of how "trendy" it is to advocate for this "girl boss" movement, that we experience in this social media era, where the motivations for doing and saying aren't always as true as they look. But for me, this goes much beyond the idea of "girl power". For me, it's about creating a world where every woman is viewed as whole, on her own, regardless of who's she next to, what she has, what she doesn't have, or what she does. It's about creating a mentality around women that is free from judgment, and that doesn't focus on looks, body type, or personality - being too loud, or too soft. For me, the goal of every human regardless of gender is to ensure that every living having the same rights and same freedoms, to choose the life they want to live, and the ability to live it whole-heartedly and judgment-free.

It's naive to think we are on an equal footing, we have so much longer to travel before we get there. But today, we celebrate every woman before us who has paved the way for us to inch closer to this goal, and every woman actively in some way, standing up for herself, standing up for others, pushing boundaries, breaking barriers, raising children to understand the essence of equality and doing the most, to make this goal a very real reality. Today we celebrate US. And today, I leave you with this powerful message, with the hopes that it resonates with you the way it did with me:

"I stand on the sacrifices, of a million women before me, thinking what can I do, to make this mountain taller, so the women after me, can see farther" - Rupi Kaur