BEHIND THE BRAND: FEMMÉ ORGANIC

 

Meet Annabelle Burns, Co-Founder of family owned Organic Sanitary Line, Femmé Organic. Annabelle shares the journey of re-imagining period care and empowering femininity through self care.

 

WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU STARTED FEMMÉ ORGANIC?

 I have been working as a property stylist for over 4 years now. It’s something I have continued to do alongside building Femme, which means my plate is absolutely full but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is a very hands on role, and a job I is a balance between problem solving and creative thinking - not dissimilar to Femme! In a nutshell, I will go into a property and style it for sale, picking anything from cushions, artwork, furniture and rugs, to get it ready for an 8 week campaign. Working with colours and visuals in this instance has proven to be so valuable within my Femme tasks as well as it relates to churning out web content!

  

WHAT IS YOUR JOB ROLE NOW?

 Beyond my title as co founder of Femmé Organic, my role extends to that of a Creative Director. This means managing all of our socials, anything to do with our aesthetics and really just looking for new ways to effectively project our overall creative vision. I am also still working part time as a property stylist. 

 

TYPICAL DAY AT THE OFFICE? 

My day will typically consist of tending to emails, meetings with my family (always interesting) then I will usually be making creative content for our social media/ website. As more people join the movement, everyday looks a little bit different! As Femme grows, we are always working on upcoming projects and planning how we will action them. At times I do feel like a bit of a headless chook, but when you’re as passionate as we are the excitement out ways the day to day stresses for sure!

 

WHAT WAS THE IDEA THAT STARTED FEMMÉ ORGANIC?

Ultimately, it was one amazing thing to come out of the 2020 lockdown. It was a time for our family to bond and discuss certain values to a point we’d usually be too busy to achieve. Things like the environmental impact of plastic and even the importance of organic foods. Somehow, I assume with the energy of four girls floating around the house, we fell onto the topic of tampons. We raved on about the limited organic options on the market, as the few we could access at the time still forced an environmental compromise with plastic wrapping. It just clicked that maybe we could fill that gap ourselves. That we could create a product not only good for your body, but beneficial for the environment. No compromises!

 

WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THE NAME 'FEMMÉ'?

The title ‘Femme’ is not a means to pin menstruation to the female gender, but rather an ode to the feminine energy each human possesses to differing extents. The characteristics of that feminine energy are free-flowing and know no rules or bounds. This is the energy we want our customers to approach their periods with. With a gentle hand, making sure to be kind to ourselves as Mother Nature takes its course. These connotations are just subtle ways we hope to undo the shame that has surrounded the menstruation experience for years and years. Femme is a non restrictive concept that rejects social norms and strives for intuition and self-acceptance to be commonplace.

 

BIGGEST PINCH-ME MOMENT? 

Probably going to our local organic store and seeing Femmé products on the shelf. It’s always an amazing feeling when small businesses believe in your products since taking on new brands is always a risk and we are so proud they are confident in our products. On the other side of the coin, seeing an organisation as big as Priceline take us on was so major. It’s just bizarre to walk through the isles of a store for years and one day see your product sitting on the shelf. It still doesn’t feel real sometimes!

 

YOUR FAVOURITE PRODUCT FROM THE RANGE?

That’s so tough, I feel like each product is one of my children but my body/ lifestyle personally responds seamlessly to our tampons. They keep their shape, they are super absorbent and most importantly extremely comfortable. I’m also just so proud of the fact that they are paper wrapped, which is an experience I had literally never had until we created Femme.