Presidential Interviews

Presidential interviews

Zoe Miller

(Roper’s 2015)

What is BB Pads?

BB Pads or Bloody Brilliant Pads began mid-pandemic around August 2020 and was launched at the end of May this year. Bloody Brilliant Pads are reusable, zero-waste, 100% plastic-free, harmfulchemical-free, compostable period pads. Each pad consists of a combination of beautiful fabrics such as certified organic, unbleached and undyed cotton, TENCEL™, blends of waste plant fibre fabrics including pineapple, hemp, galangal and kapok and handwoven pure cotton dyed with natural, plant-based dyes. They are highly absorbent (more so than disposables), naturally anti-bacterial and incredibly soft — no more scratchy plastic and irritating adhesives! We (well, it’s just me really at BB HQ, but there are lots of hard-working, amazing people behind the scenes contributing to each and every stage of the process) are all about transparency, sustainable and ethical textile production, consumption and disposal, feeding into a transition towards a circular economy, eliminating plastic waste and micro-plastic pollution, reducing chemical production and runoff, helping to tackle period poverty, pushing back against the stigma and taboos that still shroud menstruation and supporting and advocating for women’s and human rights. All of our packaging and paper is either compostable or recyclable and the ink we use is non-toxic, acid-free and vegan. Our shipping emissions are offset by Carbon Jacked through a renewable wind power project in Taiwan which has been certified by the Gold Standard for the Global Goals, the leading international standard for carbon-offsetting projects and, if you live in London, your delivery will be emission-free, brought to you by HIVED on a bicycle or electric vehicle! Ten percent of profits will be going to the Pachamama Project which makes and distributes reusable period pads to refugees in Lebanon and Greece. BB Pads may require an initial investment and we know that sadly environmentallyconscious options are still often more expensive and aimed towards only affluent consumers, making the environmental movement a class-based one. We believe that for a solution to be successful and workable it must try its best to be accessible to everyone. BB customers can therefore opt to pay for their pads in instalments and we suggest that they gradually build their sustainable period wardrobe up over time as they work out what needs adding to their period routine. Reusable pads also end up saving you money pretty quickly… The charity, Bloody Good Period, estimates that in the UK, a lifetime’s menstrual products (pads, tampons, liners etc. not including pain relief and other period care products) cost around £4800 or an average of £11/month. If you were to buy three each of the light, medium, heavy and super-dooper BB pads and kept them in use for four years, the average UK menstruation would save just under £400 in that time. Even if you were spending just £5 a month on periods you’d still save £111. We are striving to promote nature-positive production, consumption and disposal that is non-depleting and non-destructive to the environment as well as being kind to your body and your pocket!

What inspired you to set up BB Pads?

About two years ago, I first started to become aware of and was horrified by the immense environmental damage being done by the production and disposal of conventional period care products. Every menstruator’s needs and cycles vary quite a bit, but based on an average of 38 years of menstruation, 13 cycles per year, people with periods will use somewhere around 11,000-16,000 disposable pads, pantyliners or tampons over their lifetime. That’s half the human population using that many disposable, plastic and chemicalinfused products. The average single-use, disposable, conventional period pad contains up to 90% plastic, 99% of plastic is made using fossil fuels and a lot of these products end up getting flushed down the toilet or sent to the landfill and many unfortunately wash into the ocean. Plastics can take 500 years or more to breakdown; and when they do, they break down into micro-plastics which contaminate soil, air and water supplies and accumulate in food systems. I was also shocked to learn that companies selling so-called “sanitary products” in the UK are not legally required to disclose all the ingredients in their products. I made the switch to the period cup which I absolutely loved but I was still using it in conjunction with single-use pads and I really wanted to only use reusable products. Period pants personally weren’t for me as I wanted something that I could change throughout the day without having to faff around taking off my trainers and trousers. I found that most reusable pads on the market were made from synthetic fabrics containing micro-plastic fibres such as polyester, spandex and nylon which can take anywhere between 20 to 200 years

to break down, and for an item that was to be so frequently washed, this didn’t make much sense to me. Last year, after spending some time working with a Thai, women-led, human rights organisation in Bangkok, I ended up stumbling across an incredible textile company who produce fabrics composed of waste plant fibres. I quickly became obsessed. I then worked briefly for an incredible organisation called the Sermpanya Foundation who provide psychosocial relief and education through open-air cinema screenings in refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border and whilst there came across Chimmuwa. Chimmuwa is a women’s collective, handicraft group. They make small batches of handwoven, cotton fabric using traditional ethnic Karen weaving methods and natural plant-based dyes. I began spending my evenings with pencil, paper, ruler and rubber, sketching out period pad designs, researching and then testing what qualities the different plant fibres had and how they could work perfectly for their function in a period pad. I loved the idea of making the product out of “waste” and it being completely circular so that when it was eventually disposed of, it would quickly breakdown into healthy soil leaving no toxic residues. An expected hurdle, or two or three later and we’re here! BB Pads is going strong! I have been incredibly lucky to meet so many astoundingly kind, generous, passionate, creative, hard-working people throughout this process who I cannot thank enough.

What advice would you have given yourself leaving School, would you have followed the same career path initially?

I think younger Zoë would have benefitted from tuning into her gut instincts about things a little more. I’d say to her: stay true to your values, don’t just follow the crowd and notice what you notice. If there’s something that keeps you up at night or gets you leaping out of bed in the morning or something you jump to do and do it well without forcing it too much — pay attention to that. And never stop asking questions, always be curious. Also, you don’t always need to have a plan I’ve realised. It’s good to have a bit of a plan and an idea of where you’d ideally, roughly like to be in a year or couple of years time but I never planned that I would be doing what I’m doing right now and, if I had been too rigid and structured about things, it would never have happened. It’s good to be a bit flexible, to be prepared to change your plans as well as your mindset and to listen. I remember when I was at Alleyn’s, a girl from a few years above who did breakdancing and played the cello came in to talk to us in the EAB and told us that she tried to do one thing a day that scared her. I love this. It’s stuck with me for almost a decade now. Doing something scary doesn’t have to be particularly drastic and certainly not dangerous… It can be anything; trying your hand at something new, switching up your routine or habits, exposing yourself to a new activity or way of thinking, doing something that is slightly pushing you out of your comfort zone — and if you miss a few days then do something bigger to make up for it!

Career lowlight?

I think when I left university I was very naive about the job prospect situation. I sort of arrogantly thought that after all that studying, once I graduated the world was my oyster and that I would know what I wanted to do with my life and would quickly land myself a job in something that I loved and was passionate about. How funny. For ages I was applying to loads of stuff and spending hours and days over cover letters and applications and most of the time didn’t get an acknowledgment or feedback — it can be very demoralising but you just have to keep plugging away and the right thing will eventually emerge! Baz Luhrmann’s “Sunscreen Song” definitely helped me through.

Career highlight?

The first time I had a complete stranger place a second, repeat order for BB Pads because she was so over the moon with her first order was a real highlight for me. The feedback I get from customers really keeps me motivated and keeps the momentum going — I do a little dance around the kitchen each time. In the past month, BB Pads has been featured in the Sunday Times and we won the Covid-19 Start-Up Award at the Southwark Business Awards so those have been pretty bloody brilliant highlights too!

What are the main challenges you’re having to overcome to make this a success and do you have any aspirations for BB Pads?

I thought that the logistics of pre-launch would be the hardest part but it turns out that the workload is actually more postlaunch! It’s quite a job increasing visibility, drawing in new customers and nurturing a trusting relationship with them. I’m studying for my Masters and working part-time too so time management, planning ahead and getting a good amount of sleep is crucial! At the moment I’m beginning to make plans for Period Pad Batch Number Two, so have been researching and ordering samples of some very exciting new fabrics using waste orange fibres, seaweed and all sorts of non-synthetic dyes. I’d ideally like to make BB Pads into more of a social enterprise in the future — but baby steps, we’ll see!

Who have your mentors been and what’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you?

I’ve been very grateful for the huge amount of free online content available which, due to Covid, has become even more accessible as it’s all been online. I’ve attended a tonne of webinars hosted by the British Library’s Business and IP Centre, Virgin Start-Up and all sorts of other business accelerator schemes and have reached out to other young, solo, female entrepreneurs and business owners for advice. Also my friends and family have gone above and beyond in supporting me, advising me and listening to me bang on about period pads. Tom Tapper who works for the B-Corp creative agency Nice and Serious and was a panelist in one webinar I went to said: “People are looking to belong somewhere. The products we’re buying are doing something. In deciding who and what you want to invest in and support, you are also making a statement about what defines you as a person, what your identity is.” He also said, “The truer you are to yourself as a founder, the more trusted and genuine your brand will be.” In navigating various dilemmas and hurdles over the past several months since launching BB Pads, I’ve come back to these two snippets of wisdom to guide me quite a lot.

Presidential interviews

Samia Tossio

(Roper’s 1988)

What is SamiArt, the Finga Ninjas and the Great Yarn Project

SamiArt became the name of my creative venture as a community artist where I view what I do as creating the art of wellbeing. You often hear “Oh, I’m not creative at all, I can’t draw, I was told I was no good at art” or “I used to be creative but I don’t make or paint anymore”, and I wonder when that innate ability to be playful, creative, and curious becomes lost? I realised I wanted to do my best to recapture and release that creativity in people. The things I do with my groups are there to inspire; we share through playful, creative communication. The Finga Ninjas is anyone who has been to one of my workshops and learnt to finger knit. The classes are open to all with participants ranging from six to 78. Children love the immediacy of it and need little encouragement to make their designs as bright and bold as possible. I get a lot of mums thanking me. It helps children with their self-esteem as they can teach others – teach adults something. And they always have such great ideas. Finger knitting is intergenerational. It gets the community involved and it gets them talking.

What inspired you to set up your venture

I am not a formally trained artist but I am a maker, a doodler and over the years made decor for parties, created flyers, made gifts for friends and basically used up whatever was to hand to create something rather lovely from nothing. I’m also very much a people person and started to feel I had a calling to share. A particular, magical dream one night of a beautiful village on an Italian hillside full of art, the sound of music and happy people laughing and chattering, cemented that calling to inspire others through playful creativity and a chance encounter with a local Arts Officer shortly afterwards led to me beginning some community workshops with older people in Wallington; SamiArt was born. I realised the value of the arts for social, emotional and mental wellbeing from that very first workshop. I started with something really simple – some flower pressing – as I believe no one should be afraid of art or being artistic. It is something that should bring joy and lift the spirits. My involvement in community arts projects continued and I curated exhibitions, festivals and installations. It was in 2015 that I discovered finger knitting. I had recently lost my beloved mum to colon cancer and took myself on a conscious grieving process. I asked my mother to send me something to keep my hands busy to help get me through the grief and the next day, whilst searching for something completely unrelated online, I clicked upon a finger knitting tutorial - that’s when I found colour and fluff to be truly therapeutic and it’s how my journey to becoming a ‘Finga Ninja’ began. In the six years since, I’ve taught over 3000 people to finger knit and launched yarn-bombing installations far and wide. [Editor’s note: Yarn bombing is the placing of temporary eye-catching crocheted artworks in public spaces, bringing much needed colour, light and laughter to our post-lockdown lives]. This led to A Good Yarn project – a workshop for migrants and the homeless, offered in conjunction with Sutton Night Watch, which weaves the art of finger knitting with storytelling to demonstrate our common bonds. To hear and listen to the stories they share is a gift. The workshops are offered free, encouraging those who may not feel fully confident with their place in the community to join in and be part of something joyful.

What advice would you have given yourself leaving School, would you have followed the same career path initially?

I considered becoming an actress, after being on the Alleyn’s stage in my 2 years here, but it felt like a plan that would be all about me and I didn’t want the hassle of an ego problem (I would have been a nightmare!). I also had a vague idea of working as a translator for the UN, so I trundled off to study Arabic at Leeds Uni (top of the class, too) but dropped out, carried on experiencing life with no clear idea of what I truly ‘needed’ to do until after having my own (home-educated) kids. Now I’m grateful to be doing something I never would have imagined.

Career lowlight?

Self-inflicted artists’ doubts but my dreams got me through the low points - an especially magical one about ‘having faith

and trusting the flow’ back around 2011 helped me focus and the doors have been opening ever since. Almost immediately after that dream one of those doors led to a career highlight.

Career highlight?

Getting a Culture Seeds grant for A Good Yarn, and its three exhibitions; to hear some of the experiences of the refugees and the homeless – often these people have lost everything but are trying to carry on, to rebuild – is incredibly moving and inspiring. Presenting a commemorative silk painting created with my sister, a skilled calligraphy artist, to HRH Prince Charles at the launch of CSCA, the Charity for Spiritual and Cultural Advancement, at Old Trafford. Fairly awesome moment, with many butterflies - I’m a confident sort, but I was a bit flustered that day. Installing my motto on a 5m wall space at Lockside Bar in Camden, seeing it also in crochet, adorning railings with the yarnbombs. Having a 5-page spread about my work and this year’s Sutton & Carshalton bombing escapades in Surrey Life Magazine. Having this interview in the EAC magazine (I only reached out to put something in the newsletter!)

What are the main challenges you’re having to overcome to make this a success and do you have any aspirations for SamiArt?

Taking SamiArt on tour - I saw the

Love Life Life Loves You

possibilities back in 2008 but it wasn’t practical with children. They’re now independent 23 and 17 yr olds so I can manouevre more freely. All my choices - the inspired, the good, the reasoned, & just plain doofus - have led me to now, contemplating how to burst through the ceiling of sailing the SamiArt ship solo to having a permanent crew - or joining a fleet? - to take my passion and love for humanity on tour, and spread a tidal wave of joy, affecting positive change, with 13 years’ experience behind me.

Who have your mentors been and what’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you?

My mum, telling me to “sing your own song” reminding me to always be true to my heart and mind. My dad, whose expression, ‘hold, don’t carry’ serves me well, and a favourite saying from Naqshbandi Sufi, Shaykh Nazim: ‘We ask to be no-one and nothing. For, as long as we are someone, we are not complete.’ That one really keeps me humble. Whatever I manage to make happen for the good of the whole in my lifetime, it will be thanks to the magic to be found in loving Life, because Life wants us all to be happy - hence the motto #LoveLifeLifeLovesYou – You can also buy a number of products featuring Samia’s motto via her website, check out her workshops and latest creations at www.samiart.co.uk