I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that this journey started as a personal one with my own needs in mind… and that is 100% true - it begins with a story, one of empowerment and a resolute desire to make a difference.

I embarked on this path out of necessity and intuition. I understood the need for holistic well-being and the importance of connecting with my own body. The journey began with a realization that no one was going to guide me through the complexities of women's health, from the intricacies of my menstrual cycle to the secrets held by nature's remedies.

I started hormonal birth control when I was 17 to “help control my acne”. No one explained to me what this would do to my body and brain while I was developing. I had to learn and experience it all for myself and unfortunately it had many negative consequences. My acne got so much worse – I was starting to get painful cystic acne, white heads, redness, and hyperpigmentation that made me feel extremely insecure. My periods also got worse. Way worse. I was already 4 years into my cycle and I never felt this horrible. I was experiencing heavy bleeding, excruciating cramps, nausea, bloating, headaches, heart palpations and those were just the physical ailments. I also felt emotional side effects that I never experienced before - depression, anxiety, fatigue, aggression, unworthiness. I was told this was “normal” - this is just what maturing women had to deal with every month. I couldn’t imagine it would get worse than this… I just had to pull through the next few years until I was past “this stage”. Another 4 years, and the same problems were there. I had no guidance from health care professionals and honestly felt lost.

I started to do my own research and found a plethora of information about hormone disruptors all around us. I was in awe when I learned that hormonal birth control was a major cause, along with toxins and chemicals in our everyday food and beauty products. I slowly started to “clean up” my life.

After 7 years of hormonal birth control I made the decision to stop taking it – that was in 2014. Since then, I have built a better routine for myself. Choosing to eat less processed foods, rid of all the toxic beauty products and cleaning products. I incorporated a better exercise routine, started meditating, cut out high amounts of caffeine and alcohol and added in plants and herbal supplements.