The Ripple Effect of Intergenerational Dreams
Inspired by the Period Futures interview with Linda Ripoll, Co-Founder and Director of Communications of the Honey Pot Co.
The power of a dream
“Dreams are voices of ancestors.” — African Proverb.
We all have dreams, but according to Linda Ripoll, Co-Founder and Director of Communications of the Honey Pot Co., it was different for Beatrice Dixon, CEO and Co-Founder of the Honey Pot Company. Beatrice had been dealing with bacterial vaginosis (BV) — a vaginal inflammation caused by the overgrowth of bacteria naturally found in the vagina — for a long time and had tried everything from herbs, spices, traditional and western medicines to remedy it, but nothing was working. One night, an ancestor came to her in a dream with a new homeopathic treatment recipe. In the days following, she used the treatment from the dream recipe, and her BV-like symptoms — unusual discharge, odor, itching, and burning — disappeared! She had always been using the right ingredients, just in the wrong amounts. This dream recipe gave her the answer she had been looking for all along.
According to the CDC, approximately 29% of women in the United States have BV at any one time, most of whom are African-American (51%.) For many women, BV is a recurring problem that does not respond to antibiotics, so Beatrice knew that she had to share this recipe and treatment with others. Beatrice prepared 600 bottles of her secret sauce for The Bronner Bros Hair Show in Atlanta, Georgia in 2014. By the end of the show, she had sold out. Additionally, around the same time, Beatrice was working at her day job in the body care section of a Whole Foods in Atlanta. After giving out a number of sample products with the dream recipe to customers who were looking to treat BV-like symptoms, her products were accumulating a high demand. 95% of customers who had tried samples were requesting for more. Due to this increased traction both from the Bronner Bros Hair Show and through Whole Foods, she decided to turn her product into a company. She launched a women’s health company that was rooted in her connection to her ancestors and the African Diaspora at large. Since, her company has manifested in the form of a global women’s health community that is especially focused on connecting and supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals with vaginas.
“It’s been a roller coaster ride. We all knew this would be an amazing opportunity, but none of us could have known it would get this big this quickly,” says Linda Ripoll. Today, the Honey Pot Company is known for its products that are entirely plant-derived; vegan; cruelty-free; and free of chemicals.
The power of accessibility
Honey Pot’s aim is to create a shift in the conversation so that menstrual health products are seen as necessities and essentials rather than as luxuries. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this reality; menstrual product availability and supply chains, like many industries, have been disrupted, hindering access for menstruators around the world. This effect is compounded with the fact that menstrual health products have not been deemed “essential hygiene products” like toilet paper or hand sanitizers.
However, “periods don’t stop for pandemics.” Periods are not a luxury. Menstrual products are necessary for daily life activities and hygienic practices, much like a toothbrush or deodorant. The Honey Pot team hopes that period products are placed in the same category as other essential items in the future. As Linda explained, the problem of accessibility is further intensified for at-risk and vulnerable populations such as people experiencing homelessness, runaways, sex workers, and prisoners.
Honey Pot actively pursues various partnerships and pathways in order to help move the needle of change in the fight against period poverty. They work with other organizations such as AFRIpads and #HappyPeriod, which are non-profit organizations that provide products to menstruators in marginalized communities that are often composed of largely BIPOC individuals.
“It’s devastating to realize how many women are out there who can’t get access to menstrual care — not just on the streets, but also in prison,” Linda told us.
The power of community
The Honey Pot Co. has been built on the value of community development. “The first thing that I thought when I joined the Honey Pot team was that we have to create a sense of community. Open, honest kind of dialogue. Be transparent and tell the truth about what’s in our products. Honey Pot isn’t just for women, but for every human with a vagina, whether they do or do not menstruate. Nobody should feel like they’re on an island of one, drowning out here by themselves,” Linda said.
By focusing their efforts on accessibility and normalizing menstrual health conversations through their transparency about their all-natural ingredients, they also work to tackle period and menstrual health stigmas. They seek to create meaningful dialogues with their customers, and their efforts have created a trusted, empathic, and safe space where customers can share their stories as menstruators. From sharing the products they have tried to those that have not worked for them, customers share conversations that ultimately help the community know that they are not alone in their experiences. More often than not, talking about menstruation, sex, and vaginal conditions can feel difficult, scary, and isolating due to the societal stigmas. For example, many misconceptions around BV occurrence are tied to women’s lack of hygiene; as a result, many menstruators feel immense shame and fear sharing their experiences and reaching out for help. The Honey Pot team noticed that even at trade shows, customers would share their secret struggles with them, ranging to include odor, painful sex, and BV. Their brand has evolved to include a very intimate, comfortable, and open relationship with customers; Honey Pot speaks freely in-person and on social media to meet customers where they are with respect and helpful tips.
Additionally, being headquartered in Atlanta, a city that continues to foster and catalyze innovative Black-Owned Businesses, has been integral to the Honey Pot growth story. The Bronner Brothers hair show helped accelerate their community-building efforts in the Black American and African Diaspora.
As Linda says, “people will support you, whether you’re launching a product or working on an idea. It’s not that we didn’t have challenges. But we didn’t have the obstacle of being in a city where you don’t have any African American support.”
Finally, there is a poetic, circular nature to the Honey Pot team’s community development work. They not only support their customers’ menstrual health needs but also receive crucial support from their community. 2020 has been a year of a long overdue racial reckoning, and advocacy around Black business owners and menstrual health innovators is rising. As a Black woman-owned enterprise, Honey Pot has zeroed in on supporting and amplifying one particular group’s future success: The Little Black Girl.
“We’re paying it forward for the next young, Black, female entrepreneur,” says Linda. “More young Black girls need to see the message that they are strong, capable, full of potential, and unstoppable.”
The Honey Pot team is inspiring the next generation of little Black girls by ‘walking the walk,’ evidenced by their pre-pandemic campaign work with Target during Black History Month that sought to amplify diverse products and representation in the menstrual health sector. In this campaign, Beatrice’s message to young Black girls stood out as a beacon of hope and a call for them to realize their full potential. As a result of this message, Honey Pot received backlash, and some customers left negative reviews of the company and complained of racism and favoritism towards Black girls. In response, the incredible and diverse Honey Pot community prevailed, and something amazing happened. Traffic to the Honey Pot website exponentially increased; they went viral on Twitter and received a heap of new publicity. A short while after, both the COVID-19 and racism pandemics shifted everyone’s livelihoods, priorities, and purchasing decisions which ignited another new tidal wave of Honey Pot customers. The power of community has and continues to mean everything for the Honey Pot brand and team.
The power of hope
The future for Honey Pot is bright, hopeful, and innovative. 2020 has been a year of grave darkness for so many; it has simultaneously demonstrated a wave of hopeful change in the name of equity and justice.
“If you look in the past, we did have non-black people in marches, but not nearly on the same scale. It truly feels like we’ve turned a corner towards progression. [And] menstrual health and care are really a public health issue; it should not be politicized. I think that’s where we’re headed…[and that gives me hope],”
says Linda. Honey Pot’s next steps are to expand to products related to sex such as condoms and lube, as well as products for conditions like Uterine Fibroids, Endometriosis, and Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome.
Honey Pot encompasses the past, present, and future of menstrual health founded on the pillars of sustainability, inclusion, generative innovation, and some #blackgirlmagic from different eras. In five years, Linda hopes that Honey Pot will be a globally accessible brand that can be purchased everywhere regardless of socioeconomic conditions. All of this progress, business success, and far-reaching impact in womxn’s health from Atlanta to across the African diaspora sprouted from a dream; the voice of Beatrice’s ancestor is manifested in the Honey Pot company and ultimately empowering future menstruators to step into their own power as leaders and innovators. This is the ripple effect of intergenerational dreams.
Written by Lilly Khorsand, Writer at Period Futures
Additional Resources
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominiquefluker/2020/03/03/bea-dixon/?sh=374630ac16c7
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/honey-pot-co-racism/
