A rising star when it comes to reusable menstrual products, Bryony Farmer has a lot to say about how she got to where she is. Michele Theil talks to her about her company, Precious Stars, and her upcoming event in Richmond.
Bryony Farmer is rightly considered to be an expert in her field: the field of reusable menstrual products. With a YouTube channel of over 120,000 subscribers and a business that has attracted 9,000 customers and counting since its launch in May 2013, she is exceptional and also unconventional.
Bryony’s business – and YouTube channel – Precious Stars started five years ago when she was only 15. “I became really ill with Lyme Disease,” she says over a coffee in Hampton Hill. “But I didn’t know what it was at the time”.
The disease, unfortunately, caused bryony to be virtually bed-bound.
“At the time, having a period was miserable,” she explains. “It was just so uncomfortable using disposable pads and tampons”.
This prompted her to go online and seek out something better. Someone in an online support group mentioned Moon Cups, a well-known alternative to disposable pads and tampons. Her mother bought one for her from Boots but unfortunately, it didn’t work.
“A few months later, I looked at it again and thought there might be some better ones out there and I stumbled upon a whole range of different menstrual cups and cloth pads,” she explains. “Periods were still uncomfortable but these reusable products made it more bearable. It was then that I thought to myself ‘more people need to know about this’ and that’s what led to the creation of my YouTube channel. Then I started experimenting with different designs before starting to sell my creations on Etsy.”
VICKI SHARP
By using her YouTube channel to promote her Etsy store, Bryony found that a lot of people wanted to buy her unique cloth pads. But she couldn’t keep up with demand because of her health issues. So in a stroke of entrepreneurial graft worthy of any Dragon’s Den starlet, at the age of 15 and while tremendously ill, she managed to source a manufacturer and distribution centre that would send out all the orders and hold the stock for her.
The result is a product that is very different from normal disposable pads.
“We give them a cute print on top so they’re fun to look at,” says Bryony. “And because they’re made from cotton, they’re very breathable and comfortable. I’m really eco-conscious as well and the fabric pads are great because they save the environment. One disposable pad has the same amount of plastic as four carrier bags. The average woman will throw away between 12,000 and 15,000 pads or tampons in their lifetime.”
Despite an unfortunate beginning grounded in her illness, Bryony is upbeat about how Precious Stars came about.
“I had to drop out of school because of my illness, but I’d known for a long time that I wanted to start my own business and when I got sick, that was just a chance for me to strike out with my ideas earlier. I used to watch Dragon’s Den and wanted to beat Peter Jones – who started his business at age 16 – so I’m happy to have pipped him by starting Precious Stars a year younger,” she says with a laugh.
Never one to rest on her laurels, Bryony has – with the help of her mother Amanda – started to add public speaking to her already burgeoning repertoire and on September 18th they both held an event at the Library Annexe in Richmond aptly titled ‘Raising An Unconventional Child’.
VICKI SHARP
The event was “aimed at parents who have children that struggle in the conventional system,” explains Bryony with palpable excitement. “What mum and I want to do with this event is talk to people that are different. I had to go through a really different path but my parents were so supportive through it all. On this path, you’re often on your own and you have to find people to connect with by yourself, so we thought we should make it a solid event to bring parents and children together who wouldn’t necessarily have that connection or community otherwise.”
In the talk, Bryony discussed the various problems she was faced with and how, with each problem, she and her parents worked together to find a solution. “My parents never put pressure on me and they allowed me to do other activities, like dance,” she says. “Dance really boosted my confidence and gave me the social interaction I lacked from not going to school.
“I want to share these tips and tricks with people because there are different issues affecting each individual person, but you have the common thread of raising a child that does not fit the social norm and is unconventional. There are lots of us in the same boat out there and we should all come together.
“I hope that people make connections during the event and that we can all build a kind of support network together and I want people to find hope through the event because, sometimes, when you’re under that cloud, it’s hard to see where you’re going. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it takes a little while.
“I particularly want to show girls that they can be business women and be whoever they want and succeed in whatever they want to do, whether it’s artsy or academic or anything really. But, I want them to know that they don’t have to fit into the conventional mould or conform to societal norms in any way.”
VICKI SHARP
In the future, Bryony is looking to grow her YouTube channel. One thing she’s looking forward to doing – and she’s in the process of working on it now – is “a video series together with a charity that will be used in schools and give a fun but factual view of periods. It has to be educational and teach students about disposable sanitary products and reusable sanitary products and give an entirely unbiased view of them both.”
She hopes to find a way of tackling the big issue of period poverty in the future, particularly using her social media channels to raise awareness. She is also keen to set up a donation scheme where for every pad Precious Stars sell, the company donates a percentage of the profit to either its own foundation or to another charity with similar values.
And what, at the ripe old age of 21, does Bryony think she’d have become if she wasn’t running Precious Stars?
“I wanted to be a doctor but couldn’t deal with the seven years of university,” she confides. “But I feel like I would’ve stumbled into reusable sanitary products eventually even if I had done GCSEs and A Levels because of my keen interest in periods, women’s health and biology, but this path meant I got to where I am more quickly.”
I, for one, am glad she did.
You can connect with Bryony via her main YouTube channel PreciousStarsPads and her secondary channel BreeFarmerVlogs and her unique pads are available at preciousstars.co.uk. You can find out more about her event in Richmond at unconventionalchild.co.uk.
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