To all you amazing women out there - and yes we mean you too - happy international women’s day. This celebration, which takes place across the world each year on March 8th, is an opportunity to validate all the women in your life and to work towards gender equality together. This year’s theme, which continues all year, is ‘break the bias’. You can support it today by wearing or surrounding yourself with purple, green and white - colours to represent justice, hope, dignity and purity.
Whilst the international focus is on raising awareness about women who have or are making an amazing impact economically, politically, socially and culturally we would encourage you to start closer to home and to celebrate yourself, your friends, family and colleagues as girls/women and the impact you’re having in this world - no matter how big or small - in whatever way you can.
As girls/women we are still often brought up to believe that we need to be tough to survive and achieve in a ‘man’s world’ and that we can’t have it all. However, there are many examples recently and through history where women are challenging what used to be the ‘norm’ - everything from ‘me too’, to encouraging more women into science and maths, girls and women running very successful businesses, mums raising their daughters/granddaughters to follow their interests and dreams and to believe they can be and achieve more, being positive role models and influencers, getting laws changed, and supporting each other as friends, family our colleagues in smaller, but no less important, ways every day.
We also hope that by sharing our story we inspire all you women out there who have dreams of being more - but are held back by your own negative perceptions - to grab life in both hands and make your visions a reality and/or to support other women and girls around you to be the best they can be.
We’re all amazing in our own ways and all bring our personal and unique value to the world around us. Whatever your role from mum raising the next generation, to employee, business owner, healthcare worker, scientist, government official, student or anything else, we can all have an impact and help to ‘break the bias’ more everyday.
Together we can all make a difference and create a more equal world for our daughters and their daughters for generations to come.
Our story and creating part of our legacy:
It’s interesting how the courage and determination of women in one generation can spur on the same in the next. Our mum’s mum trained as a doctor, surgeon and had some osteopathy training. Our mum has always been very independent and determined, whether she’s baking, doing DIY or helping others. She started a health food business selling herbs, spices and nuts door to door when we were young, before building up and managing a successful business with our dad for many years.
This entrepreneurial spirit seems to have seeped into our genes as all these years later - we (Lucy, Anna and Sophie) had a vision and a strong passion to start an online gifting company. With encouragement from our partners, family and friends we started designing and creating our business and went live with Box of Hugs in 2017. Receiving our first order was nerve wracking but exhilarating. We were so excited that our dream was becoming a reality.
Covid - as awful as it has been - provided more demand for our gift boxes and we saw our sales increase and our customer base grow. This has given us the opportunity to expand into our warehouse and bring a wider and more seasonally reflective range of products to you on our website. We really love finding new and beautiful gifts for you to send and seeing how you put them together in your bespoke Box of Hugs gifts.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. We’ve had to learn and adapt as we’ve gone along, to find solutions to problems we could never have imagined and to balance business with being mum’s and our family life. But with help from the wonderful Ally who we couldn’t manage without and who keeps our packing service going and our warehouse organised and the amazing team at our warehouse site, our suppliers, delivery drivers, our family and friends and of course, you our wonderful customers, we’re excited and looking forward to continuing to expand and grow as we move forward. Thank you all for believing in us and supporting us.
As our grandmothers and mum did before us we hope we can inspire our own daughters to follow their dreams and make things happen.
Treat the wonderful women in your life with a Box of Hugs
If you’re looking for a gift to send to the girls and women in your life, a Box of Hugs is an ideal gift to let them know how proud you are of them and how inspired they make you feel.
A final thought
Overall, remember, you are amazing, you’re stronger than you think, you’re unique and you can achieve great things that can make a small or great difference in the life of woman near and far. You’re an important part of history so believe in yourself and remind yourself every day that you are amazing.
A very happy international women’s day to you all
With love and hugs
Lucy, Anna and Sophie xox