Hello Sunshine, Hey besties. Today, on the bright Side, we're imagining a world that's more accessible to people with periods. Carla Welch, stylist and founder of the Period Company, is here to help us create that reality. It's Monday, June third. I'm Simone Boyce.
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, Danielle.
We're starting a little something new today and kicking off the week with a thought starter. We like to think on this show, especially on a Monday, right just to give us that reset for the week ahead. So every Monday, we're going to bring you our besties, some stories that make us curious, that motivate us, and that just give us a fresh perspective on a Monday.
Mondays feel like a chance to reset and begin the week with new energy and new optimism. But one thing that Simone and I both need is our morning coffee. First coffee and then we can get into the morning. You know, everything else comes after that point. It's amazing how post cappuccino is. All the good stuff happens after that.
The brain just does not function until it has the caffeine, and that is addiction. In my friends, how was your morning, see money, My morning was actually quite lovely today. I spent some time with my kids. They were really well behaved. We all just kind of hung out. I read some books to them, and it was a nice way to ease into my day, ease into my week.
Someone, it's so funny you're saying this because it sounds like you had a slow morning. And I actually came across this article in Women's Health magazine about the health benefits of a slow morning. So they're saying that a slow morning is all about creating a morning ritual that prioritizes self care. Whether that's like journaling or making a nice breakfast, or soaking up the sun or as you and I like to say, touching grass. It's just like
about being more present and intentional. And there's this It's Aloyit survey that came out this year that found that seventy percent of people use their smartphone as soon as they wake up.
And I am one of them. They are me. I am them one hundred percent. I am in the seventy percent club.
Two.
I've spent at least an hour on my phone this morning, so I know that's everything that wellness experts tell you not to do, and I was curious why, Like, why is it that everyone tells us not to scroll when we wake up? So I looked into the science behind this, and apparently waking up and immediately looking at your phone stimulates your amygdala, which is the part of your brain that puts your body into fight or flight. Meaning you start your day with this horrendous surge of cortisol and
your body just launches into the day stressed out. So starting with a slow morning actually reduces that cortisol and then prevents your body from entering that fight or flight stage.
I'm not trying to flight or fight like, I really would love to be more present.
I just don't know how real alistic it is for me to do this, like I'm gonna roll over and grab my phone. We all have emails to attend to first thing in the morning. It's just it is what it is. But I wonder if it's about picking an increment of time, a goal that could work for you saying like I'm gonna I'm not gonna look at my phone for the first fifteen minutes of being alive this morning.
I have a friend who keeps her phone in her closet at night, and I feel like that's actually a good strategy, just like keep it far away. But then I'm like, I don't live by my family, Like what if there's an emergency, I don't know.
Then I'm in fight or flight again. I guess we're just trying to stay out of fight or flight, y'all? Yeah, I do yoga on Sundays. Does that count? That's enough?
That's funny, Okay, Simon, Well, let's set an intention for this episode. It's gonna be interesting, it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be enlightening. We're gonna start the week off great. We're gonna do it after the break because we have a really aptivating interview with Carla Welch.
That's right, Danielle. Carla has worked as a celebrity stylist for years, dressing a liss talent that you've all seen on the red carpet, but one specific experience changed the course of her life, and from that moment on, she's found a passion in making sustainable period products and care accessible for everyone. She's an incredible woman. We can't wait to talk to her after the break. We'll be right
back and We're back here with Carla Welch. She's been ranked one of the most powerful stylists out there by The Hollywood Reporter, but she hasn't stopped there. In twenty twenty, she co founded the Period Company. It's a brand dedicated to creating accessible period products for everyone with a period, and the Period Abundance Foundation, a nonprofit aiming to eradicate period poverty in a sustainable way.
In this spring, the Period Company teamed up with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation with the goal of providing free period underwear to one million people in need globally. Carla's here now to tell us about her work as a celebrity stylist and her efforts to fight period poverty. I am so excited to have her on, Carla. Welcome to the bright Side.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Welcome.
We're so glad you're here.
I'm so thrilled to be here. Honestly, I'm so excited.
Okay, So a lot of our listeners have seen your work on the red carpet as a celebrity stylist, I mean working with people like Tracy Ellis, Ross America Ferrara, Sarah Pauls, and Olivia Wilde, Justin Bieber. The list goes on, But how did you get into sustainable period care? When did you discover that you had this calling there? It really was a calling.
It really was one of those light bulb moments where I was like, oh, that's it.
It was let me think, yeah.
It has to be almost eight years ago, and my son, who was a daughter at the time, had gotten their period quite early, and it was a real struggle. It was a real like mom fail, which was like such a trip to me, Like I was like, how could I be messing this up? I need to make sure my kid can figure out having their period at school and out in the world. And there were period.
Underwear out there.
They were really expensive, but I was like, this is a really good idea in my own relationship to my own period. I was like, I hate all the waste I'm creating, And so I was like literally on the toilet, which is so funny, changing a pad, and I was like, I know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I'm going to make period underwear, but I'm going to make them really good and really accessible so that every mom can afford it for their kids,
so that was the real impetus of it. You know, we created this idea of really rebranding the period at the same time, this thing that we all feel crappy about, and it's like, why do we feel crappy about it? Who's told us our whole life that this is crappy? We know who's told us and how we can kind of switch that conversation. And that is a lot of work to do that, and we're doing it. It's going to take a decade. Can I ask you a question about that?
Yeah, So we just had Jessica bial On talking about periods and she said she was super shocked when she got hers that I could tell it.
She didn't feel like it was a great experience.
I was so embarrassed when I got my Yeah, I told my mom not to tell my dad, Like I made her promise me that she would not tell my dad, Like who cares?
Who cares?
Can you believe that, though?
Can you believe that something you're gonna have for probably forty years of your life. You don't have an amazing relationship with, Yes, but this is one thing you can choose to be like, yes, thank you.
Yeah.
And that's how we work in period and I know I went up a little bit off of tangent there, but we work from like the reimagining, and we're reimagining a world where that is a superpower. And I'll go step further and think like we're actually resetting it because like Eve wasn't doing anything bad in that garden. She was like giving life. But somehow people with the paper and the pens wanted to write a story that she
was creating sin yea and reduced it. Adam and was like, no, she gave him a brain and she was the reason for life. And I think if you want to, like go back to how Genesis is written, and it's like the fault of the life giver.
It's not your period.
Isn't there just to create It's like, you know, a system of your body being so so incredible.
I think what's tricky about periods though, is yes, that we've been told to be ashamed of it by society or through traumatic events, but it also just being honest, is like this chore month, you know, and I go through so much leading up to it.
During it, you know you're on your period for weeks.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, because you're getting you're getting ready for it. You're bracing, yeah, and then you're going on all the stage. Yeah.
But it's like the dialogue about it. Yes, okay, this is what's going to happen. You know, I always laugh. I think i'm more knowing when i'm flowing, Like I'm like, actually that person, that person is an asshole, and I'm just realizing it now, you know, laughing When i'm flowing, I'm more so good. Oh, thank you, I just came up with that. No, I'm kidding, No, what you're right.
Of course it is.
Our body is sort of bleeding out, but it's remarkable and we don't have a choice, right, So I guess the choice is like, let's talk about it more. Let's not think that if we leak it's death, because it's not. Let's create better products, yes, because we've been told by these companies that it's shitty. And when I got my period, I think I hit it for a year.
I was just going to ask you tell me about when you got yours.
I was volunteering with the Rotary Club because my dad was in the Rotary and we were delivering cedars catalogs.
Oh my god, So you were alone with your dad. That's hard. Yeah.
I remember like the car would pull up and you would like stand on the whatever the bumper was at the back, and you would drive for a couple of blocks and then you would distribute the catalogs to the houses. And then I remember getting home and being like oh, and then it was like, oh my god, what am I going to do?
Yeah, you don't know what to do. You don't want it to dare with you.
Really.
I don't actually remember when I got mine, which I think there's something there that I have to unpack, like why don't I remember the exact moment. But I do remember going on a trip to the beach and realizing that I had no idea how to insert a tampo.
Oh my god, I can still feel the sweat from my first swim of trying to put a tamp on it the first I'm.
There's YouTube now because we didn't have that.
No.
Well, I liked that you mentioned rotary because you're very entrepreneurial and you've had a lot of jobs stylists, designers, CEO. Yes I have, and you've created a lot of products like T shirts and you created a styling app. So I just think it's interesting that you're known for your period underwear. There are other period underwear products on the market, but yours are markedly less expensive.
I don't think you can make change if you're not accessible. We create billions of tons of garbage every year. And that was really the lens that we approached, so we knew, like, hey, if we want everybody to have access to it, it starts with the bank account. So you know, in the marketplace, the average pairs like thirty to forty dollars and our start at nine dollars. And it's just a conscious decision to make less money.
I mean, it's revolutionary, it is real. Yeah, it's just it's revolutionary.
Yeah, it really, but it's like, okay, you can also just sell more. But also, I feel like we're helping change something in our world that greatly needs to be changed.
So part of this is peer poverty, yeah, which is the lack of access to menstrual products, the lack of education about menstruation, the lack of hygiene facilities, and a lack of a way to dispose of period products.
You just said something needs to be changed. Can you describe the scope of the issue in the US and overseas?
Okay, in the United States, it's one in four people who period don't have access to period care. And globally, so I think there is one point five billion people who get their period right now in the world and almost like seventy percent of them globally don't have access to care.
And so.
You can start with like what happens. So if a girl gets her period, she's not going to go to school, but she doesn't have products. So what happens when a girl doesn't go to school, she ends up falling out of school, She often becomes pregnant earlier, she loses her ability just to kind of participate, right, And so for us, it's really centered in stigma, which is super important. But you can't fix a fucking thing if you don't give
somebody period products. And so what we do is we give people a pack of four to five parrots of period underwear and that can last them up to ten years. We did this project in Kenya and it was like this group called Farmers on Fire tripping name, but these are these women who are tea pickers, right, and so these women are paid by the pound of how much tea leaves they can pick. Well, when they get their period, they don't go to work, so that's losing a weak
worth of income every single month. And I think we gave a thousand women period underwear that one more week gives them so much more power and it changes It changed communities, their community, it changes their family. It gives them them more power within the structure of the family. It allows them to make more money. If a girl thrives, the world changes. So like, why aren't we giving them period products? And people will often say it's too expensive,
it's too expensive to give sustainable products. It's like, no, it's not. For fifteen dollars. We can give a woman for pairson underwear and that's what we're doing. And it's like fifteen dollars is this is the is a tiny buy.
And you seem so confident and grounded and knowledgeable about this work now, but considering that it's such a worldwide issue, did you feel overwhelmed at all when you are at the beginning of this process?
Oh, I feel overwhelmed every day. I just get like a little fired up talking about it because I honestly feel it's my purpose, which is I don't know, it sounds kind of silly, but not at all. But I feel like, like as you said to you, oh how did everything get here? Well, I know how to make things right. I know how to market things. My business partner was one of the world's leading cmos. She knows
how to bring a brand to life. Like everything just aligned, Like the road is getting shorter because I put in thirty years of work experience. That's what I always say to people, like, don't think what you're doing is nothing because it all threads together.
You don't know what it turns into.
You don't know what you don't know what it turns into. And also like you're learning at everything you do. So what is not overwhelming about what we're doing with period and the Period foundation is that it's impact, it's instant, and there are many things we'll never solve, right, but like we can solve this period. Poverty can be eradicated, and it's at the nexus of so many things. So for me, it's like I'm super optimistic and you can see it. You can see the farmers and the girls
we give it to. Their lives are changed instantly because like you're taking care of a basic human need.
Just lay out for us the steps that you think we need to take in order to eradicate period poverty.
Money. I mean, it's a global buy in, right, it's understanding the value of a girl of a person who periods.
That part. It's that part.
But with this project we just started, which is the one Million Girls Period, So we're committing to get period products to a million girls with we're working in tandem with the AIDS Health Foundation, which has started here in Los Angeles. I can't go on the ground and start something new, but I can ask any NGO out there that's doing the work, Hey, will you do this? Add on? It's the catalog, right, it's the rotary catalog. It's saying you're doing this work. You might be giving a vaccine.
Would you add on giving period underwear to these people? Smart? And just see how fast it can spread. And it's not just period underwear. That's the product I can offer, but reusable pads can it be cuts in certain parts of the world. Of course, our mission is that it's sustainable because even if you're giving them five years of never having to worry about their period, you're giving them such an advantage. So maybe they're like, Okay, I want to use pads or tampons, but will never be the case,
and that they'll always choose sustainable. But you're giving them so much.
We're learning now that pads and tampons, a lot of them have chemicals that have been linked to various health risks. So period underwear is actually healthier for us in many ways. It seems we also need to.
Be reminding girls that having a period is an indicator of your body's overall health. Is one of the best tests for that. It's one of the best tests we have consistent. Yeah, hopefully, And if it's not that tells you something, it tells you something. It's an opportunity every month to check in with yourself. Yes, down to the color of the blood too.
Down to the color of the blood, Like, there's so much conversation we need to have, and also the conversations we have about our periods will mean we'll have better conversations about our menopause.
All Right, we got to take a quick break with celebrity stylists CEO and co founder of the Period Company, Carla Welch, And we're back with Carla Welch.
I can imagine people listening thinking, how period, No, how can we jump in, like, how can we help that's kind of how I feel listening to you. What does the Period Company need?
So the one Million Girls Period Initiative with AHF and the Period Abudance Foundation, so it's its own entity that works to give education and sustainable products. No donations go to operating costs. If anybody want it to help, you can buy a community bundle. It's fifteen dollars on the web site and that will give one girl four pairs of underwear that'll last her for years and years and years, and it'll be part of our distribution of the one Million Girls Initiative.
You touched on something that I want to get more insight on. So I think part of what the Period Company is doing is helping to change the way that we treat women and girls.
How have you.
Seen the lack of value Yeah, in how we treat women and girls or people who period.
Yeah.
Can you imagine if every boy was like, girl, you got your period? Do you need anything?
Or awesome?
That's amazing because if you actually just think about it, you're like, wow, that's pretty phenomenal. But I wish my body could do that. We laughed when we started at Period. We were like, had these ad campaigns in our mind because we didn't have the money to make them. But just like little boy crying, the mom was like, why are you crying?
Well, I want to get a period.
It's language. Everything's language. It's like, bring the periods to the bright side.
Yeah, a whole new vocabulary, and sent meant be my periods.
When we were talking about the interconnectedness of the cycles that we're all a part of, you know, how we are linked to those farmers and Kenya who supply us with our tea, it got me thinking about sustainable fashion. And because we have a renowned celebrity stylist here, my mind will not let me not ask you a question about fashion, So.
You can ask me so many questions about fashion. I love fashion and I love periods.
Great. Great, So where are you buying sustainable fashion right now?
Ooh, I'm not buying That's what the most sustainable thing is.
Touche, touche? What does that mean? Are you borrowing and swapping? Well?
I actually have gone through a real lull of really not buying a lot. I mean, when Phoebe Felo came back out, I did buy some jeans because I'd been waiting years for her reemergence. But I'm being really like, I have enough stuff. Of course, if you see something you love, love, love, I think it has to like for me, being sustainable means saving my purchases for something that makes my heart just leap out of my chest. Yeah, I am super fortunate. Obviously I get given stuff, and
I really am a vintage person. I love second hand clothes, so I think that's such a sustainable move.
And just shop in the closet.
How do you shop in your closet and reimagine, Like, how do I think about thinking of those outfits differently?
I mean that's where I think the Instagram is a pretty great tool because you're like, oh, I like how that girl looks. But you know, it's like adding layers, taking it past two items. Well, if you're doing pants, tank, jewelry, that's three. But like, is there a belt? Is there a sock? Is there a little layering piece? Do I tie it? The thing about fashion and clothes, it's low risk, right, you wear enough it one day, you don't love it,
it's already another day. There's no like lamenting. I'm like, eh, moving them right along, moving right along to the next. Look, we're fine.
What is your piece of advice that works both in fashion and life.
Wear the dress, just wear it today, may be it. I don't believe in special occasions. I think every day is a special occasion. Also, earn the nice candle, you know, run those chatteries all dry mine. Yeah, you know, like, tell someone they look great, don't just think it. Yeah. Like, we have so many problems in this world. That can't be one of them. You gotta spread some joy.
That's the bright side.
That's the bright side.
Carlo Welch, thank you so much for joining us on the bright Side.
It's been an absolute pleasure and honor, and thank you for talking periods.
Carlo Welch is a celebrity stylist and the co founder of The Period Company and the Period Abundance Foundation. This year, for Menstrual Health Day, the Period Company is on a mission to get free period underwear to one million people in need globally.
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're talking to Kathleen Griffith about entrepreneurship and how to build your best life.
Y'all listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Simone Boye. You can find me at Simone Boice on Instagram and TikTok.
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
That's ro b A. Y see you tomorrow, Folks. Keep looking on the bright side.