Roses are red, violets are blue. We want to celebrate self love – how about you?
Hi Ladies, Eleanor here. I’m The Better Brand Consultant who collaborated with Ladies-who-Launch for the 12 Days Of Christmas Better Gift Guide on last year’s Black Friday. As we got such wonderful feedback and messages of support, Emma and the team have kindly invited me back, and I’m really thrilled to be offering something a little bit special in honour of another key calendar moment: Valentine’s Day.
As the shops prepare their isles for love heart shaped chocolates, red roses, and gift cards, the concept of Valentine’s Day feels – dare I say – a bit dated. It’s 2019 and, while it’s true we could do with a bit more love in the world right now, collectively the mood is shifting and we’re all calling bullshit on the ‘holidays’ that have been created to make us feel compelled to buy more stuff.
Whether you’re coupled-up, happily single or “it’s complicated”, the truth is, we all know that showing love doesn’t – and shouldn’t – happen on just one day in the year. Anyone who’s done their Love Language quiz knows that the act of love in relationships can come in many different forms and guises; some people prefer quality time over overly verbose expressions of feelings and others see ‘Touch’ as taking top priority. I score quite highly on ‘Gifts’ if I’m honest…
And this February, we want to take a different look at what love means and honour the most important relationship you’re ever going to have, which is best summed up in accordance to the gospel of Ru Paul: “If you can’t love yourself, how the HELL are you gonna love somebody else??”
If 2018 was about understanding #selfcare, we’re about to take things upstairs and kick off 2019 with the first Ladies Who Launch Galentine’s Brunch; an afternoon dedicated to self love and sex positivity.
I believe the world doesn’t need another PR-driven Valentine’s Day gift guide, but it does need more space to create and engage in positive conversations that allow us to navigate some of the less Instagram-friendly and more intimate facets of our lives.
This event blends the celebration of female friendship and the power of connections that you’ve come to expect from Ladies-who-Launch community, alongside two exciting guest speakers who will explore how often we really show love to ourselves; through understanding our bodies, diving deeper in to our personalities and what makes us tick, and embarking on a journey of discovery in the same way that we would a lover.
I really hope you can join us on the 16th February at the excellent Bababoom in Islington, where we’ll be joined by:
Monica Karpinski, Founder & Editor of The Femedic, a women’s health website that talks about the kind of things you won’t find in Women’s Health. Having recently been featured in national press such as BBC, Cosmopolitan and The Independent, Monica will share with us the importance of being more informed about the 'taboo' health topics we’re too sacred to talk about, how sex is packaged up to us by mainstream media, and why alongside some of the less sexy topics (contraception, STDs, smear tests etc) ‘pleasure’ should be top of women’s sexual health agenda.
Gen De Rohann Willner and Sinead O’Hare, Founders of The Sway, the revolutionary “pleasure package subscription service” that aims to enable and empower women to explore and enjoy their sex lives. They’ll be chatting to us about why the set up The Sway, what’s been the most eye opening experience so on their journey so far, and providing a (full clothed) ‘show and tell’ of their curated and discreet subscription boxes.
Tickets available here