A little bit of beauty amidst the pain... I am still heartbroken over last weeks news and have barely been able to be on this app since I found out. Sometimes I have to process trauma off of this platform and then resurface once I’ve caught my breath. However, it doesn’t feel like I - or many of us will ever catch our breath from this one. What a punch to the gut. Women’s rights, their safety and their access to healthcare has always been at the core of what motivated me to start my own company. If you work for East Olivia full time you receive benefits including health insurance, maternity / paternity leave and the list goes on. In full transparency I’ve been told by many people that me offering these level of benefits this early on in my company’s existence is crazy and not financially the best choice. The thing is - I don’t want to own a company that doesn’t offer living wages and that doesn’t provide healthcare. I am passionate about talented creatives being able to have access to the benefits they deserve - especially because in our country, those things are not provided or available to everyone. This disparity in this country is only widening and the divide between people is only growing as well. It’s honestly a really intense time to be alive and I’m not sure where we go from here but this current direction is not one I’m willing to follow. Beyond meeting the immediate needs of women within our networks who will be relying on our support for access to safe abortions, what else can we be doing? I ask this question with all the humility of not knowing the answer but being willing to do whatever it takes to seek it out - knowing full well it is not any one thing - but oh so many things. If you have resources or suggestions to share please include them in the comments ❤️