Blume is a skincare line and philanthropic business dedicated to the mission of setting a new standard for skin, body, and period care. Taran Ghatora is the co-founder of Blume, and she shares with us the journey to its inception.
“When I first imagined the mission of Blume, I was in law school learning about how women around the world were missing up to 25% of their schooling due to social stigmas and lack of period products. From there, I was led down the rabbit hole of exploring this problem, and I decided to do my thesis on it. Soon after, I also found out that while people in North America generally have more access to period products, there are still women who aren’t able to purchase them. Additionally, there’s a lot of stigma in North America around periods and things like acne as well.”
Taran describes how the dynamic between women’s rights and feminine self-image played a major part in the making of Blume’s brand. “Shortly after my sister and I launched our company, we surveyed our community, and 60% of women stated that their self-esteem plummeted upon starting puberty. That deepy resonated with me because when I was a teen, I experienced this too. I remember the negative and underhanded signals given to me from the media. I remember the absence of education in school about my own body. Young women aren’t educated about this topic, and they are hindered from speaking about it. This silence implies that it’s something to be ashamed of, and shame inevitably leads to a lack of confidence.”
“That’s why I wanted to create Blume.”
“I wanted to take the important step of creating conversation and likewise making the next generation more comfortable in their skin. In addition to making products that really work, it became our goal to change statistics, to destroy taboos, and to talk about hard things.”
Taran explains how even today, women are not given spaces to explore their identities and to learn about their bodies. “When we found out how there were only 9 states in the U.S that mandate sex education, we created our own sex ed curriculum called the States of Sex Ed (.com). It has powerpoints, PDFs, and we actually created them with a sex ed teacher in D.C who teaches full time. She helped us create all of this amazing content with other teachers in different states.”
“If sex education is not going to be mandated federally, we figured that Blume could be a brand that provides these types of resources for young people. It’s all downloadable on our website, and it’s available to teachers and parents. We have a deck of cards called conversation cards that are for sale on our website, and a lot of teachers have bought them. The cards address different topics like periods and self-care. The cards are designed to spark conversation, and they can be used with friends or parents.”
Taran addresses some of the challenges she’s faced as a female and purpose-driven entrepreneur. “When it came to investors, explaining these taboo ideas and what we were doing was pretty challenging at times. A lot of them got it right away, but some didn’t. It can be anxiety inducing to talk about topics like this, but my sister and co-founder, Bunny continued to spread the message by doing a lot of talks. And eventually, having these conversations became a part of our day to day. Over time, it got easier, and plus, it was really motivating to finally give people a space where they can talk about these issues. As of right now, we are focusing on Gen Z because people who are going through puberty are the most underserved in the beauty industry. Our products are for everyone, but we believe that this group especially needs to be spoken to.”
Blume deeply cherishes young people and is dedicated to supporting them. Taran says, “We give back partial proceeds to an organization called Days for Girls. They’re an amazing organization that provides menstrual products overseas. They send a lot of products to India, Nepal, and to a lot of other places. As I mentioned before, when my sister and I learned that many of these young girls couldn’t leave their house or go to school, we made it our mission to become a part of the solution.”
Taran admits that running a business dedicated to promoting women’s rights and self-care has had an impact on her own routine. “In the first few years of starting the company, I was very fired up, but it caught up with me at times, especially during the pandemic. It was very easy to lose the balance between work and home. It’s been very busy so there’s less time for self-care now, but I don’t work all through the weekend anymore. That’s definitely something that I used to do, but even when I can’t make the time to really unwind, I always make time to take my dogs for a walk or to cuddle with them in the morning. Almost every day, I make time for some type of exercise, and this really keeps me sane. I try to carve out at least half an hour for myself, and I meditate to balance my mind and outlook on life. I’ve always been really optimistic, but there were times on this journey where I was absolutely terrified.”
“However, I maintained my driving force which was to ensure that our total community felt heard. People shouldn’t grow up only seeing eurocentric beauty standards or feeling like they have to hide. From Blume’s models, to our talent, and to our customers, we want to make sure that we are integrating everyone. We love showing normal skin as well as things like melasma, hyperpigmentation, and acne. Ultimately, we love helping to build the self-esteem of our community members, and making the beauty industry a safer space for everyone.”