The Founder Series is a column by and about Utah founders and how they got to where they are today. Click here to read past articles in the series.

Caution: Combining passions and interests may lead to starting your own business. I know because it happened to me. 

In the summer of 2019, my sister Abby and I were backpacking through Banff, Canada. We had plenty of time to talk. When we planned the trip, we’d made an effort to look for personal care products we could bring along that wouldn’t be harmful to the environment.

Being environmentally-friendly was a priority for both of us. Abby has held internships with companies like Cotopaxi and the International Rescue Committee, two very socially-minded brands and organizations that have had positive social impacts. 

As we hiked the trail, we talked about the different brands we had discovered during our hunt for campsite-approved products—haircare brands, body wash brands, and 3-in-1 soap brands. Our conversation shifted into talking about branding in general. The earth-friendly products we purchased for our trip were definitely not marketed to girls, and across the board, we felt like none of them spoke to girls in a meaningful way. We were setting out on an adventure, and our only options for self-care were offering us “volume” and “shine,” encouraging us to be “silky” and “touchable.” Beyond being completely misaligned with our goals and interests, we felt that this messaging was potentially harmful to us and other girls. 

It sparked an idea. What if there was a brand for girls like us who loved to go backpacking, camping and trail running? What if we were the ones to make it happen? SadieB was born at that moment, and we mapped out what our first line of products would be before returning home from that trip.

For girls, by girls

We brainstormed all kinds of customer profiles, then tailored personal care products to these girl’s lifestyles. One of our neighbors owned a branding agency and allowed us to pitch him on our ideas. The company was called For Girls By Girls at that time. In the process of creating the logo and branding, however, it evolved into SadieB.

At an early pivotal moment, my sister and I were sitting at the kitchen counter, developing different product lines. We’d come up with hair and body care lines called Go-getter, Adventurer, Athlete and Creator. Our entrepreneurially-minded dad was there, too. He was our cheerleader from the start and never stopped pushing us to continue thinking about SadieB. That night, he gave us both a look, then asked a question neither of us will forget.

He asked, “Do you want to do this?” Without really having a clue of what he meant by that, we replied that, yes, we really did! Our dad gave us the courage to move forward with our idea.

Jumping into unfamiliar situations and figuring out solutions became an early theme for us. We started working with Enlisted Design and asked anyone we knew in the entrepreneurial community. We asked about their experience with personal care brands and who they used for manufacturing and bottle design. When we sent cold emails to their manufacturers and pitched our idea, they liked it. 

Personal care and mental hygiene

The message and mission attached to SadieB started as the general empowerment of girls, recognizing who they are as a whole person and making a point of not focusing on unrealistic and unfair beauty standards. As Abby and I grew older, our priorities changed. We wanted to do more. As we experienced mental health struggles and watched friends suffer from similar issues, we wanted to help. That led to slightly tweaked messaging—since physical and mental health are so intertwined, we decided to become SadieB, a personal care and mental hygiene brand.

To us, physical and mental health are of equal importance. We brought on a certified therapist to help us review and certify all the content we share around the mental health space, including tips and education that we provide through social media and on the backs of our bottles.

There are so many amazing resources out there for suicide prevention, but we wanted to step in from a place of preventative care. We want to get to our customers and share ideas before they arrive at a point of crisis. That’s done by focusing on daily mental hygiene reminders that our customers can implement, like getting enough sleep or encouraging positive self-talk, recognizing when you’re anxious rather than scrolling endlessly on your cellphone, exercising and other healthy ways of dealing with stress.

The Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general of the United States, has called the mental health crisis the defining public health crisis of our time. By changing the landscape of personal care products in a girl’s bathroom, we hope to help our customers see things differently than they might otherwise.

Right now, so many girls know the experience of waking up, walking into their bathrooms, and being surrounded by a landscape of products telling them that they need to be skinnier, that their skin needs to be clearer and that their teeth need to be whiter. We hope to change that through SadieB products that remind you you’re good enough, that you can crush the day and that you are a go-getter. You’re an athlete; you’re an adventurer. We want to promote the truth that she—our customer—can be whoever she wants to be and that she is capable of so much.

As girls ourselves, we can try to reach other girls. We can be empathetic, speaking to them in ways big brands can’t or don’t. We’ve done this by combining our interests and passions, recognizing the mental health crisis among girls and wanting to make a difference through personal care. 

A retail bullseye

That’s one story of our beginning, and here’s another turning point: SadieB products landed on the shelves of 500 Target stores this year, and that was no small feat. A series of miracles led us there. 

In the process of getting our business started, I have become connected with the female founder community in Utah. It’s strong, and it’s growing. One champion of that group is Thread Wallets co-founder McKenzie Bauer. She hosts amazing events for this community to connect, and my sister and I attended one last April.

Cherie Hoeger, founder and CEO of Saalt—a sustainable period care company—was the keynote speaker. She shared that her company’s products can be found at Target. My sister and I have followed Saalt for a long time for many reasons; namely, they have an incredible impact program and are B Corp-certified.

After Cherie spoke, we offered her a SadieB product sample pack for her and her five daughters to try out. A few days later, she sent us an email with a photo of her daughters holding our products. She wrote, “Your products have to be in Target. Contact my broker.”

It was 11 p.m. on a Wednesday, but we immediately sent her broker a message and got a reply minutes later. He told us that the haircare reset for 2024 was in a week. He advised us to throw something together, and fast. Preparation on a pitch deck began that same night, and Cherie was kind enough to help us refine it before we presented it to Target.

It went well. The buyer had daughters and connected with our brand story. After that, we didn’t hear anything for a long time. We started setting up logistics and registered as a Target vendor regardless. When a 15-minute call with the buyer popped up on our calendars, it didn’t seem like a good sign. We assumed he was giving us just enough time for him to tell us no. It was a pins-and-needles moment.

When we joined the call, without offering any introductions, he said, “You’re getting into 500 stores in February. Get ready.” Any professionalism we had disappeared for at least for several seconds. We could not hide our excitement! The buyer was living for that kind of reaction and told us we would be the only personal care brand in Target specifically for Gen Z girls.

The Target deal was a new beginning—if not the real beginning—of our story. It’s the first time we had a chance to connect with a massive chunk of our demographic: moms and daughters. We will be able to reach so many of them in so many stores, and even more once we expand to the rest of Target’s 1,900 locations. This is the start of changing the narrative in the beauty industry and letting girls know they are so much more than what they look like.

Always the youngest

This is my first foray into business, which means my sister and I have made a lot of mistakes. We have had to figure out how to pivot quickly, to get up and keep going regardless. Figuring everything out for the first time can come with some drawbacks. I’ve been able to overcome them by seeking mentors in all we have done and all we will yet do.

At SadieB, we have built an incredible board to help us navigate what is still unknown. Board members include women like McKenzie Bauer and Noelle Bates, the SVP of marketing and communications at Stance, as well as Davis Smith of Cotopaxi. These incredible entrepreneurs have helped us navigate the mistakes we’ve made.

Whatever you do, seek after good mentors. Absorbing what they have to offer is simply a faster way to learn. Entrepreneurs are so willing to help, and that’s been especially true of the female founders we’ve befriended. Entering the founder community and receiving support was a gamechanger.

Many times, we have been the only girls in a meeting or business situation, which can be daunting. To add to that, we’re super young: Abby is 22, and I’m 20. We are the minority in those spaces. Being taken seriously has been a challenge, but we refuse to make it an obstacle; instead, we lean harder into our determination. We allow that to fuel our fire rather than becoming discouraged, relying on extra support from our mentors when it’s necessary.

Besides, so many good things have happened because my sister and I have been so naive about what to do and what to expect out of the future. We don’t know what’s coming, and that open perspective keeps us going. Our passion for what SadieB can be is what guides us forward.