Innovation

The business started off in December 2017, focusing solely on blogs and social media platforms like Instagram. This business is dedicated to “the real her”, in other words, encouraging women to see themselves for what they truly are. The company then expanded into the apparel industry and doubled as of May 2018, when Christina Paul, CEO and founder, took over the business.

Christina Paul approached two of her friends in a psychology leadership class with the proposition of starting a business together. One of the friends was passionate about politics and more specifically feminism, the other was interested in sexual health for women, and Christina was knowledgeable about mental health and self-love. It was quite difficult balancing work and an entire business on the side so Christina took over the other two categories, as sole owner while the other two friends supported her from the sidelines.

Since Christina’s dad was also an entrepreneur, she looked up to him and always knew she wanted to start her own business one day. One of Christina’s friends, founded the blog and reached out to women all over the word so that they could contribute to the blog. Another friend, was focused on the growth of their business through social media. Unfortunately, these two friends are no longer running the business, although their hard work and motivation certainly paid off!

The business started off as a platform to help spread awareness about mental health in order to decrease the stigma since the founder and CEO, struggled with mental health issues all her life. As the business began to grow, Christina said that the bigger picture was “loving yourself regardless of what you have been through” and began focusing on health issues and disabilities as a whole, not just mental health. The reason why the company was named “Ethereal & Co” was because ethereal means “extremely delicate and light in a way that seems to be too perfect for this world” and because it contains the words “the real her” within the word. Since their entire brand is focused on “the real her”, ethereal was a perfect representation of what their company stands for.

Inspiration

As a nineteen-year-old, Christina Paul worked as a brand ambassador for Wear Your Label in New Brunswick, Canada where her friend, Kayley Reed, happened to be the CEO. As an employee, she attended multiple entrepreneurial events where she began to get frustrated, since she was one of the only people who wasn’t an entrepreneur. Soon after, the three friends got together and asked themselves “what are we going to fix in the world?”. These passion-driven females, registered the business online and everything became real; three friends had started a business together. Christina’s dad got irritated since he saw his daughter putting in so much time and money into her business and getting almost nothing in return. With his copious amounts of business knowledge, he helped Christina finally make a profit.

The motivation behind their innovation was helping others. The girls wanted to make society a better place since it is constantly changing and difficult to keep up with. Christina stated that "the business started to help spread awareness about mental health in order to decrease the stigma." It now wants to highlight all disabilities and challenges faced by women. The purpose is to help the average woman overcome her self-esteem issues. Their target market is young women, with self esteem issues who are struggling to see their true beauty. The target audience is quite broad, but that is how Christina intended it to be. She hopes to inspire everyone with her movement about body positivity and information about sexual and mental health.

Overall impact

Christina Paul’s idea was to create a blog with articles about mental health in order to reduce the stigma. This innovation is what jump started her entire business. As a result, she decided to not only focus on mental health, but disabilities as a whole, sexual health and feminism. Christina’s team kept creating content and the customers continuously gave positive feedback. A year later, her business continues to grow and her message about empowering women is slowly making its way across campus. Seeing such a positive reaction from her male customer base, Christina hopes to expand into the male market to further develop Ethereal & Co.

Multiple people have reached out via Instagram explaining how the brand has changed their lives. Small companies are also reaching out to them since they are one of the few, small woman-run businesses that society craves. Christina Paul personally writes handwritten notes to companies or people who reach out in order to maintain that inclusive, small-company feel. Even the smallest purchase can go a long way because as Christina herself said, "When you buy a shirt from Ethereal & Co., it buys me lunch."

Ethereal & Co. has begun to see a change among University of Guelph students, where women are learning to appreciate the bodies they are in and talking about mental health more. Once a person starts focusing on the traits that make them a whole, the positive attitude is contagious and helps spread awareness on the issue. It is kind of like the snowball effect, if someone reads one of the blog posts on Ethereal & Co., they tell their friends about and those friends tell their friends about it and the positive message begins to spread at a fast pace.

This business is only a year old, so they are quite new to the industry and the effects that they have made on society as a whole are minimal. That being said, their goal is for all woman to feel comfortable in their own skin and for this to be the norm. The norm right now, is picking out the flaws you have and fixing them. But why fix them? Flaws are what makes you, you. As CEO, Christina Paul said "I will not stop until I see the real her in advertisements everywhere" which puts her entire vision and ambition into perspective.

The readers, supporters, and consumers of Ethereal & Co., hope to see a more male friendly brand in the future. There are plans to expand into the male market, although the focus right now is on women. Christina hopes that brands like her own can make a change in societal perceptions of men and women. She remarks that "men are taught to be big and macho." With brands focusing on real perceptions, Christina hopes that advertisements can change these attitudes. Most of the clothing is unisex however, some are labeled as “women's clothing”. The goal here is not to offended anyone, these clothes just fit slightly differently than the rest of the clothes.

The brand is all about inclusivity and they ensure their consumers are fully aware of that. Even though the business only started focusing on “the real her” in May 2018, the amount of people that have reached out is unimaginable. With the help of a few other females, Christina hopes to reach thousands of people and enter bigger retail stores like Hudson’s Bay or Winners in the future.

Business benefit

In Christina’s case, her innovation is what propelled and ultimately created the business. She started with just a simple idea and when it began, she didn't view it as a business. As she mentions, "money was only a secondary thought" when she started Ethereal & Co. As the company grew larger, she saw ample opportunity of it turning a profit for her. Her innovation being to create an open and free environment for women and that they should feel not only comfortable in their own bodies, but powerful and happy. The passion and confidence that Christina has for her company, has been the driving factor in the businesses success.

Social and environmental benefit

Christina strives for the betterment of society. Her business innovation is set up in such a way that it reaches out to a wide range of people in order to spread awareness about the importance of mental health and other challenges. Christina says that she hopes the company can "help others, and enact a positive change in society."

There are various international and national crisis hotlines that people can utilize and don’t have to go through the hassle of finding these numbers on their own. Christina remarks that "this idea snowballed into so much more, now touching on all types of disabilities". Christina’s business innovation affects society in such a positive way by showing women, as well as other individuals, how to feel strong and empowered in their own skin without the society saying they aren’t good enough.

Interview

Christina Paul, CEO & Founder