Our Top 7 Indie and Ethical Businesses Ran by Women

Happy International Women’s Day! We love supporting small independent businesses ran by women! Indie & Ethical brands are what we are about.

Starting with our very own Lucy, the female half of Lucy and Yak today we will be celebrating all women! Women are out there doing their thing, making history and a difference to the world.

In this blogpost, we have rounded up our favourite independent businesses created and ran by the gals! Yay to girl power!

A survey in 2017 showed that women only take up 11% of the engineering population - for some of you, this may not come as a shock. Garages, cars and engines are all things that can be stereotypically associated with guys.

Ruth and Kisha realised this and decided to make a change.

Kisha got in touch: “My background is in engineering and Ruth is an inventor and engineer. We both want to start conversations around inclusive making. I never felt welcomed in workshops and definitely didn't feel encouraged to go into engineering.

After launching the initial campaign to start conversations and financially support Bright Box Makerspace events in socially excluded communities, I was overwhelmed with requests for workshops for women. And here we are, a little over a year on. I can't believe the amazing support we've had and the willingness of women to give it go”.

We all know how bad plastic is - we here at Lucy and Yak are not fans and do everything we can to cut down our use, from recycled plastic fleeces to biodegradable packaging. And loads more people are getting involved! Including the wonderful women behind Lunch Skins, the company owned by Kirsten Quigley.

Shannon, the CFO and Head of Marketing got in touch: “While sitting around a kitchen table in 2008, we heard a staggering statistic - every day, more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfill. We knew that many families were looking for easy, convenient ways to stop using plastic bags. So we put our passion and energy together and Lunchskins was born.

Our mission: to design a colourful, fresh alternative to the plastic bags. We came up with some fresh, modern designs for those of us who want to dress up our bag lunch. Whether you care about our environment, saving money, eating healthy, or looking stylish, LunchSkins are the answer to your plastic bag blues".

Who doesn't love a bit of body positivity? And could anything represent International Women's Day better than a shop, ran by a woman, supporting other women?!

Emma is a Scottish gal living it up in Yorkshire. After quitting her job, she became the proud owner of Potyertitsawayluv - an online shop for pots with your boobs on. Yep - you can send her a pic of your boobs, and she makes them in to a pot. It's all handmade and personalised for you. She often speaks out in honesty about self love and makes her followers aware of more independent businesses and charities - what's not to love?

Talk about embracing yourself! Body positivity never looked so good.

After Chloe realised her love for food could only be a positive thing, she put it into action in a blog, sharing with us her latest discoveries and recipes. She has now gone further and has her own products. A zero waste, sustainable, healthy food blogger - yes girl! And there's lots of chocolate involved.

Her blog reads, "everything I believe in; minimal food waste, a best friend in leftovers, happy place in local markets, huge supporter of farm to fork, and general innovators in this natural and sustainable space, be it fashion, cosmetics etc."

A 2 woman show located in Sheffield's independent district, Division Street - right down the road from us! The two girls, Lucy and Kirsteen felt the need for more vintage, punk-inspired fashion, so they took to their sewing machines and opened a shop! Everything is handmade - there's even a sewing machine by the till. We love the transparency and honesty of these gals, as well as the unique pieces you can buy from them.

Their website reads: "Psychedelic sounds meets the ideal of homemade punk fashion" and I don't think anything else could describe them better.

You may have heard of the Good on You app and if you haven’t, you definitely need to download it. It is the yellow pages of shops (do people still use those?) and the Google for ethical, sustainable shopping brands. All you have to do is search your favourite brand and see how ethical they really are.

The app that recently got an exclusive partnership with Emma Watson, tells you the ratings on the company’s labour, environment and use of animals before giving you a little run through of what exactly the company is doing to gain these ratings. It’s extremely useful if you want to be more aware of where your clothes are coming from.

And all of this, as you may have guessed, is co-owned and founded by a woman, Sandra. Yes, gal! You can get the Good On You app for iOS and Android.

and finally... we would not leave celebration of the International Women's Day without a few treats and WOW YOU is the company that does just that.

Specialising in skincare for sensitive skin, WOW YOU creates products that are vegan, paraben-free and completely cruelty-free. We like!

This is what co-founder Ella had to say about the company that she co-runs with her partner Leo.

''After a busy day, something as simple as a face mask and chill can change how you feel for the better. Putting a smile on your lovely face is exactly why we wanted to create our range of naturally powered skincare products!

Inspirational? 100%! Last month WOW YOU launched their products with Urban Outfitters in the US and this weekend in celebration on IWD. Ella and Leo are actually good friends of Lucy & Chris, they met last year at creatival (also ran by a kick ass woman, Helen!) And since then both pairs have learned a lot from each other.

We also managed to talk them into giving Lucy & Yak fans a discount code for their products online. Just add LUCY10 at the checkout and enjoy these lovely skincare treats at 10% off!

Have a great International Women's Day. Let us know about your supportive sisters on our instagram page giveaway and look out for stories from us today celebrating all women!