This may come as a bit of a shock to you ladies, buuuut finding models for Speax is no easy feat. What, doesn't everyone want to be photographed in their panties and featured on a website that is overflowing with sassy pee puns 😏?! Well, we quickly learned how cultural "taboos" and shame surrounding women's bodily functions became so mainstream. The modeling agencies we reached out to didn't wanna work with us, which left us with quite a creative conundrum. How could we feature beautiful underwear, eliminate shame around leakage, and spread body literacy without any models??? And, the real kicker, how do we check all of those boxes while capturing the true diversity of our customers?

Our collective brain power shifted into overdrive. Then BAM 💥 it dawned on us—we already know so many women who embody the spirit of Speax: women working to uplift and improve the lives of women around the world, tireless activists with a wicked sense of humor and inimitable style, entrepreneurial women who are building female-led businesses and making an impact. So we picked up the phone and called in a favor. We know having strong, passionate, real women as models isn't a groundbreaking concept, but it's one way for us to participate in the shifting and positive representation of women and their bodies.

 Our Models

We're pretty damn lucky that these gorgeous & accomplished women not only said yes to modeling for us, but enthusiastically found time in their hectic days to dance around in Speax while being photographed (that's called disrupting the status quo, yo!). Get ready for your lady-crush meter to spike as you meet our iconic models! Introduciiiiiing...

 Latham 

As a maternity lifestyle maven, wellness & birth coach/doula, and yogini, Latham Thomas is blazing the movement for maternal wellness (and we're forever ~grateful~ for her vital work). She supports pre and postnatal women by offering everything from culinary & nutritional services to yoga and birth coaching! Her talents don't stop there! She also authored  the bestselling book “Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to a Fabulous and Abundant Pregnancy.” And, um, did we mention that Latham is on Oprah's list of Supersoul 100? NBD. (JK, it's totally a BD.)

Emily 

Emily is a Doula with Carriage House Birth and a reproductive educator. On top of providing compassionate care for expecting moms and families, Emily is also the Co-Founder of Fifth Vital Sign, which provides free, unbiased, reproductive health education for women so we can feel more secure, safe and alive in our bodies. Fifth Vital Sign's perspective on the women's health was recently been featured in Vogue and Glamour.

Sunny 

Sunny ☀️ is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, and one of the most successful headhunters in new media. Her client roster is filled with impressive companies organizations like GE, MTV, and the National Academy of Services (just to name a few). Sunny also serves as a founding board member of Techstars and Kickstarter. 

Katinka

Katinka is a holistic business-owning doula, herbalist, body worker, advocate of the Fertility Awareness Method, and founder of Earth & Sky Healing Arts. Oh, and fun fact, Katinka has actually modeled for us twice: once when she was 38 weeks pregnant, and again a few months ago after having her 2nd baby. 

Monica

Monica is the witty and calm CEO of our sister-brand TUSHY (a revoLOOtionary bidet attachment). In addition to growing a start-up and being a queen in the business world, Monica is also a seriously profesh dancer, hula hooper, and cat mom. 

Joanne & Idelisse

This dynamic duo (popularly known as the Two Old Bitches/ladies who can out-sass and out-style us all) are podcasters, equal rights warriors, and pioneers for womankind. At 65, Joanna was most recently working as Deputy Executive Director of UN Women and says "hell no" to shutting up and sitting down. Idelisse, 69, was Vice President of the Ms. Foundation for Women and as President of the Tides Foundation and led social, racial and economic justice organizations. 

Behind the Scenes 

I'll never forget my first Speax photo shoot. I almost had to throw in the towel because my 4-year-old daughter, Amora, didn't have summer camp that day, which meant no child care 😁. So, I texted Kejal, Speax's VPee of Marketing/AKA the best boss I've ever had/fellow multitasking mama to let her know about my personal dilemma. Instead of suggesting that I take the day off, she invited Amora to join our crew on set. I immediately packed up Amora's coloring book and told her that she was coming with me to work on a photo shoot 📷. Her face lit up. I felt like a mom & work champion. And not gonna lie, I will always bottle up these semi-rare moments like gold dust.

As soon as we arrived, I started chit-chatting with Emily, who was delighted with our family-style take on a photo shoot as she watched Kejal play tag with Amora. While Emily was flauntin' Speax, Amora introduced herself to Joanne and Idelisse, who were glammin it up in hair & make-up. It didn't take long for her to rope the Two Old Bitches into several games of hide-and-seek. (Amora now refers to Joanne and Idelisse as "my favorite ladies.") 

After Emily's portion was done, it was time for Joanne and Idelisse to strut their stuff for the camera. Emily stuck around because she was so in love with Joanne & Idelisse's energy and style. Plus, the fierce, fun, and compassionate female energy on set with gals ranging from 4 years old to 69 was down right tangible. It was magic 💫, really.

Spending time with each of these ladies, watching them play with my kid on the set, dancing and throwing away inhibitions, and feeling free from judgment left an indelible impression on all of us. Our # 1 and ultimate goal as creatives and businesswomen is to connect with the women who are the most powerful part of our story - our vibrant customers. This beautiful constraint of societal "taboo" (although we're still swinging our axe at it) gave us this fabulous crop of real women to help us bring our brand to life. We're just getting started and will continue to feature real ladies of all ages doing meaningful work while living loudly and unapologetically.  

~ We're always on the lookout for new models so if you want to strip off both your clothing and inhibitions, hit us up! ~

Posted: July 31, 2019