“We’re attempting to create a greater coming-of-age story than the one we grew up with,” says Julie Schott. It’s a mission she and her business partner Brian Bordainick launched into a couple of years ago with the launch of Starface, the pimple patch brand that takes the shame out of pimples (and which you’ve seen throughout your FYP). Now they’re taking over emergency contraception with their latest brand, Julie. “You possibly can say, ‘why do we want one other [morning after pill]?’” Schott says. “Because something’s not working. There’s a possibility, in the identical way that we’ve shifted the experience of getting pimples for a teen, to shift this experience since it doesn’t must be this manner.”

Within the US, roughly 48 per cent of pregnancies are either mistimed or unwanted. Similarly, almost half of all pregnancies globally are unintended, totalling 121 million cases a 12 months. “That felt unacceptable, that’s so significant for that many pregnancies to be mistimed, or unwanted when we have now options. The choices are there, what’s missing is the access and the education,” says Schott, who also teamed up with Amanda E/J Morrison when founding the brand. While the morning-after pill is legal in all 50 states and will be bought at any age with no prescription, stigma, misinformation and barriers to accessibility mean that it’s often not moving into the hands of those that need it. “We thought this unbelievable drug already exists, it’s already on the shelf. What can we improve: access and education, and that’s what we got down to do.”

Julie is a progestin-only emergency contraceptive (Levonorgestrel 1.5mg) that helps prevent pregnancy by temporarily delaying or stopping ovulation. FDA-approved, Levonorgestrel will not be a type of contraception nor an abortion pill – as a substitute, it helps the body stop a pregnancy before it starts. Julie is stocked in Walmarts across the US, and with greater than 4,700 stores it’ll be available in every a part of the country. For individuals who can’t afford to purchase it, Julia also runs a one-for-one donation program with the goal of becoming the most important donor of emergency contraception within the US.

Dazed spoke to Schott and Talia Halperin, head of impact and innovation, concerning the brand, using TikTok to teach consumers and their latest film which goals to broaden the concept of who uses emergency contraception in the favored imagination.

A couple of months before you launched, Roe v Wade was overturned within the US. Did that have an effect on the project? How far along were you at that time?

Julie Schott: We were pre-launched by then and we anticipated that coming. It’s a standard misconception but those laws don’t impact access to this drug, which is unbelievable. However it did make it all of the more essential to proceed to teach and supply access because when one option goes away in a certain market, you wish more access to the choices that you simply still have, so it impacted us in that sense.

It will need to have emphasised to you ways essential what you were doing was.

Julie Schott: Absolutely.

Were there every other obstacles you faced throughout the process?

Julie Schott: There’s still fear. Once we went out to position something so simple as, like, a podcast ad, there have been certain podcasters who you would possibly consider as super outspoken and open-minded they usually said, I don’t need to run this ad, it’s going to alienate my audience. I like what you’re doing, but I just can’t. If you hear things like that, you understand there’s still a stigma. I guarantee they [the podcaster] wouldn’t say it a few monthly/every day contraception.

Was that one in all the stigmas that you simply found – that difference in acceptance between the pill and the morning-after pill?

Julie Schott: I feel so, and that’s why it was essential for us in making this video to point out the complete spectrum of users that we met during our focus groups. In popular culture, you see a monolith of the user, and it’s normally a punch line. It’s normally used for comedic effect and sure yow will discover the humour in a situation, but when that’s the one experience that we see reflected in media, there’s an issue with that. We desired to create something that showed a mother, a mother who may be married who’s together with her boyfriend, a young single woman – the complete spectrum of users.

Where did the name Julie come from?

Julie Schott: We at all times place an emphasis on names and words that an English, Spanish, or French speaker can read. Julia was this name that was super familiar, for those who live within the US, you most likely know a Julie. I remember asking my parents ‘Why did you name me Julie?’ And so they said it was a very unpretentious and timeless name. That was interesting. Unpretentious was a very interesting word to me and when I assumed concerning the retail landscape that felt really essential, it felt accessible and friendly.

In our focus group, we learned that there are various users who go to the shop, they usually’re afraid they’re gonna run into someone they know because they live in a small community. They could even know the person checking them out on the register. We desired to create an experience that for those who’re in search of discretion, you possibly can get discretion with this. You could be holding this in your hand and run into your neighbour, and it’s not going to scream out what it does. Even to have it in your private home, perhaps you reside together with your parents, perhaps you’re a teen, so having the ability to offer that is vital to us.

“Our ultimate goal is that that is something that those that use it keep at home”

The packaging is so distinct, what was the initial concept?

Julie Schott: It was a very interesting evolution of what we wanted to speak with the packaging, because clarity and safety are primary for this, where you’re coping with medication and trust. Ultimately, you’re making an enormous investment while you select this product, and the end result, it’s not a perhaps – this must work out. Trust, safety and clarity are really essential, in order much as I may need loved to go crazy with a design or an aesthetic, it’s probably not what it’s about.

You mentioned making emergency contraception more accessible to marginalised communities. How did you desire to try to achieve those demographics?

Talia Halperin: With our donation programme, we donate one pill for each pill sold, and that partner network is admittedly diversified across the country and representative of the various communities within the country, which is why we’re spending the effort and time to enter the states and communities and find the organisations which might be really reaching people who find themselves most affected by health disparities.

We’ve some great partners that specifically work with women of color who’re typically less prone to use emergency contraception. We’ve partnerships with this amazing organisation Black Women’s Blueprint, they’ve mobile healing units, they usually work closely in Brooklyn, we even have the Kentucky Justice Network, which serves primarily people of color. It’s not even just that, obviously we’ll want to achieve everyone, but we also have a look at individuals who don’t speak English as their first language, people who find themselves uninsured or uninsured people who find themselves homeless, in addition to people who find themselves victims of domestic violence. Any marginalised group, we ensure our donation network has access to them.

Is there anything that you simply want people to learn about emergency contraception?

Julie Schott: What we might love for people to learn about emergency contraception is the earlier you’re taking it, the higher. There’s no reason why you’ve gotten to take it within the morning, for those who had a moment within the evening, if you’ve gotten it at home, take it immediately after. Our ultimate goal is that that is something that those that use it keep at home, you don’t necessarily take your allergy meds daily, you don’t use band aids daily, but this stuff are in the common household.

This is a component of your health and wellness kit in your household. There was a time – we learned this in constructing this brand – when people didn’t keep condoms in the way in which that they do now, they’d buy condoms as needed. Imagine buying condoms as needed for those who’re a condom user, it is senseless. Just have them ready, why not? The final word goal is you only have it available so it’s not this mad dash, you don’t have to put yourself in that position.

And it has a shelf life that’s long enough for people to only keep it?

Julie Schott: Oh, of course. Yeah.

Starface has done so incredibly well on social media. Did you’ve gotten social media in mind while you were creating the look and messaging of Julie?

Julie Schott: It’s interesting, since the user isn’t currently using it after which sharing it, it’s a non-public experience. It’s a very important but private experience, whereas wearing the Starface Hydro-Stars is a really public and communicative experience. So to ensure that the user of Julie’s emergency contraceptive to share about it on social media, they should feel protected. So it’s essential for us to create a protected place for people to have those conversations. The priority is putting out easy to digest, accessible education and data around this product. The user has every little thing they need, they usually don’t must go on a deep dive on Reddit to determine what they’re putting of their body. 

You’d be surprised how little information the brands who offer this drug actually provide the user in an easy-to-digest way that they’ll trust. We assembled a medical board for that reason, so the user can ask questions and have them answered in a timely manner. You buy it with no prescription so that you’re not having an interaction with the doctor. It’s essential for us to create a protected space where all the knowledge is offered in order that the user doesn’t must do any work, they shouldn’t must do work.

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