When I was pregnant, I made a promise to myself. I promised that for the first 3 years, I will focus my energies entirely on our little one. I would give her time and my attention, help her gain autonomy and with that taken care of, gradually reclaim and consolidate my new self.
In 2016, when I started Candidly, with my friend Reema Ahmad, I took a small step in this direction. It’s been a tremendous learning opportunity. Now it’s time for me to conclude this part of my journey and start the next one as I step away from role as Co-founder and Facilitator at Candidly.
It is on this journey that I was inspired to start one of the heart-felt projects yet of my life – Equalitee, India’s first gender cool brand for kids, which I seeded in 2018.
It is my dream to see a world where all children are able to live their lives to full potential. A world where they are all able to aspire and achieve their dreams, free of any limiting expectations of what they should and can be.
OThis has not been an easy journey.
I certainly hadn’t braced up for the challenges of being an entrepreneur. I was too focused on the creative vision and less on how I will sustain it. I hated the mistakes I made and it’s taken me nearly a year to realize that I wouldn’t have learnt my lessons any other way if it weren’t for those mistakes.
Creating a range of gender-cool products was an important way of giving choice to parents and caregivers who are already aligned to the vision of gender equal parenting as well as piquing attention of those who haven’t noticed the highly gendered landscape.
I am now keen to take this journey to the next level. At Equalitee, we see ourselves as ideators & creators on one hand and on the other hand as a catalyst & facilitator, to bring together the community.
I am excited about the enhanced vision that I have shared here. As such there are two exciting projects coming up that I will be announcing shortly.
I will be now be reachable at my new email id amita@equalitee.in. You can also follow the work I will be doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Candidly will henceforth be led by Reema and, as always, I wish her good luck and total success for all her initiatives.
I wanted to thank each one of you for having been a part of my journey thus far and look forward to your support and guidance ahead too 🙂
Warmly,
Amita Malhotra Lalwani