Being in Switzerland, I thought there would for sure be some super, affordable, non-toxic, Swiss-approved, organic, bio deos and products for teens and tweens.<\/p>\n

Not so much. As of 2017, the landscape is changing, but the mainstream, affordable-for-tweens deodorant choices in the supermarkets are infuriatingly poor and crammed with unnecessary chemicals. They’re mostly owned by big corporations with big advertising budgets, and they’re laced with aluminium or are spray-ons\u2014an environmental disaster right there. The industry guidelines and ‘rules’ about what constitutes a deodorant and what constitutes an anti-perspirant are, frankly, archaic.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$

Charlotte & Waterson (Sherlock & Watson)<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2011, I set up a blog for one of the fictional characters I was writing about<\/a> (Lyla Waterson), because I was so frustrated at the ‘architects of choice’ who decide which chemicals our daughters should wear, and then market said products to them.<\/p>\n

Lyla went on to become the protagonist Charlotte’s side-kick, and my vision was to reinvent the mainstream deodorant\u00a0and hair care\u00a0market with products by Lyla Waterson.<\/p>\n

(I also set up a Tumblr\u00a0<\/a>but that didn’t exactly work out because gifs about\u00a0 Imidazolidinyl urea<\/a>\u00a0haven’t really taken off. Go figure.)<\/p>\n

My cosmetics empire\u00a0isn’t going to happen overnight\u2014it took me two years to write the book,\u00a0 Charlotte Aimes<\/a>\u2014but, in the meantime, I built a\u00a0website with information for young readers.<\/p>\n

Lunch with Deo-Man<\/h2>\n
At the European Trends Day here in Zurich in 2012, I serendipitously sat next to a man responsible for new products at one of the big cosmetics companies.<\/p>\n
Of course, I immediately asked him about deodorants\u2014who makes decisions? how would I get a new deodorant on the market?\u2014but he seemed disinterested.<\/p>\n
I suggested he might like to, for example (!), partner with a YA author to put\u00a0out a deodorant from\u00a0a fictional character’s storyworld. However, the look on his face indicated that he may have thought I was nuts.<\/p>\n
That’s okay. I’m learning more about manufacturing with my latest startup. And perhaps one day I’ll meet the right people, and be educated enough to manufacture an affordable, sustainable and attractive product for young teens and tweens that has zero impact on the planet, and zero impact on their bodies.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/waterson-logo2.jpg” url=”http:\/\/lylawaterson.blogspot.com\/” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.19″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.19″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”] I’ve been a No-Chemicals advocate for almost as long as I can remember. I don’t see the point of clogging up our bodies and the earth’s precious waterways with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"I've been a No-Chemicals nut for almost as long as I can remember. Most so-called 'luxury' perfumes make me sneeze, many cosmetics make me break out in a rash and, frankly, I don't see the point of clogging up drains and bodies with extra crap.\n\nMy basic approach is: LESS IS BEST. Yeah, sometimes life gets in the way of our best intentions, but over the years I've collected a bunch of information about what to look for on labels and what to avoid.\n\nTeens and products<\/strong><\/span>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_602\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"252\"] $\"Lyla's$ <\/a> The 'no chemicals in my cosmetics' info site I put up for one of the fictional characters in my first YA novel, 'Charlotte Aimes'.[\/caption]\n\nI became much more vigilant about cosmetics and body products\u00a0when AJ became a 'tween' and started to put pressure on me to buy her a cool deodorant 'like the other girls'. I'm happy to see parabens have been\u00a0taken out of many products over the past couple of years. However, we still have a long way to go. For our kids, for our own bodies and for the environment.\n\nSwiss Quality?<\/strong>\n\nBeing in Switzerland, I thought there'd FOR SURE be some super, affordable<\/strong>, non-toxic, Swiss-approved, organic, bio, made-by-a-righteous-farmer deos and products for teens.\n\nWRONG.\n\nThe mainstream, affordable<\/strong> deodorant choices (and there's the rub \u2013 tweens\u00a0don't have loads of expendable income) for girls (and boys) in the supermarkets\u00a0here\u00a0are\u00a0infuriatingly poor, and crammed with unnecessary chemicals. They're mostly owned by Big Corporations (Unilever, L'Oreal), they're laced\u00a0with aluminium, or else they are spray-ons: an environmental disaster right there.\n\nThe more 'natural' options are packaged and marketed towards older people.\u00a0They're seriously boring, and a self-conscious teen or tween is very unlikely to pick up those products or brandish them in the school change-rooms.<\/strong>\n\n $\"Lyla7\"$ In 2011, I set up a website\u00a0for one of the fictional characters I was writing about<\/a> (Lyla Waterson), because ... well, basically I was so mad at the architects of choice who decide which chemicals our daughters should wear (and then market said products to them)<\/em>, that I had a vision to reinvent the mainstream deodorant\u00a0and hair care\u00a0market with products by Lyla Waterson.\n\n(I also set up a Tumblr<\/a>, but that didn't exactly take off because nobody seems to be making any good gifs that involve\u00a0 Imidazolidinyl urea<\/a>. Go figure. Maybe I'll find a way to clone myself so I have time to do some.)\n\nAnyway, my cosmetics empire\u00a0isn't going to happen overnight; it took me two years to write Charlotte Aimes<\/a>. So, in the meantime, I started by making a\u00a0website.\n\nLunch with Deo-Man<\/strong><\/span>\n\nAt the European Trends Day here in Zurich in 2012, I accidentally sat next to the man responsible for new products at one of the big cosmetics companies.\n\nI of course immediately cornered\u00a0him about deodorants\u2014who makes decisions, and how you'd get a new deodorant on the market (think big, I say)\u2014but he was pretty tight-lipped.\n\nI suggested he might like to partner with a YA author to put\u00a0out a deodorant from\u00a0a fictional character's storyworld<\/strong>, but\u00a0the look on his face indicated that he may have thought I was a few sandwiches short of a picnic<\/a>. Oh well. His loss.\n\n ","spay_email":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4341,"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2516\/revisions\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rowinggirl.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}