Hi Besties,

The many months and sleepless nights spent pouring into this business have left me exhausted. I love our community and the thousands of families and moms that we have supported. I love being a part of something kind and helpful and meaningful. The toll it has taken on me and my little family is just simply too much. I love the shop, but not more than I love my babies and my best friend and the time I will never get back with them if I keep fighting for this shop

If someone wants to continue this legacy, send them my way, and I am happy to hand over the reigns. I have done enough therapy and soul searching to know that I can’t continue to pour from an empty cup.

Through making this decision, I often thought of Angela Bowen, who is one of the most impactful and fearless champions for maternal health. She is one of the most educated, badass advocates for our maternal community, and last year during a meeting with the health minister, I feel like her words and her message was finally taken seriously and our government started listening.

It struck me that I created this shop for all of the moms like me who didn’t have the support and community they needed during that critical period of motherhood. I am so damn proud of the support and friendships that have been created and strengthened in our shop. The open discussions and raw vulnerability that has been shared in groups and in candid chats at the shop have been amazing to witness and so healing, and I hope that kindness and sisterhood of mothering continues to snowball.

I feel sad. I feel exhausted. I feel like I am letting down a thousand best friends. I feel like I am disappointing our customers and our community.

I know that this is the right decision for me and my little family. I know that because the shop used to be that place I was the happiest and the most excited to be. Now, the shop is the last place I want to be.

To have to stand behind the counter for the next 2 months and answer the same questions about the closing of the shop and “what happened” and “have I tried this” and “have I thought of this” is going to be devastating.

Maybe I’ll just get a t-shirt made that says, “I’m doing fine. Yes I’ve thought of that. No a bottle drive won’t help.”

If you’ve read this far, then thank you for being a genuinely amazing person and a massive part of creating and sustaining this community. If starting, running, and closing a business has taught me anything, it is that the people who truly want the best for our world, are the people who are with you when you are at your best, and stay when you are at your worst. They are the people who appreciate and value your authentic self, and not the job you have, title you hold, or skills you possess.

So, on April 30th, when I lock the shitty front door of the shop for the last time, I’ll probably be sad and cry and go through the 5 stages of grief randomly and spontaneously, but I know that I’ll be ok. I truly tried my best. I tried everything I could. It was hard and fun and weird and challenging and frustrating and like a hundred other things. I know more now than I did when we started and I’ll take that as the win.

This week I will start winding down the business to try to recoup as much cost as we can so I can pay off the remaining debts I have. In regards to the major fundraiser that we were so graciously included in - the 30% of funds that were to be allocated to our programming will be redirected right back into the non-profit Mother May I to continue the support of perinatal mental health.

If you have any questions that immediately impact you or your organization, please contact me so I can get you an answer asap. If you have any questions that do not require an immediate answer - hang on to it for a few weeks.

No one is more angry/sad/heartbroken/frustrated/dissapointed than me in the closure of our shop and I appreciate your patience and grace while I navigate this next chapter.

Thank you from the bottom of my weird little heart and if you have a job kickin’ around, feel free to bring me application because your girl is going to need a job 🥴

thanks for going here

Love - Janel