International Women's Day ("IWD") is celebrated annually on 8th March to commemorate the achievements of women around the world. It offers an opportunity to call for change and spread the message of female empowerment and gender equality.

In conjunction with the celebration, our campaign #HerNameHerStory is born to bring a message to our society that Women around us are strong and fearless. We are capable of offering the same as men and we deserve equal opportunities and enjoyment. We believe that every woman has a story to share about themselves.

We are excited and thrilled to announce that we have invited a few inspiring women across different industries to share with us their journey on becoming who they are today.

We have our first guest with us - Helen Tan, the co-founder of Doublewoot Fashion where she shares with us her journey as a mother of two, a content creator and a successful entrepreneur. 

Q1: Can you share with our followers a brief introduction of yourself? 

Im the co-founder of Doublewoot Fashion together with my sister Heliene which started off back in the year 2005. Doublewoot is a Malaysia online fashion store, 100% e commerce founded by my sister and I and now our whole family is involved where my sister hannah and my mom and my dad are also involved. I’m also a mother of 2 and recently a content creator.

Q2: What inspired you to embark on the journey of Doublewoot?

Growing up in a conventional family background where we are nurtured to be professionals, i’ve always wanted to be a doctor. Hence i studied really hard and went along that path. But when i was actually studying medicine, I realize that I was not really passionate in that area. So to cut long story short - I came back and pursued graphics and multimedia design and eventually  did industrial design. At the same time I partnered up with my sister Heliene to startup Doublewoot as a hobby at that time and it started off with a passion for fashion!

Eventually, we started off as a conventional business of just sourcing and selling fashion to now serving over 100k customers worldwide. In the year 2015, we turned into a full fledge  e-commerce label which helped improve our processes, operational costs and logistics allowing us to invest more into R&D, thus, providing quality clothing at affordable prices.

As so they say trust your journey as  failure means it could be the start of another successful journey

Q3: What are the obstacles or challenges you have encountered along the journey of Doublewoot?

Because we sell 100% online, it is truly important that the product which we show on the website is a close representations of the actual product or even better if it can exceed their expectations when they receive the actual product. Hence it is important that we carry a balance of integrity in maintaining the quality and price of our products as well as the price point in order to be sustainable in a long run.
And that itself has been a challenge since day one where are are looking to always improve our product and service to serve our customers even better.

Q4: What are the tips/advice you can provide to women who are thinking about starting their own business?

My advice is although as cliche as it may sound, YOU CAN DO IT if you put your heart and mind into it, it’s just a question of how badly you want it! So here's to all the powerful women out there, don’t settle for anything less than what you deserve. Let's work on ourselves to be a better version of ourselves each day while lifting others along the way as indeed when we lift, we rise! Happy International Women's Day!

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

Q5: What is the biggest factor that has helped you arrive at where you are today?

I would say probably it's our passion for fashion and not giving up to wanting to dress women and empowering women through dressing for work, travels, bridesmaids and even everyday home wear as the saying goes “Always dress like it’s the best day of your life and for someone who has always loved fashion, we truly believe that, every women deserve to wear the best and thus their confidence will shine through”.

With this in mind, we look into the product and campaigns that we carry, to really bring out the best in the women whom we dress.

Q6: How do you cope with being a full-time entrepreneur mum who juggles between parenting and running a business every day? Is it even possible to have best of both worlds? What are the compromises?

First and foremost, I think we as a woman who wants to have the best of both worlds, we can try to reframe our mind by exchanging the word compromise as cost of opportunity. That is where we can truly embrace the opportunity of having a fulfilling career and also a happy family.

Having a great support system and time management as well a discipline really helped me to be contented with what I have now, although others may see as lacking but a truly a contented mind, thus a fulfilling life where we can look forward to waking up each day and be passionate of what life may bring.

Q7: What are the top 3 values that you live by?

Be kind always
Always do our very best
Be passionate

Let's Celebrate W O M E N!