#youranuff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youranuff/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imanuff/
Website: youranuff.com
We all stumble over our own feet at times, find ourselves ridiculous or unattractive (and walk backwards out of the surf so no one can look at us) or beat ourselves up with our own thoughts for making the same mistakes over and over when really, we may be better off being a bit kinder to ourselves and working through the oft repeated misstep by going a bit slower or putting reminder notes to ourselves in visible places and BIG writing on how we'd like to do it better.
Over the Summer break one of our local younger residents, commencing her HSC this year, came up with an inspirational message that we could all use a lot more of.
Basically - that message is - whatever happens, you are enough, or “youranuff”!
How did this project start Belle, where did the idea come from?
When I moved in with Dad last year I was suffering from many of the anxieties facing teenage women, and Covid made it worse. Dad thought the antidote was lots of love, but it turns out he was only half right. What I really needed was to love myself and to have more self esteem.
One night Dad and I were talking in the kitchen after a dad deluxe vegan dinner. He said “just remember you're enough.” I said “I’m a nuff?” And “youranuff” became our mantra so I could remember to remember that I was enough - strong enough, smart enough and beautiful enough to deal with life.
I decided to spread the message by starting ‘a nuff’ online clothing business and make it part of her HSC PIP project. And proceeds from the business will support charities for young women with issues of self-esteem. We’ve got ideas from Lifeline northern beaches on how to do this. And we are talking with Batyr soon.
So the “youranuff” business was born three weeks ago and the first product is T-shirts with a simple nuff printed on them. We sold out of our first stock in three weeks and had to order more in. We set up a retail website, Instagram & Facebook pages. It’s all really exciting.
If any of your readers have ideas to help us just let us know, we are building a little youranuff community.
Have you always been interested in clothes?
I love clothes. I think this is how a lot our self-expression shows and how you communicate yourself to other people. If you can walk around and say ‘you are enough’ then that’s a great little conversation starter about moods and emotion and what’s associated with that. It gives us a way to start the conversation. Everyone that sees it will be reminded that they are enough, and that is half the reason why we are doing this. The other reason is to raise money for young women in need. That’s what gets me up in the morning to run nuff and raise money to help young women get the support and advice they need.
Are you a shy person?
I would say so. I’m very social with my friends but with new people, very timid. It’s a lot easier to be confident and carefree when you’re with people you’re comfortable around. This project is helping me feel more comfortable with reaching out to people and realising that we all have big hearts. This message of being enough is close to my heart.
This project has been ‘going off’ – everyone wants a ‘Nuff t-shirt – what is the colour range?
We have three colours for women – charcoal, white and purple. And one colour for men – black. That was my dad's choice, he loves black. I’m amazed that we sold so many in the first month, so far charcoal is the most popular. Its fascinating to see who loves the nuff message the most – it’s mainly mums for their kids, but sometimes I think mum’s need the message too – mum’s need to feel like they are a nuff to deal with busy business and home lives.
Miriam is a nuff
So these could actually be worn by boys as well as girls?
Absolutely – it’s really important to include boys in this conversation about self-worth and self-esteem. They so often get excluded or ignored around this issue, so we wanted to ensure that they are included in the conversation, this conversation. So far men and boys are our smallest group of customers, maybe this is because boys don’t feel like they can talk about being enough, I’m not entirely sure as I’m not a part of their community. In any case we need to help boys feel empowered to express their vulnerable emotions, we need to help them feel as though they are enough.
Chantal’s family is a nuff
Sarah and Storchy are a nuff
What pressures facing young people could be alleviated that aren’t being spoken about or even seen?
I asked around, my group of friends, and we had a conversation about it. Young people are growing up in a world where we are under enormous pressure – stresses with school, bullying, body image issues, friendship or romantic pressures, financial issues and an online culture that bombards us with messages about perfection with great uncertainty about our adult futures. One of the things that kept coming up was how judgemental we are of young women as society encourages young people to just fit into a category or a stereotype. We are often not allowed to have interests or simply enjoy our existence if it’s outside of this without being made fun of for it. I think if we were all a bit more compassionate and let everyone do whatever they’re doing as long as they’re not hurting anyone else, we’d develop an emotionally healthier society that would get along far better. Our message is for young women to remember that they are enough in this world and can conquer their hills or mountains, which may just be to walk along the street. I’m not quite sure who said it but I have always loved the notion that your greatest responsibility is to love yourself and to know that you are enough. The only other piece of advice I’d have to offer is that how you love yourself is how you teach others to love you, self-acceptance and adoration ripple out into your social life like beautiful little waves.
Are you going to expand the project range?
We were thinking of developing a range of kid’s clothes and sizing’s as there have been a lot of mums suggesting we go down that avenue, right now it’s really all about responding to demand.
I was really interested in doing something in jewellery – so this would be something someone could have on them every day to look down at and be reminded that they are enough and are worth all the effort they’re putting into themselves. I was thinking about a bracelet. So, I’d like to get that ball rolling too as this is a bit more universal than a t-shirt and could be for everyone, all genders and all ages. And when it gets cooler we could do hoodies, beanies, socks or even pyjamas. But we’ll ask our nuff community what they think.
Louisa,Sarah and Zoe...
They are a nuff
How long does it take to do a turn-around?
Pretty quickly. Usually we deliver within three days of the order. We have all our stock in the garage in plastic bins. We get an order in then I package it up with all our decorations and then me and my dad do a deliveries run, so that’s working pretty fast at present. One day we did 100 kilometres just driving back and forth. We would like to keep the operations of the business as personal as the message we are attempting to communicate.
What challenges have you faced and overcome in developing the ‘’youranuff” project?
We have had every challenge – design, printing, online retailing. I would not say that I am a very business-minded person (laughs). So it’s definitely been a learning curve setting up things like a website or networking and communicating with people along those lines and getting all the technology side of things in line – which Is why I’m so grateful I have had my dad’s help – without him I’d be very lost. Neither of us have run an online clothing business before. But we keep in mind our goal is to help as many young women as possible, and all we do is to take the immediate next step in that direction. When you are doing something worthwhile, I think the universe works with you.
What kind of website are you using – a What You See Is What You Get program with the platform having many of the functions built-in or are you writing code and doing it from base up?
We use the Shopify platform and modified it to suit our needs. Shopify does everything from website and marketing to inventory control and pricing. We wanted it to be unique, to be organic looking and as original as possible – we didn’t want it to look templated, so we have just been adjusting everything to suit that. We’ve also got a youranuff Instagram and facebook page where we post photos of our customers and their families wearing a nuff shirt.
The “youranuff” is dedicating funds past costs to organisations that work with local young people in promoting self-worth and self-esteem – who are you giving these funds to?
We asked Lifeline Northern Beaches about this, because they do awesome work for young people. Since I wanted to get the message to people in their early and mid teens they suggested we talk to Batyr. So we are meeting with Batyr next week. This is only a month old so we are literally learning as we go.
Kristi and Lisa are a nuff
Suzie is a nuff
Although it’s early days, with doing your HSC this year, have you been thinking about what you’d like to do in the future?
Along similar lines as to what I’m doing with this project. I’d definitely like to go further down the avenue of social issues, there’s already so many people in the field doing amazing things right now and for me that would be something fulfilling to be a part of. Eventually I would like to get into Law in some capacity and make a difference and help people from the inside. Other than that, it’s pretty open ended at the moment, I want to see where the journey takes me.
How have you been enjoying your Summer? Sounds like you have been working?
Yes! There’s been a lot of packing orders and doing delivery runs up and down the northern beaches. That itself has been fun though. I’m on this journey myself so sharing that with other people and meeting them has been lovely. It’s like this little ‘nuff’ community we’re creating and sharing with all the people that are buying the shirts. I’m also finding that with the focus on self-worth for myself I’ve been able to pass on some of what I’ve found to others, so sharing that as well has been nice. I share nice poems and passages with customers who request them.
What are your favourite places in our area and why?
Fairlight Beach for sure – it has this little rocky place where you can set yourself up and enjoy the gorgeous view.
Rowland Reserve is really pretty as well – there are all these wonderful little beaches where you can get on the sand under the mangroves and take some time. Our whole Northern Beaches area is very beautiful really.
What is your ‘motto for life’ or a favourite phrase you try to live by?
Pardon my French but - Do no harm, take no crap – is the ultimate life motto.
In identifying the first step on a self-worth journey is establishing those boundaries about how you deserve to be treated and then enforcing them no matter what as long as you’re not hurting anybody – ergo: Do no harm, take no crap.
