AVENIR

“I remember using my own pocket money to buy sanitary products because my mum would buy something horrible and cheap that was uncomfortable to wear,” says Frances Lucraft. It’s almost hard to believe that now when Frances, 36, owns her own eco-friendly sanitary products company, Grace & Green. 

 

From a degree in international development to over a decade working in the water and sanitation industry, Frances has built her company from the ground up. “Launching a product that is environmentally friendly is a sexy thing to do now,” she says. Although, unlike her competitors, she wasn’t trying to “make a buck”. As someone who experiences eco-anxiety quite acutely, Frances makes sure Grace & Green stays organic from the way their cotton is sourced to prohibiting plastic toys for her kids.

 

The company has been in the making for the past five years and only began trading in 2019. Yet its products are already stocked in 70 stores around the country, including Harrods Pharmacy and John Bell & Croyden pharmacy. Its products are made from 100 per cent certified organic cotton, meaning they’re good for your health and the environment, using 71 per cent less water and 62 per cent less energy during production.

 

It was on her trip to Morocco with her boyfriend, James (now full-time dad and husband), when she first had the idea of changing menstrual hygiene products. Travelling over the Atlas Mountains in a little truck, James was swayed by the concept and encouraged Frances to bring it into existence on their arrival home. They still reminisce about this moment today.

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However, as a young woman with a company of her own, she experienced criticism from men. When she was trying to raise a second round of investments she felt apologetic. For being pregnant? “Yes. I felt like I was going to be slacking because I was going to have a baby when in reality you are working twice as hard because you are raising a human,” says Frances. She keeps going because “it’s too important not to”.

 

Breastfeeding in conferences and taking her five-month-old son to meetings, she believes every woman “can have it all”. She has three children: her son Sebastian, her daughter Hebe and her company. Frances remembers that she was working on the day she had Sebastian. She was sending off last-minute emails to the manufacturing company when her water was breaking in the kitchen, her husband shouting “we’ve got to go to the hospital!” 

 

She took that weekend off and was back to work on Monday. 

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“Puberty was a part of my life that I never want to go back and experience,” says the CEO with a hint of frustration in her voice. Growing up in Devon with a “real hippie” mother she never felt like she belonged. When I ask her whether she ever talked about her period with her mother, she seems baffled: “In the 70s she took a lot of drugs. So she used to give me a lot of drug education.” But when it comes to periods, Frances doesn’t have any recollection of that.

 

“It used to be a really dirty thing. No one talked about it,” says Frances. But things are changing. Period. From national period poverty days to “men talking about it with their girlfriends.” She is proud that her husband will be able to talk to her daughter about it when she’s not around. 

 

Frances is like a delicate rose with steel thorns. She has a soft side for her family and the environment but is also ready to fight for it. “I am the one who can make decisions. And I am the one who can change things.” Grace & Green is already helping thousands of girls and women in developing countries with charity work. They are proud to be involved with The Unmentionables, who provide intimate health products, sexual and reproductive education and empowerment programs to individuals in conflict zones. 

 

Yet period poverty is rife even in the UK. “You’re flying to these conferences. And you’re sitting in these conferences. Yet there is no real legacy coming from it. It feels like fireworks and nothing happens,” she says.

 

With a passion for sanitation, she wants to change the world and leave a legacy for her children. “You just feel how critical it is right now that you have to make a difference. You can’t sit still.”  She advises rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty and getting involved in everything. There’s still time to make a change.