Happy International Women’s Day!
My name is Laura Dowling and I’m the Founder and owner of fabü. Before setting up fabü I worked as a Pharmacist for 20 years after graduating from the School of Pharmacy in Trinity College Dublin in 2002. I was always an advocate for women and currently take part in talks around empowering women and women's bodies. I think all women are FABULOUS, with so much potential. This belief in women led me to set up my own business fabü in 2022 with a range of growing products to benefit women.
Irish examiner - 100 Women of 2023
I am so overwhelmed and surprised to appear in this year's Irish Examiner's “100 Women of 2023” in the Innovator category. Am I a rule breaker? Definitely! A change maker? I hope so. A policy changer? Maybe someday…
I am so lucky to come from a household of such strong women. Since I was born my Mum had always believed in me and said there was nothing I couldn’t do! This belief was instilled into me for other women after meeting so many amazing women throughout my career who have been nothing but supportive to me; patients, customers, colleagues, peers, bosses.
Women can lift each other up and help each other along. We are far better in numbers and all our voices can be heard! We definitely need to talk more, to the world, about our bodies. What’s normal. What’s not. What to expect as we grow and age. How we can help ourselves, to literally, in the most basic sense, live our best lives.
I found it so interesting that at a ‘Women in STEM’ panel discussion for Women in Stem in UCD last week. Myself and 4 other female panelists admitted that the biggest challenge to female career progression was childcare and children. The eternal ‘mom guilt’ that many of us have. Or ‘work guilt’. We never feel we are doing anything 100% right.
We need to go easier on ourselves. Be kinder to yourself. Pat ourselves (and each other) on the back. We are all just doing our best. As I regularly say - leave the kitchen in a mess. Go for that run/ walk/ thing that lifts your soul.
RTE The Late Late Show
Last Friday we were blessed to have fabü products appear on The Late Late Show in Meaghers Pharmacy Irish Gift Basket! It’s amazing that after just a year of setting up fabü that our products are getting so much exposure with RTÉ The Late Late Show being one of the biggest shows in the country. It’s great to see a show like The Late Late Show to promoting businesses in Ireland.
Our three products made it in as part of Meaghers Pharmacy Irish Gift Basket with our fabü SHROOMS MENO & PERI, fabü SHROOMS IMMUNE, and fabü R&R RELAX. Our fabü SHROOMS MENO & PERI is designed to help women with their journey through perimenopause and menopause. Menopause can be a difficult time for many women which inspired me to create a product that will make it just that bit easier and try to let women live their best lives. fabü SHROOMS IMMUNE is a supplement to help to support your immune system and protect your cells from oxidative stress. Finally fabü R&R RELAX was our last product that appeared in the Irish Gift Basket, which is a supplement to support your psychological function, nervous system, mental performance and reduce tiredness and fatigue.
International Women's Day Talks
This week I will be taking part in several Corporate talks and Panels discussions to help promote empowering women and women's bodies for International Women’s Day. I will be talking to employers from some of the biggest companies in the country and feel so privileged to be considered to speak for them for International Women’s Day throughout the week.
On the 7th of March I participated in a panel discussion for Aer Lingus, following that I will be doing a corporate talk for Medtronic and Openmind Network on the 8th of March. My final talk for International Women’s Day will be in Grant Thorton on March 9th where I will be talking about ‘Embracing the Female Body in all its Glory’.
Thank you for reading my blog. Happy International Women’s Day again, to all you FABULOUS women out there. I hope you all have a beautiful day. Don’t be shy to speak more openly about your bodies and take pride in being a woman!
