Sharon Wood is the founder of Emgoddess, a unique entity focused on changing perceptions and attitudes towards a topic not overtly discussed – a woman’s cycle. Through Emgoddess, Sharon is pursuing her passion to educate and empower others. We sat down with Sharon to find out more about how she is working to promote and boost women’s self-esteem.

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What is your social enterprise elevator pitch?

It’s time to overcome the stigma around menstruation and start having easy conversations around how understanding our bodies can not only be of benefit but can actually change the way you view your world.

Emgoddess is an innovative, online, published resource designed to empower all girls and women. It is a resource that explains the different phases experienced throughout a female’s menstrual cycle, with details on the positive strengths associated with each phases. Emgoddess is designed to build understanding and boost self-esteem, allowing females to connect with their own mind and body’s inner workings, and that of their friends and family.

What are your biggest personal and/or professional challenges as a social entrepreneur in Australia?

Beating menstrual shaming is not easy and not even women ourselves are comfortable about talking about and embracing our cycles. Once I do a workshop and share this, women have a wonderful experience and really laugh and get it. But knocking on that door for the first time is really tough. Many people don’t realise the impact our cycle has on so much of our lives and how having a solid acceptance of our cycle can help with self-esteem, decision making and behaviours.

What’s the best piece of advice you have received so far since starting your own social enterprise?

‘Stay ruthlessly focused on your values’ – that to me is so important.

If you were to start over, is there anything you would do differently?

Oh my, A MILLION things! But you don’t know what you don’t know. But one thing for me personally was, time. I thought if I wasn’t full time that I couldn’t be doing a good job. But for a long time I have just kept breathing air into the project and eventually it creates more time for it. So just do what you can do.

Where do you see the future of social enterprise in Australia?

Australians are passionate human beings, I think the future for social enterprise here is only going to grow. People want to achieve great things, but want to see social change and that is what drives the difference in this world.

What appeals most to you about Social Change Central?

I love the idea of connecting to like-minded individuals. A simple place to click into resources, information and upcoming networking opportunities.

The Social Change Central changemaker community is growing at a fast rate. How can our members learn more about you and help support your organisation (e.g. are you looking for funding, PR, marketing support, volunteers, interns)?

I would love help with PR, I am basically rubbish at it! I am about to launch a crowdfunding page to raise funds to get the online portal up and running.

And finally, what would you do if you found a lottery ticket that ended up winning $10 million?

After a very long holiday on my new yacht… I would return to Emgoddess with such passion. This would allow me to fund some extra me’s (Lord help us!) and have more people spreading Emgoddess and beating menstrual shaming!

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