menopause – Good News Monaco

Jess Rad wanted to be a music teacher. Instead, the 2024 National Diversity Award nominee founded The WomenHood to tackle the unspoken challenges of womanhood, menopause and gender equity.

“The world needs more women in all the positions that decisions are being made. It isn’t just about getting women into leadership but we need to be powerful in our lives and all those places in order to have a trickle-down effect and change the world for the next gen,” says Jess, who is half Persian and grew up in Suffolk in the east of England.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: The WomenHood founder Jess Rad talks about the unspoken challenges of womanhood and menopause, and her 2024 National Diversity Award nomination.

The older sister to five siblings says she has always been an advocate of equality even though she had limited beliefs about building her own business. “My dissertation was on the ‘Deconstruction of the Working Woman’ because it perplexed me. I wanted to know how I could be a full-time mother, much like my mom, and the ambitious entrepreneurial person that I was, like my dad. I interviewed 20 senior leadership women at Disney where I worked and, fundamentally, the more they made, the more they outsourced.”

The 42-year-old says that, like most women, she is juggling a lot. “It’s extremely easy to continue to put the needs of everyone else above our own and most of us are pretty expert at that.”

When UK-based Jess became a mom in 2013, she had only been living in Brighton for a year and was keen to be part of her local community. On “one cold December evening” she brought together nine women, all strangers, at the local pub. The next time they were 15. Fast forward a few years and this group was nearly 250. “My conversations with dozens of women were clearly showing me how often we were struggling with a similar challenge, yet due to society shrouding it in shame or secrecy; or perhaps due to the time-poor nature of our lives, we were failing to have the time and space to explore these challenges that were impacting our daily quality of life and often our long-term health.”

After quitting her job, “and with the help of seven amazing women”, Jess set up The WomenHood in 2019. “I advocate for 1% change because I know how inaccessible change can feel to many women today. The first Unspoken Session was held in November, connecting women with amazing female experts to help them stop, listen, learn, share and reflect on their own lives. It was a huge success and since then every guest of every session has said they would recommend us to a friend.”

Through live virtual experiences called The Unspoken Sessions (like Unspoken Women Lives on Instagram), The WomenHood platform connects and supports women on everything from women’s health issues and financial wellbeing to perfectionism and people pleasing. It tackles the hidden realities of relationships, undiagnosed neurodiversities, the confidence gap, burn out and boundaries.

The social entrepreneur also launched The WomenHood at Work “to enable employers to unite their teams and collectively find new ways to support women, while increasing compassion, solidarity and empathy amongst all staff via unspoken conversations.”

But the subject she regularly returns to is the menopause “because it is the one unspoken challenge that every woman will encounter”. This led to the creation of The Menopause Collection. “I was diagnosed with premature menopause at 38 in 2020, so I know first-hand how destructive yet transformative this transition can be in a woman’s life,” emphasises Jess, who is a UK Delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

“It’s a crying shame that women are benchmarked against the male characteristics. Women are going through their lives without fully understanding their own neurobiology, their own physiology … and I think women are suffering needlessly.’

Jess points out the most common thread is a lack of education and awareness of perimenopause. “There are 34 symptoms, many of which are not known, and with the cognitive ones often beginning first – such as anxiety, insomnia, memory loss –– it’s very difficult to disentangle what feels like unsurprising experiences that many women feel while juggling work/life/children/relationships/and the many demands on them. So the most regular conversation I have with women is helping them understand how to identify it in themselves and find help from a GP or nutritional therapist.”

The Amaze Charity Ambassador adds, “I feel fortunate to have been a part of this menopause revolution from the beginning and to now be very connected to many founders and talented experts in this area. So much so that, in addition to the Menopause Collection on the website there is also Menopause at Work, for businesses to enable organisations to support their female staff.”

Jess admits she is also fortunate to have “an extremely loving and supportive family who have been my rocks” especially over the past few tumultuous years, which included divorce and discovering neurodivergent traits last year. “My Mum, always at the end of the phone to listen and reassure. My sister Victoria immediately shining a light on the opportunity to become ‘the architect of my own life’. And my Dad who forced me to think five years ahead. Very difficult, when you can barely see past the day in front of you.”

She decided to start open water swimming. “I really don’t like the cold, I’m not a strong swimmer and generally wasn’t really an outdoorsy kind of person. However, I got in and absolutely loved it! Of course, I had chosen the right month to start, September is the warmest month of the year.”

She met some other women via the Salty Seabirds community and as autumn began “not only did the cold water undoubtedly and immediately increase my stress resilience and totally change my mood but the connections I’d made with the regulars in our little group became deep and important friendships, too.” They formed their own group, the Early Birds and they’d meet at 6:30 am to swim, regardless of the weather, waves or darkness.

“These early morning winter swims really did change my life. Having also never been a morning person, I found myself getting up at 6 am several times a week, at times having to de-ice the car or wear two coats due to the bitter cold, to go and meet these amazing women in the pitch black and strip down to a swimsuit and face the waves, and our fears, lit only by the moonlight.

“There was something quite magical under these circumstances. So early in the morning. No time or need for make up or to do your hair. No clothes to identify, define or separate us. Just a swimsuit and some gloves and boots. United by our courage and resilience to keep going in despite the height of the waves, despite our fears of the cold, or what may lay beneath. Time again, we showed ourselves and each other how capable we were. My mantra in my head each time was: ‘If I can do this, I can do anything. If I can do this, I can do anything.’ And with those women by my side, I did.” Jess and some of the Early Birds went on to become swimrunners and crossed the Finish Line at the 2022 ÖtillÖ Isles of Scilly Experience Swimrun.

Public speaker Jess has been nominated for the 2024 National Diversity Awards as a Positive Role Model for Gender, in association with ITV (you can vote here.) “I’ve learned you shouldn’t try to do it all. A founder has the idea but you can’t be great at everything so you have to find other people. Recruit for your weaknesses.”

Article first published May 4, 2024. Photos copyright Hayley Samartin.

Martina Brodie would sum up her childhood in one word: books. “My first memory is of my mom and dad both reading. Always. I was convinced that everybody reads all the time.”

Martina and her two younger brothers were born in the eastern part of Slovakia, in a small town called Sečovce. Growing up under Communism meant a life full of restrictions, including travel outside of the Eastern Bloc. “But I did travel,” insists Martina. “In fact, I travelled Around the World in 80 Days with Jules Verne. For me, our local library was a Treasure Island. It was only later on that I realised these books were carefully checked and censored for any praise of the West and that many authors were banned.”

There was no freedom of religion. “We had to learn Russian at elementary school and, to prevent us from going to church on Sunday mornings, the school organised ‘Sitting by the Samovar’. This was a competitive quiz about Soviet culture.”

Western music was also a no-go. “Once my father brought home the Beatles’ album, Help! Someone had smuggled in the LP and it was so exciting. We were breaking the rules! We couldn’t play it loud, but my brother and I must have listened to this record a million times – dancing and repeating the strange words which we learned by heart not knowing what they meant. Years later, when I met Ringo Starr in Monaco, I was starstruck and left speechless from a flood of memories.”

Martina moved to Monaco in 2010 with her husband, Ian, founder of NEWS.mc. The couple first laid eyes on each other just before Christmas 1996 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Journalism major Martina had started her weekend job at the country’s first Irish pub, Dubliners. Ian, who was publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Central European Business Weekly, which he founded in Prague in 1992, was at the bar on opening night. They didn’t speak that first time.

The Dubliners became a distribution point for Ian’s weekly newspaper. As Martina recalls, “My Irish friend at the pub saw me laugh out loud reading its tongue-and-cheek column Central European Diary and made sure that I met this guy when he next came to visit.”

Martina was in the process of breaking up with her boyfriend when she was formally introduced to Ian at the pub. “Our chat turned out to be a night-long discussion. And it must have been interesting because I stayed up talking to Ian until early morning. I remember leaving the underground bar and there was daylight. I was about to hop on one of the first trams of the day when Ian asked for my number. There were no mobile phones back then and I couldn’t afford a landline so I made up six digits on the spot, which he duly noted down. I knew I would never see this guy again. What I failed to tell him was that I was leaving town to finish my thesis and be with my family. A few days later I quit my job at the pub and left the capital for a long time.”

Martina heard from friends that Ian had been relentlessly calling the fictious number. “He would come from Prague to the pub in Bratislava most weekends, asking everyone about my whereabouts. When I returned a year later, people were coming up to me with Ian’s number saying they had had enough of this guy looking for me. I was like, Which guy? … Don’t tell Ian!”

Martina called Ian. The next day he once again took the five-hour train from Prague. “Lunch turned into dinner and the rest is history, well with a twist. I was aware of the nearly 30-year age difference so I travelled around the world to make up my mind. Ian followed me. To Mexico. To California. To Canada. He really is the most tenacious person I know!”

Except for when Martina went to Japan for three months with an international group – Up With People – and lived with host families in nine places. “My Japanese host mothers were very supportive of my dilemma. They told me, ‘Martina, many people do not experience what love is. You seem to have found it, don’t throw it away. Even if he is much older – go for it – and when he dies, you will find another!’”

Accepting the advice, by age 30 Martina and Ian were living back in Bratislava and had two children. She worked as a freelance television and radio journalist, and also helped Ian start a monthly bilingual magazine, Business Slovakia.

When Ian’s mother had health issues, the family moved to Wellington in the UK. Martina looked for work. “It was 2007 and you couldn’t find a good cup of coffee. This was long before the big chains discovered this pleasant town in southwest England. So together with a friend – and on a very tight budget – we opened the Chocolate Box, a continental café selling Belgian pralines and ten types of hot chocolates,” Martina shares.

“It was no ordinary café. It very chocolatey and magical, and even though I had no previous experience running a café, it was a success from day one. The boys were small and I worked 24/7 baking most of the goods we were selling. After four years I was exhausted.”

It was time to sell the coffee shop and use the money to return to Slovakia. Ian had already gone ahead to prepare the family cottage when Martina picked up a copy of the Sunday Times. “I read this wonderful article about Monaco written by Evelyne Genta, the Monaco ambassador to the UK. The piece mentioned how Monaco is full of opportunities for young entrepreneurs with good ideas, that it is a great place to live as well as a safe place for families. I called my husband to say: ‘Stop whatever you are doing. We are going to live in Monaco.’ Ian agreed and that is how crazy we are. We did it.”

They packed up the hired van and drove with the kids from the UK for Monaco. Ian started a job as Editor-in-Chief at the Riviera Times, the boys were enrolled in local schools, and Martina? “I was desperate to learn French and explore life on the Riviera. Except nothing worked out. The boys had a terrible time at school. They didn’t speak French and the whole system was brutally different from the UK. They say you can only be as happy as your least-happy child. Well, they were both depressed and it was hard for me as a mom.”

On top of that, Ian’s job didn’t work out and he quit. “I was furious! However, it was 2010 and we both knew Monaco would benefit from an English-language news service as nothing else existed at the time. That’s how Monaco Life started – first as a print magazine, later as online daily news. It was exciting and growth was rapid.”

The British Association of Monaco, led by Vanessa Ilsley, and Anette Anderson at MonacoUSA supported Martina and Ian from day one. “They may be our most favourite people in Monaco,” Martina admits. “It is never easy to come to a new country and try to connect with like-minded people and I will never forget how welcoming they were. When life wasn’t easy, they were always there. In fact, I think it was Annette who took the ‘famous’ photo of us dancing at Stars’n’Bars around 2012 or so.”

The other point bookish Martina remembers from those early days is her need to join a book club – any book club. “I wanted to get to know people but clubs were not accepting new members … so I started my own, the Monte Carlo Reading Society. We had some good laughs and the six women who joined are my closest friends to this day.”

Still, Monaco’s promise of “a great place to live” was not all it cracked up to be. “They say you have to give a new place at least two years before you make a decision to stay or to move on. I gave it three. I had to make a hard decision to take the boys back to finish their education in Wellington. Ian stayed a bit longer and sold Monaco Life before moving back with us.”

They stayed in the UK for four years but in July 2019 Ian returned to Monaco to start Monaco Daily News – aka NEWS.mc. “The boys wanted to return to the Riviera. I was hesitant because I truly love the UK. I had a great job working for the 250-year-old Fox Brothers and it doesn’t happen often that you have the best colleagues, the best management and inspiring owners. I worked in the best company in the world really, truly. It was a hard decision to follow my family.

“I could say coming back to Monaco this time was much easier than before. Maybe. The boys had finished school so that was easier. Ian now has two wonderful partners and our boys Max, 19, and Jack, 23, are very much part of the business, too, so my role is more a supportive one. Although, I must say, the written interview will always be my favourite type of journalism. I love people’s stories and Monaco is so rich in this department.”

Although Martina studied journalism, as a child she wanted to be a teacher. “My mom was a history teacher and although she was very strict, her lessons were so imprinted on the students they didn’t need to write one single thing down. She had a gift of storytelling that stayed with you. I know this first hand because as a small child she would sneak me into her afternoon classes.”

Martina adds, “They say when the student is ready, the right teacher arrives. And I was ready when the Face Yoga Method came to my life at the best possible moment. After a six-month Face Yoga Method Teachers Training, I became certified on November 1st and am starting my online classes from January 2024.

The name Face Yoga Method was coined by Fumiko Takatsu, a Japanese woman who created the concept of a holistic approach to looking after the face. As Martina puts it, “At first it was pure vanity for me. I wanted to get rid of wrinkles and get that bulging double chin under control, but what I found was a whole new dimension of tension release. Quite frankly, our face doesn’t start at our chin, but at our feet.

“Just like we exercise and tone our body muscles, we can do the same with our facial muscles. And as we do we increase the blood circulation which results in more oxygen bringing more nutrients to our skin. It’s a non-invasive, all-natural way to achieve a more youthful appearance and improve our skin’s texture with no special equipment needed. Just a little bit of diligence and perseverance.”

The more Martina learned about Face Yoga, the more it resonated from within. “I wanted to learn how to teach it and share the excitement. Little by little, we can wake up the muscles on our face and start a fully facial workout, aligning our bodies, our skin and ourselves. It’s all interconnected and consistency is paramount here.”

The classes will run on a monthly subscription basis at a very reasonable cost and even though this self-care is a never-ending journey, Martina’s students will be able to practice certain poses and continue their inspired Face Yoga journey on their own. “As my teacher Fumiko says, ‘Change your face, change your life’. I like to say: Every face tells a story, let yours be uplifting.”

To say this has been a tough year for Martina is an understatement. She lost both her parents, unexpectedly and suddenly. “My Face Yoga daily practice helped me tremendously to deal with this emotional trauma keeping me grounded, focused and calm.”

Part of that focus is remembering her folks with gratitude. “When Communism collapsed and my father started his private dentistry practice, it didn’t do so well and he simply couldn’t cope with the new rules of capitalism. My mom was the breadwinner. When his business collapsed, they both went to America and washed cars at petrol stations for five years to pay my father’s debts and to save their house. They paid every single penny back. And kept their house, for us.”

She thinks back to that Help! album her father snuck into the family home when she was a young girl, and singing and dancing with her brother to The Beatles. Martina wishes she could go back to that day she met Ringo Starr to say: ‘You have no idea what you mean to me. You opened a whole new window to my future when I first heard and spoke English, the language I now speak, write … and will use to teach.’”

Email Martina Brodie about her Face Yoga Method classes or contact her via Facebook.

Article first published December 18, 2023.

What is Martina reading?