Features
“Why not us?”: Here’s How Inya Ajanaku & Adriana Lica Built Aya Care to Make Women Comfortable & Confident During Periods
Aya Care, the Nigerian period care brand that went viral on Twitter last week, is the brainchild of two women on a mission to provide comfortable sanitary pads to women across Nigeria. These new sanitary pads aren’t just about absorbency – they’re a bold statement against the uncomfortable status quo associated with periods.
Founded by Inya Ajanaku and Adriana Lica who met through mutual connections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Aya Care came into the radar of many Nigerian women when a user gave a glowing review of their product on Instagram, prompting many women to try it out.
View this post on Instagram
Inya, a Nigerian IT professional with more than 20 years experience, is an alumnus of the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). She worked as a volunteer teenage teacher and mentor for over 15 years at her local church and is passionate about addressing social issues such as literacy support and period poverty.
Adriana is a Canadian entrepreneur and an angel investor who spent the last 5 years launching and scaling products in wellness, healthcare and AI. Prior to becoming a full-time entrepreneur, Adriana spent 10 years as a commercial leader in finance and real estate. In her spare time she has been mentoring aspiring startup founders on product, marketing and growth and is planning on setting up a free startup school for girls.
Inya and Adriana
The brand eventually went viral when a Twitter user shared Tamara’s video. A lot of women purchased the product and confirmed that it was comfortable and provided full coverage during periods.
Girlies, the pad game has changed 😭😭😭😭😭 I just know only Lagos and abj people will see it to buy 😔 pic.twitter.com/jDSuh0H30l
— Thug Yoda (@thejoycechuks) January 5, 2024
Just want to say the Aya care girlies didn't lie
I slept through the entire night without having to change pads at all.
And I could sleep on my back 😭. Huge deal for me because I never get to sleep on my back during my periods because no pad was long enough.
— Big Nims is job hunting 🧏🏾♀️ (@guylikenimi) January 11, 2024
“We were tired of using the same bulky, short, uncomfortable toxin-packed overpriced plastic pads. It was time to create a much better, more sustainable and women-led option, so we did,” Aya Care wrote on their Instagram during their pre-launch stage in 2022.
Aya Care is building a world where period products are thoughtfully designed and where open conversations about the female experience are not just encouraged, but celebrated. Inya and Adriana spoke to BellaNaija about how their product is changing the game for women, one absorbent, sustainable, and beautifully designed pad at a time.
We’re Curious; What’s the meaning of “Aya” in Aya Care?
Aya stands for “Amazing Young Africans”.
Why Did You and Inya Decide to Go Into the Manufacture of Sanitary Pads?
Aya started for many reasons, but at the core of it was the immediate need for quality period pads that were actually affordable. We looked around the market and realised that nobody was addressing this issue the number of questionably-made pads were everywhere – in a meaningful way. COVID just started, the prices shot up, and nobody seemed to care what a higher price per pad truly meant to the women that were the very reason those companies were successful in the first place.
It just hit us… why not us? We want to do better, we can do better. We proceeded with doing market research, finding the right partners, and ultimately doing close to a year of design, prototyping and testing before we had the pad that we were proud of.
We drafted ambitious empowerment program plans in place to ensure that along the way we involve as many women as possible into this journey, so that they are not just a customer but they’re truly a partner in this journey. We’re still just scratching the surface of what we really want to achieve and we’ve never been so excited about the future of period care.
What was the idea behind making the pad longer and fuller?
First just from a personal need. I am a heavy-flow girl and I found it quite hard to find a pad that would make me feel confident at night. When we started doing our feedback sessions and testing sessions with women, they all said the same thing. Why can’t it be longer? Can the back be rounder? Can it be a bit thinner, nobody wants to feel like they’re wearing a diaper. The ideas from this group of women along with our personal experience as a woman are the reasons for the designs.
What were the top 5 things put into consideration when creating the Aya Care pad?
- Premium Quality. If Inya and I don’t love and use it ourselves, it’s not going outside into the world.
- Affordability. It needs to be widely accessible, because every woman desires premium quality at an affordable price.
- Women-led. Product design, testing, packaging, art was all created by women. They are the end customers after-all!
- Accessibility. We need to ensure that we are accessible and do not get distracted by shiny offers of exclusivity. We have managed to grow without a single exclusive distribution partner, giving us the ultimate control in ensuring nobody’s gating quality period care.
- Personality. We wanted to do something different and have fun with it! The brief for the artist was simple – when a woman looks at Aya, it brings them joy and they feel that it was designed for and by women.
It’s still kind of a taboo to talk about periods openly. How are you helping people feel comfortable with it?
I think there is a lot of work that we need to do in this space, and Inya and I would love to have an open forum of ideas on this. But the first step was actually packaging – make it something girls would be happy to share online, making it beautiful. We would however really love to do more in this space, and are open to ideas.
Talking about that, I think it’s commendable that Aya Care pack has an illustration of an African woman.
I was working with a woman designer on the packaging, and the first prototype had African prints to create a stronger belonging. At the same time we were drawing out our ideas for how we plan to empower and give back to more women around. It kind of hit me… artists. Inya got to work right away and found a wonderful young emerging artist, Ugonma Chibuzo. I gave the brief for two art pieces that she painted by hand, oil on canvas (we still have the original artwork!), and the rest is what you see today on the box!
Some of the health complaints of women using pads were itchiness, redness, swelling of the inner thighs and all-around discomfort. What measures were taken during production to ensure women do not experience this with Aya Care?
We work only with the best ingredients and undergo significant testing with women before anything goes on the market.
What new and sustainable things do you think we’ll see in period products in Nigeria?
This is quite hard for me to comment on, because what women want and what the market can deliver is constrained by too many variables. I can tell you what women do want because they’ve been flooding us with requests – cups, period panties, and I had a woman just 2 days ago ask me if there’s something we could do that could be flushed easily. I am excited not just about sustainability but also about addressing quite unique needs that our customers are sending our way.
Women have been using Aya Care, and it’s been great feedback so far. How do you intend to improve user experience based on feedback received so far?
Oh I love this question. Feedback is fundamental to our growth. I have a massive spreadsheet of new ideas and feedback that I’ve been keeping since we started. The ideas submitted have grown exponentially since Saturday with the help of Tamara and Joyce who have shared our product and story, unbeknownst to us, now knowing what they were about to unleash. The plan is to continuously ensure that this is incorporated into the way we work. We get ideas -> we review -> we do something about it.
The Aya Care Team
Beyond the pad, does Aya provide care for women experiencing period concerns?
Since you’re giving me this amazing opportunity, I would like to express that we would love to partner up with female healthcare professionals. I am specifically looking for experienced, talented female gynaecologists that are interested in making healthcare advice accessible to all women. If you know someone or are interested please drop me an email at [email protected].
