MEET THE FOUDNER
Janina Breitling
After travelling the world for six years with my little son Max, I chose cruising through the universe of menstruation as my next adventure.
I got inspired by women in Cuba, who talked in front of their whole group of friends openly about how they menstruate. By the reindeer nomads in Mongolia, that shared their little tipi with us - and how they deal with their menstrual cycle. By the dancers in French Polynesia that moved their hips like nobody else to celebrate and honour their fertility.
Reflecting my own bloody habits every month, I somehow had enough of hiding my period. Of functioning every day of my cycle exactly the same. And I had enough of the reusable period products that I already used. That were uncomfortable (the sweaty feeling) not possible to wash hot (the disgusting feeling) and full of toxic ingredients (the wtf feeling).
From my mind came the idea of coloured buttons having a snappy date with organic fabrics. From my belly the will of inspiring others to live in line, instead against their cycle. And from my heart the call of providing menstruating people access to free period products all over the world.
As seen in
"I was desperately looking for a period product that would fulfil my needs. As I couldn't find one, I invented my own."
- Janina Breitling, CEO & founder of nookees
The Journey
2004-2016
News Reporter
While studying sport at university I worked as an internship for several news papers and TV shows. After my degree I started straight away for national TV and ended up as a news reporter. Later on I switched to Red Bull and worked for two years in Austria, presenting their adventurous documentaries.
2016-2021
world traveler
2016 I quit my job, sold everything and took my back then 5 year old son Max on a world trip. I set up a blog, recorded a podcast and shortly our little trip became quite famous. And lasted longer than expected: in total six years we've been cruising around the globe. We lived with reindeer nomads in Mongolia and hitchhiked container ships through French Polynesia. Just the two of us and the whole world.
2019
Book author
In 2018 I got a call from one of the biggest publishing companies in Germany. They offered me to write a book about our worldtrip. WHAT? As a kid I already sat on the old typewriting machine of my parents and wrote story after story. Now my big dream became true: a real book. About our trip. I signed the contract while traveling through Panama and the result you can finde here:
2020
Nookees inventor
During the trip I already used reusable menstruation pads but didn't really like the way they worked. I did some research and realised that other women had the same issue. Inspired from the little snap buttons of those little baby bodies I had the idea to create a click-in system for menstruation underwear. And nookees was born...
2019
TV guest
After the book was published I got invited to several interviews, covered in famous magazines and asked to tell my story in TV shows. Twice I was able to share some fun insights with German talkmaster Markus Lanz and inspired a lot of other single mothers to do something similar. Something they deeply desired but were always afraid to do.
2024
and now?
nookees is growing into an amazing startup and I love the work that comes with it. Teaming up with creative minds and pushing my idea into the world, is something incredibly beautiful. But my heart belongs to those people I met all around the world: the young girls in Africa that drop out of school, the women my age in Nepal that are secluded from their society. Why? Because they are having their menstruation. My call is to support all of them through education and by providing them nookees for free as part of our nookees Foundation. Power to the period for everybody. Everywhere. Every month.
Keynote Speaker
Wherever I go, to whoever I talk to, after a couple of minutes the topic is clear: menstruation and everything that comes with it not just became my passion but also my mission. From exchanging experiences around it to creating awareness about the circumstances of period poverty in several parts of this world.
Here I am to spread the message, either on stage, in podcasts, interviews or on any other platform that gives me the opportunity to be the voice of our uteruses. Hit me up, if you feel like I should (period) power up your events as well.
New Podcast
Sometimes there is this one moment, when we have an idea, a thought or some input and it just makes click. From that moment on, nothing is the same... "Can I click it?" is about those clicks, those stories when something changes inside. Maybe followed by our whole life.
Power to your period
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