Living life with a purpose

Kylie Matthews (right) with her mother, Rachel Thompson, her grandmother, Joan Thompson, and daughters, Skye (back) and Ebony (front).

KYLIE MATTHEWS – living life with a purpose

Diocesan Old Girls’ League member Penny Tucker spoke with a fourth-generation Dio Old Girl whose sustainable business, AWWA, aims to tackle the harm disposable sanitary products are causing our planet.

Kylie Matthews is a successful entrepreneur, company director, extraordinary social advocate and mum who is proud to be a fourth generation Dio girl. Her great grandmother, stepgreat grandmother, grandmother, a great aunt, aunts and cousins have been through Dio. There’s sure to be a fair amount of blue, red and white in their family albums.

Kylie’s family story weaves through Dio’s own journey like different but related threads in a piece of vivid and extraordinary fabric. She has a deep connection with the School, as does her much-cherished grandmother. And it’s mostly for that particular Senior Dio Old Girl and keen Dio Today reader that Kylie agreed to let the magazine focus on her considerable achievements. are fortunate enough to be privileged, and if you wear that cloak of privilege, you owe it to other people to wrap them up in the warmth and support that the cloak provides. “It’s so much more fun to be standing at the top of the ladder with other people enjoying the view than to look down on people struggling to get a foot on the first rung,” she says.

Kylie’s business ethic reflects this view. She sees no conflict between making money and making a measurable social difference. She refuses to conform to stereotypical business models where corners that are cut represent ‘efficiency without consequence’ (as if that’s objectively a good thing). She also believes that giving back to society isn’t about token gestures, it’s about something real.

Taboo subject no more

to discuss and turned it into a thriving business. Having just divested herself of a successful start-up, which gave her considerable resources to focus on a new idea, Kylie linked up with business partner Michele Wilson and got talking about periods and what the future might look like for their daughters.

“Why is technology in every other area of our lives evolving so quickly, but our options for managing our periods are limited to bulky pads or tampons, or a cup that was first designed in the 1930s?” asks Kylie. “Why are we still clogging up landfill globally with 45 billion nonbiodegradable single-use menstrual products every year? There are incredible anti-bacterial fabrics, the technology to engineer a product that can be comfortable and clean and washed again and again, and yet it’s taken forever to embrace that.”

Something must be wrong, she muses, if we can 3D print a gun and yet still be wedded to period products that were patented in the earlier part of last century. Maybe it’s because so many of these businesses have been historically run by men, and women have simply got used to the status quo.

An enterprise with a purpose

So, Kylie and Michele, who is Ma –ori, founded AWWA. The company’s name embodies everything that the pair stand for and believe in for future generations of women. “To us it means fluidity. AWWA is derived from the Ma –ori word awa, meaning ‘river’ or ‘flow’. Ma –ori referred to their period as te awa atua – the divine river – and we want every woman to feel divine and empowered during their period. AWWA gives amazing confidence to newly menstruating teens, and provides support and comfort during pregnancy, post-partum and for minor bladder leakage.”

AWWA takes seriously its commitment to the values of sustainability, ethical standards and corporate social responsibility. Five percent of all the underwear made is donated and helps to overcome the cultural or socioeconomic challenges that periods present for certain groups of women.

AWWA has won a prestigious SheEO award for its actual contribution to making life better for women. It’s also achieved carbon positive status for business operations, offsetting 120% of all emissions, from its manufacturers’ sewing rooms to when the parcel lands on a customer’s doorstep and everything in between. These offsets grow and protect forests in New Zealand and the Pacific and help deliver climate resilience, waterways protection, erosion control, biodiversity conservation and community economic development.

AWWA is also in the process of working through B Corp certification, which is extremely hard to gain and maintain. B Corporation-certified companies balance purpose and profit and are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.

Some of the AWWA range of underwear.

Dio days

In reflecting on her time at Dio, Kylie says it left her with a worldclass education and lifelong friends. Attending Dio gave her many opportunities she wouldn’t have otherwise had, and she’s grateful for both the joyful and deeply challenging experiences.

“Life hasn’t been without its struggles,” she says, “but the past few years have taught me a lot about who I am, and who I want to be, and the role model I want to be for my three children. This has come about because of me starting to believe in myself and in my strengths and abilities. Living a life with purpose and looking at the bigger picture, both personally and professionally, has also given me the drive to not sweat the small stuff and focus on what brings me happiness and aligns with my core values.”

Breaking down gender bias

Kylie notes that as females in the business world, a major challenge we face is the gender biases that exist. “Some people can’t even acknowledge their existence because of how engrained these hurdles are in our culture and society. I’ve experienced them first-hand, having to continually prove myself to men before my business has been taken seriously. Research has shown time and again that female entrepreneurs find it harder than males to raise capital for their ventures. Being a woman and mother should not be a barrier to growth and success.”

Kylie and many other talented female entrepreneurs are proof that they are not. Rather than being 100% profit driven, she says a business with purpose can have a greater impact both locally and globally, helping to reduce inequalities between genders, challenging social norms, and helping to grow the economy.

She encourages everyone to think about what’s important to them, what they want the future to look like for their children and grandchildren, and to use the opportunities available to them to foster change for the benefit of our team of five million.

Perhaps it’s her time at Dio, or her clearly beloved family, or her early career in social work or her innate business acumen that has empowered Kylie to be such a motivated entrepreneur. Whatever the case, clearly all those influences have been sewn together and styled just right to create a beautiful and admirable outcome. Kylie Matthews is living the school motto.