Lauren

When I was younger, I was always full of questions. Why were the women in my Italian family always the ones cooking? Why did some foods make me feel tired while others gave me energy? Why did we pay so much for insurance and then still have to pay more later? I wanted answers that could help me understand not just the world, but my own body.

From my very first period, I knew something was wrong. For 16 years, I lived with debilitating pain, fatigue, and brain fog, but every doctor I saw dismissed me. I began to blame myself: if I worked out more, ate better, stressed less—maybe I wouldn’t hurt so much. The truth was bigger than me. Solutions, diagnosis, and care weren’t out of reach because I wasn’t trying hard enough, but because I was a woman.

I was living with endometriosis, one of the most painful and underdiagnosed diseases in the world. It took more than 25 doctors and countless hospital visits before I finally got the surgery that gave me relief. I was 32 years old, paying out of pocket, when I finally received a diagnosis.

That experience taught me that women+ aren’t suffering because we’re weak or lack “willpower.” We’re suffering because our health has been under-researched, underfunded, and overlooked. And that truth is at the heart of my work today.

I founded Half of Us Collective to change what care looks like. As a Nutritional Therapist and Hormone Health Expert, I help women+ manage symptoms through food and lifestyle shifts, but I’m also committed to creating solutions that don’t place the entire burden on them. That’s why I created the Hormonally Supportive Meal framework—meals built from clinical research and nutritional principles to reduce symptoms and restore energy.

My vision is to make these meals as recognizable and accessible in restaurants as gluten-free or dairy-free options. This loan will help me launch restaurant collaborations that bring Hormonally Supportive Meals into everyday life, ensuring that no one has to suffer in silence or feel alone in their healing.