While you're young, do everything. Explore all the different industries. If you sit down and tell your younger self one thing, what would that be? Just enjoy the process. If it doesn't work out, try something else. How would you start a conversation with a young girl? And what would you leave her with? Was there a moment that you thought, "Oh my gosh, this is what I need to do." What was that moment? Take time to celebrate your small wins as much as your big wins. Chasing is not always fulfillment. You are actually working towards what people tells you. Ways to Worth claiming the space as a change maker. Maya, welcome to her own narrative. Hello. Thank you for having me. Great. Right. So, I always start talking to people, talking to women as who they are, the real woman behind the brand. Let's talk about Maya. Let's take the founder away. Let's take the change maker, the conscious sustainable warrior, sustainability warrior away. Who is Maya in this season of her life? Oh, that's very deep, isn't it? Take away everything. Um, I think Maya is just someone who's just trying to do good and wants to just I don't want a lot in life. I just want to be happy, have enough money to pay bills, go on a few nice holidays, and just live like a simple life. I say that, but I also am super OCD. I like everything to be clean. I like lots of structure and routine. So, it's quite contradictory, but I think that's that's just who I am. I just want like to spend time outdoors, spend time with my family and close friends and just enjoy the moments and just make the most out of life. You're clearly very passionate. So let's talk about now you tell the viewers what do you do? So I am the founder and director of a social enterprise called reinvented and we run talks, workshops, presentations in schools, colleges, universities, educate people, young people in particular about the fashion industry, about sustainable fashion, about the waste that comes from the fashion industry and tries to encourage them to be more mindful about their shopping habits every everyday habits um with consumerism as well. Um and that's what we do. We try to encourage people to think twice before buying new and teach them the sewing skills as well because sewing is like a dying skill. It's probably known as what what our grandmothers and that generation did. But I want to make I want to encourage more people to do it. Just even learn how to sew a button on. like it's so simple or mend a rip or just something simple like these skills everyone should know. Yeah. They're like life skills kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah. You can't just throw a garment away because the buttons off. No. Yeah. True. I totally get it. You know, I can just see clearly your passion and your love for it. And the first time I met you was at the TEDex talk. She's a TEDex speaker and um she turned up in a curtain. Literally. So, and wow. I was like, what a woman. She like literally she's sewed a curtain into a beautiful outfit. And that's what you love. You love doing that. I just love creating and just My mom and dad have always instilled in me like keep things. You never know when you're going to need them. Now they're on the extreme side where they're more they're like hoarders. Hoarders. Yeah. I think it's a generational thing, but I think I've taken some of that and I like to find a use for everything. Like from the margarine tubs that we reuse with other other things in the fridge to like clothes as well. Like when there's a hole or a rip in something, can we reuse it to the point where like I I used to laugh at my mom for using like old rags or old pants and knickers as dust cloths and stuff when I was living at her house. Now I' I'm doing the same thing in my household with my partner. like reuse any bits of material just like your mom. Just like my mom. Yeah. Right. You know what? Today morning I was I was I just saw something and I totally thought about you. It was Ed Sheeran's something I saw and he said when he was 17 18 he was going to these gigs all over the country coming to these new cities and going there trying to perform and there is nobody turns up. Mhm. He waits. He waits. He waits. By the time he gets to the train station, he's missed the train and he slept on the train station. Now he says, "At that point, I thought, oh my gosh, what the hell am I doing?" Yeah. All my mates are going to university, having a career and all that, and I am actually going to places where there's nobody to look at my performance. Yeah. But at that point, he said he made a choice. He says, "This is what I love. Mhm. I love creating music, so I'm not even going to give myself a plan B. Yeah. Yeah. This is my plan A. And that's the only plan I have, and I will make it work. Why I'm bringing this to you is you've recently, last year sometime, you left your full-time job to go full in. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a plan B? No. I didn't think of it before, but no, there isn't a plan B. I've done so many things in a short space of time. Like I'm 32 years old. I've done so many different careers. I thought um when I was in school, I thought I want to be a journalist. So I did everything. Went to uni, did all the work experience, got the job in journalism, worked um like got a trainee ship with ITV News and then got a job with ITV. realized that actually I do love storytelling and documentaries, but that wasn't quite the right fit for me. I've worked as a teacher teaching English abroad for two years in Vietnam. I loved being in the classroom and educating the young generation, but I did not want to do it when I came back to England. So, um then uh when I came back to England, I worked in marketing at a university. So kind of still same with you education but I used my journalism background in the marketing. Um and I loved it. That's the job that I left. I absolutely loved it. Love the people I was working with but there was something missing and the more I was doing sewing the more I wanted that to be my my thing. Um and it's funny you mentioned like uh Ed Sheeran said he was doing these things. No one was turning up. I literally have the same thing happening to me. I did a few workshops um over Easter and hardly anyone turned up. Um and you hire out the room. I spent more money hiring out the room than the cost of the tickets. So I didn't really make a profit. I think I may have made a loss on one of the days. But the people that did come like they had like the in one of the classes there was a young girl who had never done sewing before and she really really loved it and she now wants to do more of that and like just that's just one person. So I will take the loss if it helps even one person. So you've answered my next question. So is that is that is that really is that what keeps you going because yes there is no audience. There's hardly an audience. What do you do? So what is there must be moments where it's like what am I doing? Is it going to be worth it? And but just before we jumped on and you know the recording we pressed the button you did say something which is so insightful because a young girl like you obviously your mates are all at you know I'm I'm assuming they're like couriers and you know finance and banks and stuff like that and here you are you're saying I'm going to follow my passion and I love that. I love that because I think the world should be like that. We should follow our passion, everything else. But it's worrying because at the end of the day, you still have bills to pay. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone has bills to pay. Yeah. So, what what keep what what is that moment when when it's like, "Oh my gosh, my mission is bigger than I am." Is there a moment like that? And what do you do to like snap out of it? There's so many things that I want to do and achieve with this business. Um, and I have to just like rein it in a little bit sometimes just like, okay, I'm just one person at the moment. I'm just one person. I have some volunteers, but there's only me and there's only so much that I can do. Um, so I have on my phone like a list of all the things I want to achieve, the hopes, the dreams. Um, I have a vision board and I just need to keep telling myself like just as long as you do one thing every day, it'll compound and eventually everything will will happen as I want. So, you just have faith. Just have faith. Just be optimistic. Be positive. Even on the down days when you've had like all the schools that you've reached out to have come back and said, "No, we don't we can't we can't take you in. we don't have the budget to support this or just keep remembering what it is while you're doing it. And I like to keep like a track of all good things and positive things to look at when I'm having a really bad day. So on my phone, I've got a folder which I' I've it's got like screenshots or pictures of like quotes that people have sent me or um inspiration that I've seen or like good things that have happened with the business or like even messages from like friends and family. It's such a good thing to do. So it's like your positive journal where on your down days, you're like, "Hey girl, remind yourself of these good days and better better are yet to come." Yeah, that's amazing. What a lovely attitude to have in life because a lot of people will be like, "Oh my gosh, it's not working. What do I do now?" But and it can be overwhelming. Super lonely. Yeah. But you just got to keep going. If that's what you love. Yeah. That's what you love. That's what your passion is. You got to keep going. There is no there is no plan B. No. You are your own backup. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Great. Right. So, let's talk about what inspired you here. like where is all this reinvented come from? I think what inspired me seeing so much bad stuff, seeing so much waste, seeing how the fashion industry creates so much waste, so much pollution, and I hated to see it. The more I learned about sewing, the more I learned how to make garments, how long it was taking me to make things, I truly appreciated it. I think if until you've made a piece of clothing, you don't know what goes into it. I would encourage everyone to try. Um, and so that really inspired me to just do more, find out more, learn more, and um, yeah, I think that's that that was Was there a moment that you thought, "Oh my gosh, this is what I need to do." What was that moment? Do you remember that moment that it was like, "That's it. I've got to do something about it." I don't really I don't know if was it like a gradual thing then? It was very gradual. So I I picked up a sewing machine in I don't know when 208 no 20 I can't remember what year it was. It was after co um bought myself a sewing machine, learned from YouTube alongside going to a sewing class and the things I was making and wearing for myself. I would wear out friends and family would be saying, "I love this. You need to do this as a business." Family members and friends were saying, "Can you just alter this? Can you hem this for me? Can you just do this?" So, I was getting all these little odd jobs to do. And then so it was a gradual process. It wasn't like a so from altering to actually reinventing these jeans. Yeah. Yeah. I love them. Absolutely love them. Talk to me a little bit about this cuz it's just talking to me. The sparkles calling the name. I love it. Um so I had these jeans in the back of my wardrobe. Just these plain plain jeans. Um I've had them for about over 10 years probably. And when I learned that nearly 4,000 lers of water go into making one pair of jeans and these were just in the back of my wardrobe. I never wear them because they are so discolored. They were not this color when I bought them. But I thought, you know what? I'm going to do something with them. Like, how can I just let sit in the back of my wardrobe? So much water and resources have gone into making something. Let's bring them back to life. So, I got some um material, cut it up, um opened up the side seams, put this um material inside, and then close the side seams, and then it's it's just done. It's just that's incredible. Absolutely incredible. Like just having that thought process of creating something like that. What would you say to somebody like a young girl out there who wants to get into fashion and you know the industry of creating or maybe being into retail or fashion industry as a whole? What would your message be? Just try everything you like. So if you're interested in fashion, what is it about fashion that you like? Is it the designing? Is it the marketing? Is it the merchandising? Find out what you like about it. or if it's I I think just explore like while you're young do everything explore all the different industries like I think when I was young I thought I knew what I wanted to do like journalism was what I wanted to do I wanted to make documentaries on TV I want to be Louis through why not yeah that's that's what I wanted to do but it didn't quite work out but that's okay like it just changed and I think all the things that I learned in journalism are still relevant to what I do now when it's my marketing, when it's my social media. So, if someone young is interested in fashion, I'd say try everything. Um, don't box yourself in. If you're maybe you're really really good at designing and drawing and um creating uh designs of what things should look like. Yeah. Just try it. Try it all. That's amazing. What a lovely advice. What What part like you know, you said you worked in retail before. Mhm. Um I'm not sure which. Let's Well, I I'm sure you said you worked in retail before. Yeah. Was it at that point did you see that high fashion like the fast fashion coming in and the consumption going up? Were you not part of that trap either? Ever? No. I think I grew up with it. So, it was all I ever knew. I didn't think I was part of it. Sorry. Yes, I was part of it. But I never knew that. I think growing up and in the culture that we live in, um, it's just normal. It's normal normal for us to consume. It's normal for us to order something on our phone at the click of a button on Amazon and expect it to arrive tomorrow. And if it's delayed, we go mad. We go mad. And we think that's normal, but it should not be normal. But that's the fast world we're in. How do you change that? By being slower. Why do we have to be fast? I love that. Like why you can enjoy the slow moments? But that's absolutely amazing. So amazing to hear that from a young younger person as well because I think the generation well I I look at my children and they're like why is it not done yesterday? I ordered it so it's not there and I'm asked to happen this why is not so for a younger person to think that way is it coming full circle because that's where the world was at more peace when the thing when things were a bit slower everybody was just enjoying a little bit more and there was no rush around and you know expectations were less where is this like coming full circle do you know more people like you I don't know I don't No, my partner is the complete opposite of me. He's like, "Right, we don't need a plan. Let's just make it happen." I'm like, "No, let's take our time with it. Let's make a schedule. Let's create a plan to make everything tick along." And he's like, "We're both completely different, but somehow we find a balance." Um, but I think I used to be very fast and always want things immediately and I still am quite impatient, but I think it's I do a lot of meditation. I'm quite spiritual. So, I think that has definitely helped change my perspective. I wasn't always like this. I was going to ask you that. Has you have you always been like that? So, where where does that come from? Um, I went traveling a few years. I say a few years ago when I went traveling in 2016. Um it was supposed to be a six-month adventure to Southeast Asia backpacking. I left the job in journalism to take six months out. Um when it got to about month five, I called my mom and dad up and said, "I'm not coming home. It's not going to be six months. Um I'm staying out here." I ended up going back to England after two years after two and a bit years. But I learned to love life and to explore and to travel. Um, and when I was traveling, exploring, meeting people, it I don't know. I just I feel like my eyes were opened up. There's so much more to life. And I think in the UK, we everything is so fast-paced. It's a rat race. Whereas in Asia where I was, you've got the hustle and bustle of the markets, the motorbikes speeding past you. But it's a different kind of time. There is calmness. There is calm. There is. I lived in um Hanoi, the um capital of Vietnam. Every weekend they would close down the city center roads um for traffic. So it' become all pedestrianized and families would come out with their children and walk and there'd be like women doing yoga in the middle of the streets and it was just like fun. It was just it it made me realize we should just like calm down a bit, stop, spend time with our family and friends more and just appreciate like life. I wish more of more of you are there. I wish I can slow down. I mean, do I wish though? Do I wish though? I don't know. I don't know. It's a very mature perspective, isn't it? You think I feel it's a very mature perspective to have towards life because usually you start going through especially when you're young, you want to just go and achieve and then you're like, you know, okay, fine, I'm coming to this age now. I want to slow down. But to have that kind of maturity, yeah, I'm like not a grandma, aren't I? No, you're not. That's maturity. But because you know what? At the end of it, everybody wants that. Why not just start it that way? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. So, it's an amazing amazing attitude to have and also chasing is not always fulfillment. You're actually working towards what fulfills you. You are when you when you create something I can see in your see it in your eyes, you're sparkling and you you know you you feel you feel fulfilled. I do I feel very content like when I have finished creating a garment like the curtains for example that I wore on TEDex stage. Tell me a little bit more about that. Come on then. Let's talk about curtains. Well, in the rehearsals, everyone said, "You need to wear something that you've made." I was like, "Okay, I need to wear something that I've made and I need to I want it to be like something that makes you think twice about upycling and what could be upcycled. I want to open people's minds up and think outside of the box." So, someone who I used to work with, an ex-colague in last year, gave me these curtains and gave me I get a lot of donations for fabrics, clothing, all sorts. And they just been in the back of the wardrobe. Everything's always in the back of the wardrobe. Um, but I love the color. And I thought maybe I'll I'll upcycle some curtains into an outfit. And I wanted to make um trousers and a top. So the top was like a corset style top and the trousers were like widelegg, but I wanted to keep the curtain rings. Yes. Because I think a lot of people said to me from the front, if you don't see the curtain rings, you can't tell it's the curtains. But I I love that that you actually kept the curtain rings because that was like, wow. But when I saw your outfit on the stage and I was like, oh wow. I I clocked on immediately that obviously and also knowing your background like wow woman what a bold statement. So that was really really amazing. Um let's talk about bold moments now. Yeah. While we're talking when was that moment when you really really felt proud? There's a lot of different moments. I think speaking on the TEDex stage was a good one. I think that's probably the most the most biggest achievement so far with what I'm doing because I've only been doing this since se se August September. So, it's been about uh nine months. That's amazing. So, it's still very new. I'm learning every day. I haven't been to fashion school. I haven't had a proper a teacher to teach me what to do. I've been selftaught off YouTube. There wasn't a pattern for making those trousers and that curtain outfit. I had to make it all myself and learn how the material will be stitched. There a lot of broken needles because that was very thick material. Um I think that was a very big moment for me because it was I get a lot of imposter syndrome being very new into this. I haven't got like a business background really. Um, so I'm still learning all about the business side of things as well. And doing it alone, I think sometimes you can feel like it's a lot. It's a lot of pressure. Um, and a lot of people are watching. And I'm sometimes like unsure of, oh, should I post this on Instagram? What are people going to think or like? So I do get a lot of imposter syndrome as well. I don't think I'm qualified enough. I'm not knowledgeable enough. like I'm going down the sustainable fashion route, but I don't know a huge amount about sustainability. I don't know everything about it. So, you were talking about imposter syndrome and you know there are a lot of doubts in you and everything because a lot of I I speak to so many women and you're you're one of the youngest who's been on this couch today. So, it's amazing to see that even you know I I usually feel that when you're younger you're kind of going there and it's like okay fine I can do it. I can do it. But it is overwhelming any passion, any project, any business, any anything even if you're working for someone else, you do start doubting yourself. Is there any anything which is your motto in life and you're like, "Nope, this is how I'm going to do it and I'm going to be like carrying on." Yeah. When I do feel imposter syndrome or I do feel down or things aren't going a certain way, I look at that um folder on my phone. Yeah. Positive folder, guys. we all need to do that. Yeah. Um and then I also just tell myself like I finished my full-time employment to do this full time. If I don't like this, that's fine. I can always find something else. But I love doing it on a good day. Like I am I'm having the time of my life on that sewing machine. Just get the music on, just sew, just create. I love it all. I think just reminding myself like just enjoy it. Just enjoy the process. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Try something else. Is it the why you go for? Is it why am I doing this? Because of pure love. Yeah, I really enjoy it. I really enjoy it. And I want to make a difference. I want I think we are all here for a purpose. We spoke about this before. Um, we're all here to do something or to have an impact on someone else's life or the environment, the world, our community. We're all here to do something. And I think for me it is this. I think this is my why. This is I want to make an impact in the sustainable fashion environment. I think that is that is it. And I have to just keep reminding myself like when I am like yesterday I went to a networking event and I it probably wasn't my industry. A lot of the people in the room were men in property, finance, insurance and that's not really my scene. But um I managed to still get a few contacts there and see where things will lead. But in that environment, I did feel like I'm probably the youngest here. I'm one of only a few females here. And you do feel like you don't belong. But I think I'm quite a chatty person. I will just go up to anyone and ask them, so what are you what do you do? What's your name? Um so I think my confidence kind of helps me sometimes and snap out of it. So tell me now at this point uh what would how would you start a conversation with a young girl and what would you leave her with? How young is she? I'm saying it's like you know somebody like in their teens and they're trying to figure out their their lives and everything. Yeah. What would what would your advice be to them? Oh, I have loads of these conversations because I'm in all the schools. I love it. Go on then. How would you start that conversation? What do you enjoy doing? And then they open up about what their interests are, what their hobbies are. And I say, "Would you consider this as a profession?" I met a young girl at an event um last week who was very shy and very quiet. I asked her similar questions. What do you like doing? She was like, "I don't like school. I like English, but I don't like the teacher, so it's putting me off." Yeah. I was like, "Oh, okay. What about what do you like doing at home?" "Oh, I like singing." "Oh, okay. So, would you ever write music or do you like would you prefer to be on stage? She said, "Well, I don't really I've never really sang in front of anyone because I could I could get the impression that she has low confidence and maybe public publicly speaking, public speaking or singing on stage maybe a bit too much for her at this moment." So I said like would you you like English so you like literature, you like writing, you like singing, perhaps you can start with poetry, start making your own songs and maybe that can build into something. So I think youngsters should explore what they enjoy doing, not necessarily what they're good at because you could be great at maths but you don't enjoy it. Enjoy it. Yeah. Getting grades does not mean that you actually is is your love. It doesn't. So you know this is a very most people well I am a passionate person and I feel you should follow your heart and that's what I tell my children as well. But logical people will tell you the other will tell you otherwise they'll say uh-uh don't follow your heart because that's not going to follow that's not going to get you anywhere. Follow the pattern. follow the follow what's actually what actually makes the money. So for a youngster where would you kind of carve the path and would you would you still stick to say follow your passion? Yeah, follow your passion, but learn about yourself. Like, are you the type of person who wants to go on holiday in Dubai or are you the type of person who doesn't mind like a less fancier holiday? Like, for you need to choose something that matches your lifestyle choices, the things that you want in life. Like, do you want to be the person who dresses in headtotoe designer, carries around the um Gucci handbag? Do you want to be that person or do you mind just being comfortable and not comfortable to the extreme but just able to pay your bills? So, it's really about lifestyle choices. It's knowing what you what you actually what makes you happy. Yeah. Isn't it? It's it's and I think the generation today is kind of understanding that very early on. Yeah. There's a lot of people who the the millennials I think my generation we are not so great at it. But I see Gen Z are really good like they're good thrifters. They think more carefully about what they're spending money on. They even look at like the companies and are those companies good? Do they want to give money to those companies? Who are those companies associating themselves with? So I think they're doing a lot more and there's a lot we can all older generations. I call myself older from millennial. We can all learn a lot from the youngest. 100% 100%. I've got another one here for you. So, if you sit down and tell your younger self one thing, one thing that the girl who didn't yet know what this version of Maya would have become, what would that be? I'd say enjoy it. Cuz I am an overinker and I overthink everything. I like to have a plan for absolutely everything. We've heard that. Yeah. But I think when you plan too much, you miss out on the little moments. And to actually enjoy something because you're too busy ticking things off the list, off the to-do list. Like enjoy the little moments. Enjoy the little compliments that you get, little emails that you get sent to say how well the work has been going or how well the work has been received. Like take time to celebrate your small wins as much as your big wins. Very nice. Right. So here on her own narrative, we believe there's power in claiming your own story. Which part of your story you actually very proud and I know the whole bit of it, but there must be one part wait which which you're like you know what this this part of my story is what I'm all about. I think for me it's yet to come. Okay. I think I'm still just at the beginning of the journey. And that Thank you for being honest. I like that. Yeah. I think it's not it's not come yet. It's coming. So, what would you tell somebody who is like on the brink of oh my gosh, I want to follow my passion, but I can't I don't want to let go my job. Would you say take the leap of faith? No, I wouldn't. I'd say make sure you have enough savings. Yeah. Um uh make sure you have enough savings to last you. And why do you have to give up the job? Is it because you don't have enough time? Um, is it because you can't balance the two already? If you're I would say you want to do something you're passionate about, do that first alongside your full-time job until it gets to the point where either your passion project is making more money, then leave the job and focus on your passion project or time because that's another thing we can't get back. So, if you don't have enough time to do your passion project and your full-time job, cut down your full-time hours if it allows. If you can still pay your bills, if you've got family, if you can still support them, like just make sure you have enough resources, money, finance, finances available. Great. Okay, let's just before we wrap up, I want to just do this one fun question and answers in a rapid fire. Yeah. Should we do that? Yeah. Yeah. Let's just do it quickly. If your wardrobe could talk, what would it say about you? One word. Disorganized. Oh, really? What's one item in your closet you'll never part with, even if it's falling apart. Um Oh, this is supposed to be rapid fire. Go, go, go, go, go. I've got one I've got one white jumper and it's like so many bubbles on there, but I really like it. It's like cozy. Oh, it's cozy. Yeah. What's one thing you wish people knew about sustainable fashion, but they never ask? Where do your clothes come from? If you could upcycle anything, and I know we've spoken about the curtain. Give me another random one. Anything. Shoes. Oh, I don't know how to do shoes, but maybe that it tonight. What's one habit that you've picked up since becoming eco-conscious that even surprises you? I think reusing everything. everything I can like reusing plastic bottles, reusing glass jars when the pasta sauce or something like reusing everything. I've become my mom and dad hoarder. Love it. Denim or linen? Linen. Ah. So, or glugan. So, city you'd love to host a reinvented workshop in? New York. Oh, sustainable fashion icon you admire? Vivian Westwood. Guilty pleasure takeaway meal. Pizza. Can't beat it. Fast fashion brand you wish would call you for a full makeover collab. A full makeover. Is that a permanent makeover? I don't know. It could be anything. Well, if it's if it's permanent, let's go with Sheen. We can change everything. Oh. One song that always gets you in the creative zone. Oh, I don't never listen to anything. Anything. Absolutely anything. Okay. If you weren't doing this, what else could you see yourself reinventing? Reinventing. Oh, I'm not sure. Furniture. Yeah, it I love upycling furniture. I do that sometimes as well. So, before you came, I did say this is going to be a fun one today. Yeah. And I said you're one of the youngest ones I've had in this couch, so I knew this is going to be fun. Thank you for being here. Thank you for lifting it all up. And it was great having you. Thank you for speaking with me. And the time has flown by. It has. You got so many questions in, but I've loved it. Thank you. My first ever podcast. Yay. Many more to come. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you, Maya. Thanks for being here.