Madeleine's words:
The Lunapads story started almost 8 years ago in 1993 when Madeleine Shaw, a fashion designer, started developing washable menstrual pads after experiencing health complications as a result of using chlorine bleached tampons. Unwilling to use environmentally unfriendly (not to mention uncomfortable!) disposable pads, she began applying her sewing skills towards developing the fabulous Lunapads we now sell all over the world. Today, Lunapads are Canada's #1 selling washable menstrual pads and women around the world ask for Lunapads by name.

undie girl: Where did you find your inspiration to create Lunapads and Lunapanties?

Madeleine: Part personal experience & part divine guidance. For years I was getting recurrent yeast and bladder infections and finally figured out that it was from tampons. I had never been a pad fan, but tried some washable pads as an experiment. They were awkward, unattractive and bulky, but I still loved the idea. I'm a fashion designer by trade, so I got busy on my own sewing machine. I was amazed at how differently I felt about my periods after I started using cloth pads - it made it not such a drag and even kind of healing and special. I also started doing some research into mainstream feminine hygiene products and got angry about all the waste and chemicals. The rest is herstory!

undie girl: What’s the response to the Lunapads line been like? What were those pleasant surprises or challenges along the way?

Madeleine: Response to Lunapads ranges from "gross!!!" to "where have you been all my life?", so it's never boring. One of my greatest lessons was to stop trying to convince women who just weren't ready for it. I kept saying "you know, I used to be just like you, and now I'm way happier!", but they still thought that I was nuts. I realized that they need to get there on their own. I love how much of a difference our products have made in some of our customers' lives - their testimonials have brought me to tears at times. We all have our stories, and I'm really grateful to get to hear about what it was like for a woman the first time she got her period, etc. It's very personal and intimate and I feel privileged to get to share that.

undie girl: The advertising for conventional menstrual pads and tampons almost always seems to play on women’s fears about their bodies -- if Lunapads had a commercial on mainstream television, tell us what we’d see.

Madeleine: I've thought about this many times, but always let it go because I not sure that TV as a medium is really consistent with what we're about. That said, to see real women of all ages and colors speaking frankly about their experiences with their cycles would be very powerful and beautiful. I'd definitely want them to say "menstruation" and "bleeding" and the words that don't make it to mainstream ads. I also wouldn't mind doing a parody of the weirdness in the disposables ads - blue liquid, secret little packages etc, just to show how dumb it is.

And now for the Proust-style undie questionaire --
undie girl: What’s you favorite thing to do in your undies?

Madeleine: Yoga in front of the fireplace.

undie girl: How do ever have time to put on undies? What does a day in your life look like?

Madeleine: I am never in too much of a rush not to put on underwear as I am a huge lingerie fan! I spend most of my time at our beautiful office which is about a 10 minute drive from my apartment. Most of the time it's just Suzanne (my business partner) and I, but sometimes we have helpers and fun visitors. I spend a lot of time talking to customers via email, working on improving the website, thinking up new products, supervising production, shipping orders, dreaming up marketing schemes and the like. Basically I just go there every day, see what happens, and deal with it. At the end of the day I like to go for a walk to the beach or play tennis with my sweetheart.

undie girl: Has anyone made assumptions about you because of your undies? What were they? How did that make you feel? How right were they?

Madeleine: Good question - I'm not sure. I like sexy and feminine but practical underwear (i.e. cotton thongs with flowers on them), which actually sums up my personality pretty well. Maybe others have had different thoughts, though!

undie girl: If you could have a soap box to stand on, what would it be? Okay, if you need two, that’s fine!

Madeleine: My favorite soapbox is http://www.soapboxgirls.com. If I had more time I'd write things for them instead of just reading it compulsively. The stuff that I'm thinking about most right now is around cleaning up the planet and finding ways for people to heal and live together peacefully.

undie girl: Finally -- sex, spirit, power, and freedom -- how do all of these play into your life? Do they fuse? Do they fight? Tell us a story.

Madeleine: Just seeing all those words together gives me a rush. For me, they all love each other for the most part. It's like this great chain reaction. I find that creativity is the real power behind all that I do, and that the more permissive and confident I am in my self-expression, the happier I am. One of my favorite things about working with natural menstrual products is getting to explore the relationship between women's physical self-acceptance, their power and their sexuality. It's like, the more knowledgeable and comfortable you are with every part and function of your body, the more fun you can have with all of it. In other words, if you are compartmentalizing your womanparts in a way that says "yeah, sex is great, but I hate my period", I think that there can be a positive effect on the former when you get happier with the latter.