Betty’s Co. founder Jennifer Newell knows some of the straightforward posts on her company’s Instagram and TikTok feeds may make millennials and baby boomers blush. But if a video detailing the correct way to insert a tampon or an IG post explaining why your vulva shouldn’t smell like a flower elicit a few gasps, Newell says they’re doing their job.
“Gen Z doesn’t feel that shock and awe, but we do get a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that,’” she says. “We like to say we specialize in awkward. They seem to love that and love that we acknowledge it can be uncomfortable.”
Launched in 2020, Betty’s Co. is a lifestyle brand and healthcare/tech company that is working to ensure females, particularly those between the ages of 13 to 30, understand that women’s healthcare is for them.
Newell says the national narrative often focuses women’s healthcare solely around pregnancy—whether preventing it, achieving it or managing it. Her own health experience made her recognize there was a gap in the way young women were receiving care.
It wasn’t until she was 17 and had yet to experience a menstrual cycle that she was referred to a gynecologist. She was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure and says she spent the next several years navigating what she found to be a complicated industry.
Through Betty’s Co., young women can learn about their bodies and sexual health online, and they also can turn to the company for gynecological, wellness/nutrition and mental healthcare. That is delivered virtually for now, but beginning in March, the startup will launch the first of what Newell hopes will be multiple mobile health clinics that can provide care on college campuses and other locations. “We’re trying to offer a neutral space for them to be seen and heard,” she says.
Newell brings a decade of experience in marketing and development for a healthcare company to Betty’s Co. Her team also includes a gynecologist, registered nurse and care coordinator who work with patients. They operate out of Geekdom, the downtown coworking space that granted them seed money from its Community Fund in December 2020.
On social media, Betty’s Co.’s education is meant to be delivered in the tone of a big sister—the information is accurate and important, but the tone is light and colloquial.
Along with its blog and social channels, Betty’s Co. also recently launched an app, rolled out thanks, in part, to the $50,000 the company won in Bexar County’s TechFuel Competition last fall.
That’s just the start. Newell has plans for the company to grow to include retail hubs—which they’ll call Awkward Shops—that sell women’s hygiene and health products plus gift items. Behind the stores will sit clinics that women can visit for their annual exam, counseling appointments and other care. In-person care is starting in Texas, but Newell has dreams of operating a company with locations around the country, while remaining headquartered in San Antonio.
In Betty’s Co., Newell hopes she’s creating the kind of company that could have changed the trajectory of her own life had it been available when she was a teen.
“I think about that a lot, and without any regrets for how things have happened for me, I can’t help but wonder, ‘What if there was a Betty’s that I went to between the ages of 13 and 15?’” Newell says. “What if they would have been able to identify it early enough to salvage some of my eggs so I could have biological children?”
