What if you too wanted to put yourself back at the centre of your own life

Work or family first? Both, of course! 

If that resonates with you, come join us for the story of the wild adventure of the Meza'Team, and enter for a chance to win an entrepreneurship training programme with our partner in crime Ulule.

Why should we have to choose between meaningful work and a fulfilling family life? That's the question we kept asking ourselves — or rather, the one we decided to stop asking altogether at Mezamé!

It all started with Charlotte, the founder of the brand, who had navigated the world of media and advertising before taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Already asking herself big questions before having children, she found those questions only grew louder after the birth of her two boys: "I needed to know why I was leaving them in childcare all day — and selling ads on the internet was no longer the answer. It took me a few years, a good kick up the backside, before I finally found the situation unbearable and handed in my resignation."

For Claire, our beloved creative director, it was first and foremost about freedom. Having spent years travelling the retail world as a visual merchandiser for a major fashion brand — with demanding hours to match — she chose to break free when her second baby arrived: "When I announced my second pregnancy and my boss asked me whether I couldn't just keep my legs crossed (as a joke… obviously), that was the final straw! I never went back after the birth. I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew what I no longer wanted — and that's when I took the leap: consulting, set design, shoots, window displays… I'd become a creative laboratory, hence my nickname 'Swiss Army knife'. Charlotte came to me right at the start of Mezamé — back when there was still an accent on the first 'e' — and we've been inseparable ever since!"

Same goes for Pauline, the boss's BFF and resident numbers whiz and stock guru, who had decided to make the most of her last maternity leave, stepping back from her everyday life as a buyer for textile brands. "I told myself: this is the last one, I'm going to take time for the kids (and for me!), so I added nine months of parental leave… on top of the weeks of lockdown!" Pauline used the time to take voluntary redundancy and reassess her career path. "And then there was Charlotte, who was launching Mezamé — and we'd spend hours on the phone every day talking through problems that were right in my old wheelhouse…" And that's how the story wrote itself!

Bertille, the ultimate pro at Mezamé, joined the team after her second child and a strong desire for change: "I wanted to spend time with my family, to be present for my children, and to step away from the fascinating but all-consuming world I'd been working in (internal communications for major Parisian department stores). That's when Mezamé crossed my path, and it just felt obvious!"

The same was true for Lucie, from the customer care team, who had been running her own children's bookshop solo for several years and "wanted to find that team energy again, built around shared values, by choosing to support Charlotte and her team while the customer care queen, Valentine, was enjoying time with her newborn."

It's a team story — one that makes room for everyone's family life!

What if you too wanted to put yourself back at the centre of your own life, to change careers and bring meaning back to your everyday? Well, we have just one piece of advice: give yourself the chance to change everything.

Why not have the support of skilled and caring professionals along the way! At Mezamé, we chose to put our trust in the Ulule team, whose mission is to "give wings to great ideas" — in other words, to support everyone with an impact-driven project, at every stage of their journey.

So send us a message in a bottle — tell us about your life plans, what drives you, what keeps you going, what you want to change. CLICK HERE And together with our friends at Ulule, we'll look at every submission and give several of you the chance to access a training programme completely free of charge.