How brands like Perelel are putting "community first, product second" into practice

Perimenopause is shaping up to be wellness’ next “it” topic.

And Perelel, an OB/GYN-founded vitamin company, has already claimed front row seats.

The internet loves to collectively decide what you must suddenly care about. And in 2025, it’s perimenopause’s moment. A few years ago it was egg freezing. This year the fixation has been protein and creatine. And now, the algorithm wants you swapping war stories about hot flashes.

I first heard of the brand after they acquired Erica Chidi’s Loom last year, just months after closing a $6 million Series A led by Unilever Ventures. It seems “natural” products are so 2024, and the industry is steadily inching toward medicalised beauty.

However, the bigger trend is brands like Perelel and Julie moving into the gaps public healthcare keeps leaving wide open (as it does so well.)

Perelel’s latest move? A perimenopause-focused campaign and community that says the quiet part out loud: women are tired of piecing this stage of life together on their own. When asked about the campaign, Perelel’s co-founder and Chief Brand Officer Alex Taylor said:

“We need to start having more substantive conversations about the unique and complex demands of perimenopause. So we created a space dedicated to just that, offering… community for women who have been putting the puzzle pieces together on their own until now. Perelel aims to be by women’s sides through all stages of life. It was time to pay special attention to perimenopause, which has gone underdiscussed and under-researched for too long.”

And this got me thinking—this is such a clear example of a brand working with consumers' actual needs instead of exploiting them.

And that feels like a shift worth paying attention to. Because for decades, wellness (and beauty before it) thrived on manufacturing insecurities. Dry shampoo for your eyebrows, detox teas for your liver, endless serums for pores you can’t even see. The playbook was 1) invent a “problem,” then 2) sell the solution.

But what brands like Perelel are doing flips that on its head. They’re stepping into real gaps left by public health systems, and building products, communities, and campaigns around them. I like to call this care capitalism. And, for now, it may be a little imperfect, maybe even messy, but it is undeniably powerful.

Perelel’s campaign is a good example of how community first, product second works in practice.

The vitamins are the product, sure, but the point is actually the community and the conversation. The same goes for Julie, the emergency contraception brand that leads with education and access rather than a pretty pill pack.

This is a big shift from the old DTC playbook where products came first, lifestyle second. Now, the lifestyle is the selling point. It's all about a sense of being held, informed and connected.

Credibility is the new currency.

Wellness is also growing up. Gone are the days of moon dust and “good vibes only” (thank the lord.) Today’s consumers don’t really want rituals, not when it comes to actual health issues, for crying out loud.

They want receipts: clinical trials, advisory boards, OB/GYN-founded brands. Medical legitimacy is the new brand currency, especially in categories like perimenopause where the mainstream medical system has been notoriously dismissive. Perelel’s bet is that trust and authority matter just as much as packaging… maybe even more.

And finally, there’s advocacy.

Hell fkn yeah.

These brands go beyond “selling.” They’re normalising conversations and pushing taboos into the mainstream. It’s not “purpose-washing” in the shallow, 2015 sense. It’s actually advocacy as strategy, making change part of the product.

Of course, the cynic in me wants to instantly shout that this is just capitalism doing what capitalism does best: monetising the gaps left behind by broken systems.

And that’s not entirely wrong. But it’s also true that millions of women are left without resources, without language, and without care. If brands can step in, and do it responsibly, I’m not saying no.

It just means that the future of women’s wellness must move away from the never-ending invention of new needs and toward addressing the ones that have been ignored for far too long (endometriosis and PCOS, I’m looking at you directly.)

The real question is whether brands can keep walking that line between serving and exploiting.

Because the balance is fragile, and the stakes are high. The real glow up in wellness isn’t another freaking supplement for me to choke down with my 20 others. It’s finally giving women the care they should have had all along…

Perimenopause may be trending. But for once, it feels less like a fad and more like long-overdue recognition. I’ll drink (my apple cider vinegar ginger turmeric tonic) to that.

-Sophie Randell, Writer