One woman's work: Maya Simler on gender equality and ethical chocolate
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we interviewed Maya Simler, founder and member of the Goodfind community. Here, we share her thoughts on gender equality, balancing home and work and the importance of starting tough conversations.
“My generation of women has been raised to think that we can do it all on our own - kids, family, career. But I’ve realised that it’s too much, because our health suffers if we don’t make time for ourselves,” says Maya Simler, founder of ethical chocolate brand PLAYin CHOC and mother of two. “We need help from our partners and community. And we need to be realistic about getting the right balance and support.”
Photo courtesy of PLAYin Choc
Maya, 42, launched PLAYin CHOC in 2018 to offer families and children a dairy-free, organic chocolate and encourage everyone to look after the planet, which she does through the educational notes and collectable toys included in each box. She leads a team of ten people, several of which are also mothers.
Maya encourages women to look after themselves and do what they can to drive equality forward in society. This could be anything from connecting with the right groups through social media and friends, to signing the petition to re-instate compulsory gender pay gap reporting, suspended at the beginning of the pandemic. “I strongly believe that if women come together and demand gender pay gap reporting, it will change. It has to be addressed.”
Striking a balance
As an entrepreneur and mother, she has found that lockdown has exaggerated the juggling act of looking after her business and looking after her children. “It’s a blur - where is your work life and where is your private life?”
It’s a question many people have found themselves asking over the last year, especially parents trying to homeschool their children between meetings and video calls.
For Maya, striking a balance between work and home is less about separating the two completely and more about taking opportunities to connect with her children, no matter what form that connection takes. “For at least an hour, I go with them to the park and I’m just with them and nothing else,” she says. “I also get them involved in the business whenever possible, especially with chocolate tasting and creating toys.”
Photo courtesy of PLAYin Choc
Creating an ethical, vegan chocolate
PLAYin CHOC provides for her family in more ways than one. Maya, her husband Dominic and her first son are all lactose-intolerant. “I was trying to give my kids and myself healthier treats that had the least sugar as possible but were still enjoyable and tasty. We wanted to recreate that creamy, milky taste that we like but without dairy.”
In 2015, she started playing around with different chocolate recipes, never imagining that it could become a full-time business for both her and her husband. “When my second boy was two, I thought about going back to work and started re-evaluating what I wanted to do and that’s when I came up with PLAYin CHOC,” she says.
Self-employment not only gave Maya more flexibility than going back to work as an employee, it gave her an opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment. “I’ve always been a nature lover and I was bothered by the amount of plastic I was seeing everywhere. I had a need to do something about it,” she says.
Her eco-conscious approach influenced her choice of packaging, all of which is biodegradable, compostable or recyclable, as well as the theme for the toys. The first range of PLAYin CHOC centred on 18 endangered animals, from dolphins to pandas. “Instead of trying to preach about it, I wanted to make it fun and interesting and a conversation starter for children, their parents and their grandparents.” Each surprise toy comes with a little note that outlines various facts about that animal. For example, the giraffe card explains that they can grow to be almost 6m tall and weigh over 1000 kilos.
Maya also works with a number of environmental charities and organisations. A portion of sales from the endangered animals range goes to the Whitely Fund for Nature, while the educational notes for the dinosaur range are written by the Natural History Museum.
All PLAYin CHOC products are certified vegan, organic and free from common allergens. “We do everything in-house,” she says. The chocolate is made from just three ingredients: Peruvian, single-origin cacao, Madagascan bourbon vanilla and creamed coconut from Indonesia.
In 2019 the team expanded from a small facility to a factory in Uxbridge, enabled by a successful crowdfunding campaign. She encourages flexible working where possible, and has oversight of every aspect of the business, including designing the animal puzzle designs. Before having children, Maya taught Design at the American University in London.
Photo courtesy of PLAYin Choc
Looking ahead
When asked about her role models, Maya highlights environmental campaigners such as David Attenborough and Jane Goodall. But she also emphasises the importance of women: “All our female ancestors need more credit for where we are now.”
She has a similar attitude of looking at the bigger picture. When asked if she had a magic wand what she would change to make the world a more equal place. “I would fill every being with more light and love. When you have a lot of love and light within you, you naturally do the right thing.”
Her reflective answer relates to one of the key lessons she’s learned from lockdown, supported by reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. “It’s really important that we do the inner work right now,” she says. “I’ve found that it’s been good for our business, good for myself and good for being a mother.”