Naomi Watts wants to celebrate hot flashes.
On Monday, Watts’ brand Stripes Beauty is inaugurating the first National Hot Flash Day in an effort to destigmatize the conversation around menopause and its many symptoms. To celebrate the day, the brand will be popping up in Bryant Park, specifically on the corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, in New York City providing product samples, ice cream and menopause education.
“[Hot flashes are] the most famous way we think of what menopause is. It’s the strongest characteristic,” Watts said. “It is something that can lead to a lot of other issues, like shame. A hot flash can take you at any time of the day when you’re least wanting it, in the middle of a board meeting with nothing but men around you.”
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Watts also emphasized how much hot flashes can impact sleep quality.
“I can’t tell you the amount of nights I spent changing clothes, throwing the duvet off and feeling like my whole bed covering was just trying to kill me,” she said. “It can be very disruptive.”
In terms of how this day came to be, Stripes executive chair Debra Perelman said: “The genesis is in this brand….We were thinking about how to connect with women today around menopause.”
For the event in Bryant Park, the brand has teamed with Van Leeuwen to offer visitors free ice cream to beat the heat.
“We decided to have a little bit of fun with it,” Perelman said. “Let’s cool ourselves off.”
Watts added: “We want to partner with an ice cream [brand] to create an icebreaker. This is the way in to have a conversation about it. We need, sometimes, to do it with a wink and a smile and make a little fun at ourselves.”
The brand will be passing out samples of The Cool Factor, $38, a calming and cooling face mist at the event. For those not in New York City, Stripes will be pushing out social content around the day and offering an online exclusive Hot Flash Bundle, $95, inclusive of The Cool Factor; The Inside Addition, $40, a menopause symptom supplement, and The Dream Date, $40, a sleep-boosting supplement.
As the brand aims to destigmatize the conversation around menopause with moments like these, OB-GYN and founder of HerMD Dr. Somi Javaid said: “We know that hot flashes have a negative impact on quality of life, sleep and can be a predictor of cardiovascular disease, the number-one killer of women. Raising our collective voices and awareness is critical to truly revolutionize our health care system, to help women become partners in their health care and to advocate for their choices. The impact of National Hot Flash Day is to finally shine a light on critical issues that have been dismissed by providing education in a taboo free manner.”
