Creators and Magic Makers • Jess Rosenberg, We the Moode

"We’re an unapologetic new voice in reproductive health. Making nutritionally-formulated vitamins, hosting uncomfortable conversations, and providing a maternal health education for wherever you are on the reproductive journey. Why are we moode? (pronounced ‘moody’) Because the process is enough to make anyone moody."

-Jess Rosenberg, We the Moode

I spent 10 years as a social worker, working with marginalised and oppressed communities. I started my career supporting the refugee and asylum seeker sector amongst some of the harshest political policies we’ve seen in recent times. It shaped my worldview, and deep desire to create systematic change. I spent my subsequent years dabbling in and out of motherhood and international work with families separated during conflict, living in immigration detentions centres, missing on boats bound for Australia, living as political prisoners or in refugee camps around the world. I also had a short stint working with international adoptees living in Australia, seeking records of birth and birth family in their country of origin.

My career has been niche. Colourful. Political. Somewhere between babies 2 + 3 I returned to study Nutrition and Naturopathy at Southern School of Natural Therapies here in Melbourne. And had grand plans before Covid hit. It was here I started formulating The Prenatal, and painstakingly researching every inclusion. Which I later taste tested while pregnant with my third babe. moode is a marriage of all of this. Desire to create community- for support, and provide education so we can demand collective change. Good nutrition and holistic healthcare is so central to my being, so vitamins made sense. I’m deep in motherhood, so (better) vitamins for reproductive health felt like a no brainer.

This took me some time, and it was definitely an evolution. My purpose kept changing every time I realised… ‘I want more’. After my first work path, I felt emotionally exhausted. No matter how hard I worked, or how much I cared, I was forever frustrated by policies that felt disempowering. Motherhood arrived and I adored it. But I couldn’t help but feel a pull to do more with my time outside of my family. I wanted a new challenge and to learn new skills. Returning to study marked a pivotal point in my life. It allowed me to see I can re-do anything and I have a world of options ahead of me. Just follow the path and I’ll come out somewhere and I really worked towards that. Being able to start my own business was something I’d always wanted, so even in the challenging times I remind myself of this.

I haven’t nailed this one just yet. But find me a mum who has? I try to prioritise health and mood setting in the morning. My husband and I take turns to exercise early so everyone gets a turn to themselves in the morning. I start my work day slowly, so we can both be with kids and do the morning drop off. School and childcare are in opposite directions, so the juggle starts. I work in the snippets between the chaos, and often into the night- where I find myself most focused. Between the work I’m often tending to a child who has been sent home sick from school, workshopping business ideas with my husband who works in the same shared space as me on his own business, or talking about snacks and lunch. I like to speak to my best friend/ a sister/ my mum multiple timers a day to decompress or nut out any internal issues. moode is everything else.

This isn’t easy, but I love a 6am yoga class. I never regret being internal and centred before the sun rises. In the early years of babies, crack of dawn yoga feels impossible- this is prime feeding time. So it felt like a treat once each baby had weaned. So I appreciate it even more.

See our Instagram post here.