International Women’s Day is something we are very passionate about at April and The Bear – it’s a chance to pause and celebrate the brilliant and creative women shaping the world around us. But this year, we wanted to do more than post a quote and call it a day.
We wanted to create space for real conversations — with women we admire, respect, and are continually inspired by. Women who are building things, asking important questions, and shaping culture in thoughtful and meaningful ways.
This year, we’re launching “Built by Women”, a community campaign that celebrates and highlights women entrepreneurs, creators/ creatives, leaders and mentors who are making a difference every day.
We’re shining a spotlight on incredible women who are shaping the world around us in big and small ways. Their stories aren’t about overnight success or having it all figured out. They’re about trusting your gut, learning to see failure as redirection, and remembering that sometimes success looks like Saturday morning brunch with the people you love.
Emma: The Designer Who Trusts Her Gut
Emma Delaney is the Senior Interior Designer at A+TB Design Studio, we spoke to her about her work, empowerment and what keeps her motivated.
Q What does success/empowerment look like to you?
Doing meaningful work with full integrity and care. Showing up fully for my clients and helping their goals come to life. Empowerment is trusting my gut as a designer and in turn taking responsibility for the spaces I help shape, knowing they have a real impact on how the client lives within it.
Q What keeps you motivated?
The feeling of progress, however small it may be. But staying disciplined is a real super-power, even on the unglamorous days and trusting that consistent effort will gradually turn into something meaningful over time. Trust the process!
Q What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
Consistency over perfection & good design comes from listening, being curious, and being comfortable with the ever-changing nature of any design. Stay committed to the process, and be patient with your creativity.
Q Why did you start what you do?
I grew up in a creative environment with my parents and siblings – all whom I am very close to. Our childhood was shaped by art, architecture, and product design, and that naturally formed how passionate I am today. Interior design felt like a way to bring that foundation into something human and practical.
Q What would you say to a woman chasing her dreams?
- Let your care & curiosity be your strength!
- Work hard, and the rest will follow!
Louise: The Jeweller and the Women Who Shape Her World
After six years in New York’s fine jewellery industry, Louise Stokes returned to Dublin to found Loulerie, where she has spent the past 19 years building a jewellery brand defined by thoughtful design and timeless style.
Q What’s one thing you love about being a woman?
I think women are amazing. It’s what I built my whole brand around, I wanted to excite, empower and celebrate the individual style of women. I love our capacity to be many things at once empathetic and strong, intuitive and decisive. The quality I admire most in women is our ability to multitask; it’s incredible what women can achieve in a single day, often while carrying a thousand thoughts in their minds. As I get older, I’m leaning more into my empathetic, softer side. I see it now as a sign of strength and as a powerful way to create authentic, meaningful connections.
Q What helps you believe in yourself on hard days?
My girlfriends! I truly wouldn’t be where I am without them. Being an entrepreneur can be an incredibly lonely journey, and it’s easy to question yourself. I lean on my friends for their honest opinions, and they are always there to remind me who I am and what I’m capable of. Being around them makes my heart happy. I value my friendships deeply and genuinely see them as one of my biggest successes in life. They’ve been a lifeline through life’s ups and downs.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
That failure is redirection, not confirmation that you’re bad at something. I used to dwell for ages on things that didn’t work out, but now I understand that’s how you learn what’s truly meant for you. Those moments will keep happening until you listen and move towards what aligns with you. I really believe in and love the power of redirection.
What does success or empowerment look like to you?
It has changed so much over the years. To me now, success is about aligning with my values and being intentional about what I want my day-to-day life to look like. Something as simple as having a Saturday morning off for brunch with my family still feels like a real treat after many years working in retail it’s taught me to truly value the little things.
Empowerment is something I believe comes with age and experience. I’m at a point in my life now where trying new things doesn’t scare me. I’m here for the challenge. I want to grow both as a business owner and as an individual and I’m here for the journey. Where I once feared getting things wrong, I now see growth as an exciting part of life’s lessons and journey.
Rachel Joy: The Artist Who Turns Letters Into Joy
Rachel Joy is a lettering artist based between Paris and London. Routed in the traditional craft of sign painting (inspired by her Great Grandfather), she has developed her own iconic style with 3D letters. She aims to evoke positivity through her work, using exaggerated and playful forms along with bold colour combinations. Rachel works with brands all over the word, including us – our art print collaborations are best-sellers and are sent + LOVED all over the world.
Q What does success/empowerment look like to you?
I would say success and empowerment to me has been being visible to younger women + girls, to be a woman up a ladder or scissor lift painting a big wall in the street that they can see and imagine maybe they could also do it one day.
Q What’s one thing you love about being a woman?
The sisterhood you get to be part of! My friendships with my girl friends are a big part of the foundations of who I am. As Dolly Alderton put it perfectly – “Nearly everything I know about love, I’ve learnt from my long-term friendships with women.”
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love
Q What helps you believe in yourself on hard days?
A cup of tea, some fresh air. Time being silly with my little boy, a chat on the phone with my sister.
Basically anything that is a breather from work to have perspective.
Q What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
Being collaborative in approach always leads to better work, and better feeling at the end of the work
Q What’s one mistake that taught you a lot?
On the last of 4 days of painting at Brixton Academy, I was driving to site with all the paint in the boot of my car, I went round a roundabout and heard the pots of paint fall and then realised some lids were not on properly (classic paint pots with drying bits of paint around the lips, hard-to-get-lids-on-situation). It covered the entire boot of the car in blue paint, and then the street in trying to save the paint by scooping it up to have enough to finish the wall that day… then the place I parked the car ended up with blue paint that had seeped through the car… It was a nighmare!!
Now I always put the lids back on with extra care!
Q What advice would you give your younger self or other women?
Do work that you love and makes you happy, don’t try create work soley for someone else’s approval or mimicing something you’ve seen online – you’ll make something way more interesting if you make it for you and your beautiful mind!
Q What keeps you motivated?
Fun clients, fun projects!
Q Why did you start what you do?
I was working as a designer in London and had found out my great grandfather had been a sign painter – working in Belfast (rumour had it that he was part of the team who worked on the Titanic when it was being built there). It inspired me to go and do a sign painting course… and the rest as they say…
Q Why is supporting other women important to you?
I think it’s such an imporant way to keep building a more equal society. The men are clearly not doing it enough, so we have to make it up by keep lifting up and giving platforms to women to be more visible when we have the opportunity – like April + The Bear do so SO well!
• What does sisterhood mean to you?
I just saw this question after having answered what i love about being a woman with ‘the sisterhood’!
I don’t know what life would feel like without the depth of love & connection of sisterhood.
What Emma, Louise and artist Rachel Joy share isn’t just creativity or entrepreneurial drive. It’s a groundedness in how they approach their work and their lives — trusting their instincts, figuring things out as they go, and supporting the women around them along the way.
A huge thank you to Emma, Louise and Rachel for sharing their story, their words and their approach to work and the women that surround and support them. This is really what Built by Women is about. Celebrating the women shaping the creative world around us — the designers shaping our homes, the jewellers marking life’s milestones, the artists bringing colour and optimism into everyday spaces, and the founders building communities in their own quiet but powerful ways.
And this is just the start. We’ll be sharing more conversations with brilliant, inspiring women over on our socials throughout the week, so make sure to follow along.
We’ll leave you with a few lines from women who’ve crossed lines, built tables, and refused to wait for permission:
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm
“Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” — Madam C.J. Walker
“You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” – Shonda Rhimes
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Sally Berger
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katherine Hepburn
“You know my code: hoes before bros. Uteruses before duderuses. Ovaries before brovaries.” – Leslie Knope, Parks & Recreation
So here’s to the women who inspire us and to you, wherever you are on your journey. May you trust your gut, lean on your people, embrace redirection, and never forget to schedule that Saturday morning brunch.
Now go build something beautiful.
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