You might say it was a flash of brilliance that launched a business for two New York friends. To be more accurate, it was a simultaneous hot flash during dinner that was the inspiration behind the “Bev & Alice: Two Hot Broads” greeting card line.
“I started by unbuttoning my blouse, and we both started fanning, then we both looked at each other and we started to laugh,” Beverley Douglas recalls of the dinner. “Then I looked at Alice and said, `Instead of us obsessing about this, why don’t we turn it into something positive?’ “
Alice Simpson, Douglas’ friend of seven years and the owner of a design firm, grabbed a napkin and started sketching. Douglas, a writer, rattled off a line to accompany the sketch. Then the pair looked at each other and burst out laughing again. They had found their muse in menopause. Douglas and Simpson went to work on designs–they have 10 in all–and since last September have been selling cards through stores in the New York area. The colorful cards feature likenesses of the two friends, dripping sweat or fanning themselves.
While both partners see the humor in menopause, they diverge in other areas. Douglas refuses to take anything to ease her symptoms. Simpson advocates hormone replacement therapy, saying, “For the life of me, I couldn’t believe (Douglas) wouldn’t take estrogen.”
Both say that in their own way they’re getting through their rite of passage just fine. And lately they’ve been sweating out ideas for a book, mugs, T-shirts and nightshirts, because a hot broad needs something sturdier than Victoria’s Secret lingerie.
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Call 212-642-6544 or e-mail [email protected] to order a 10-pack of multi-occasion cards ($16 plus tax and $3 shipping).