We’re living through strange times. We need to keep a physical distance from each other, but there’s never been more need to stay emotionally close and connected

Mums can be many things, and Thanks for being on my team

We’ve all been fans of Greenbelt Festival for many years, and were delighted when they said they would stock our cards in their shop back in August. And when they told us that the Sunday service was going to have a Christmas theme, we accepted the challenge of coming up with some Christmas designs with a feminist twist.

Every month, we’ll send an email with new designs, useful information, special offers and our book of the month.

We have always wrapped our cards in clear, compostable film, but now, when you order cards from us, we’ll send as many as we can ‘naked’ - without film.

With a launch date so close to Mother’s Day, it was obvious that some of our new designs should celebrate the occasion. Ask different people what they think of Mother’s Day, though, and you’ll unleash a wide range of strongly-held opinions.

This is what came up in conversations…

Our kickstarter not only gave us the funds to get our company going, but it also gave us the beginning of a fanbase - 240 people who have helped make Out of the Box Cards happen and who, we hope, will be our biggest champions. To say thank you, we invited them all to our launch this week and what a fantastic evening it was. We decked out the venue with poster-seized images of our newest designs, and set up a shop to showcase all our cards.

Take a look at the greeting cards designed for women and girls, and you’ll generally see a rather narrow range of themes. Pink predominates, of course, along with unicorns, mermaids, princesses and glitter. Girls on cards are often depicted as slim, white, blonde and without disabilities. Cards for women frequently feature flowers and shoes, assume that all of us are terrified of ageing and that we’re obsessed with wine.

Then take a look at the women and girls that you know and love in real life, and you’ll be struck at how different they are – to stereotypical norms as well as to each other.

With all that is happening in our world at the moment, why bother with something as insignificant as a greetings card? Creating a more equal society where everyone can thrive regardless of their sex, gender, or orientation requires massive change and concerted effort; the patriarchy is not going to smash itself. But that change needs to happen at lots of different levels – macro, micro and everything in between.