When you think of scrubs, “fashion” isn’t usually what you associate with them.
A Google search for “scrubs” will also reveal a “People also ask” result for “How do nurses look cute in scrubs?” It turns out Los Angeles-based pediatrician Dr. Neela Sethi Young has the answer to that.
She co-founded the medical apparel company Jaanuu in 2012 with her brother, Sean Sethi. It was launched in an effort to “reimagine the multi-billion dollar medical apparel market via the industry’s first contemporary, antimicrobial-finished products,” according to her LinkedIn page.
Sethi Young discussed founding Jaanuu, which the Hindu word for “life,” on Thursday’s episode of the “Ask Nurse Alice Podcast.”
“I started the company because there was a space for it,” Sethi Young told host Alice Benjamin. “I was a young female, feeling underrepresented in the medical community and I thought there was a need for more and I kind of seized the moment.”
The married mother of two explained that her mother was the inspiration behind the line.
“Fashion can be so empowering to people and can really bring people together,” the 44-year-old said. “We were just always sort of allowed to express ourselves with the clothes that we wore. We vintage shopped, we made clothes. I was kind of hanging in my mom’s closet at a young age. So, fashion was a big part of my life ever since I was a child.”
Sethi Young added that she’s a “huge” fan of Carrie Bradshaw and watched “Sex and the City” throughout undergrad and medical school.
After feeling “so small and so weak” when she got her first set of scrubs from a vending machine, she brainstormed ways to make her own scrubs. Her best friend who was a seamstress made scrubs including a monogrammed “N” on the top — much like Carrie Bradshaw’s huge flower.
“I immediately knew there was something there because I would get stopped in the halls you know, once or twice a day and people would ask, ‘Where do you get those?’’ she remembered. “And I thought, ‘OK, this is something.’”
Find out more about Jaannu’s beginnings and how Sethi Young encouraged other nurses to follow their dreams by watching the podcast above.
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