Drinking Port in Porto!

Around this time last year we were approached by a team of researchers from Keele University, asking if we'd tell them our story of how Fairypants came to be. We said yes, and we had a lovely Skype chat one afternoon.

After Christmas we were sent the transcription of the interview, and we found it so interesting to read it again that we serialised it on our blog - read it here.

Then in spring time, we were contacted again - did we want to travel to Portugal in September to present our business story at a seminar concluding the research - we said yes, of course!

We flew out to Portugal on Thursday 22nd September, fizzing with excitement to meet new people and explore a new country. We landed and were immediately struck by how laid back and relaxed it was - much more so than at home!

View over the river Douro, Porto

Obviously the scenery helped too! We were greeted by two members of Keele's expert research team, and we had a really lovely time exploring the historic city of Porto.

On Friday we had some more exploring to do, followed by heading to the University of Porto for our presentation. We had so much fun telling our story, it's always nice to look back on where we started - and to see how far we've come. We also shared some of our plans for the next few months, and it's so exciting to see what's still to come this year.

View from the Crystal Palace Gardens

Afterwards we had the most lovely meal of our whole stay - at a vegetarian restaurant with lots of fab vegan options! Not very Portuguese as we chose a Malasian curry - but it was DIVINE!

We stayed for one more day, and we spent the Saturday walking around Porto - burning off the calories from the night before! We sampled some amazing local Port, and bought some cheesy souvenirs to remember our brief but gorgeous visit.

River Douro

We had a fabulous time, and we at Fairypants HQ count ourselves very lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to Portugal, and to participate in the study. We hope we get to read the finished findings soon, it's very interesting to see real research on young entrepreneurs, and to see that our hectic way of life isn't that unusual after all.

Most of our followers and customers will know that our Chief Fairy is a lady, and as such she was shocked by some of the statistics revealed by the study - only 1 in 3 young entrepreneurs is a woman. With the gender pay gap still in existence, and so many women still coming up against the so called 'glass ceiling' it seems like the only way forward is to create your own glass ceiling, then smash it into smithereens.

That's what we'll be doing at Fairypants HQ, anyway...

Shop some of our newest releases now - and keep your eyes peeled for more!