Sometime last year I got into a conversation with a woman on Twitter whose twitter handle was simply SMT95. We exchanged several tweets and she asked for my number. I gave it to her and she called me. She introduced herself as Sadia Sisay.

We spoke for 2 solid hours on anything and everything. But mostly about Twitter, the point of black history month and not being able to find underwear that complimented our skin colours. By the end of that conversation Sadia told me that she was going to start a new enterprise producing underwear for women of colour!

A few months later and I get a call from Sadia informing me that she was on her way to Paris to meet an experienced lingerie designer!

Me: So you have done it? You are going to bring knickers especially designed for black women on the market?
Sadia: Yep!

Me: Good luck dear and let me know what I can do to help
Sadia: You will be sorry you asked Ida, I will be in touch

We remained in touch and I followed her progress and the ups and downs of having to nurse her mother through ill health for a whole year.She remained focused through it all.

In the mean time I had taken on the role of curating Africa on the Blog and Sadia was one of the first people I contacted when I was looking for contributors. There was a passion about her on all manner of things concerning the African Diaspora and I wanted everyone to hear that passion and what Sadia had to say. We eventually met face to face in October last year.

After all of that hard work Sadia’s dream of bringing underwear for women of colour to the market has been realised and she has called this brand new label beingU

But like any new product on the market folk need to hear about it and in this case lingerie retailers are reluctant to stock it until folk are actually Asking for it

So to help Sadia along I have designed this simple questionnaire and I would be grateful if you would please spare 1 minute to take part