Hi, I'm Jess.
The Cuddle Club began in the hardest year of my life. This is my story.
In 2023, I lost my baby.
Shortly after, I lost my "stable" banking job. What followed was the worst grief of my life.
What people don't tell you is that grief literally rewires your nervous system. You're anxious all the time. On high alert, even when you're safe.
I spiralled, and was diagnosed with depression. I struggle to remember most of it, because it became such a blur. I found myself constantly numbing everything, because I didn't want to feel anything. Partying, drinking, antidepressants.
But as someone who feels like a burden telling others my problems, I often just kept it to myself and retreated to my room.
Night times were the hardest.
I really struggled to sleep, which made seizing the day even harder. I remember thinking, back then, that the sun was only for happy people. Or people with jobs.
One of those sleepless nights, I was doom scrolling, and I stumbled on a post about weighted plushies, and how they might help with sleep and anxiety.
I was skeptical. But I was desperate, so I looked into it. Over the next few months, I bought a few to try.
And surprisingly, they worked.
Just having the weight on my body was so calming. I felt comforted for the first time in months. Like being a child again. It was nostalgic, and I reconnected with the inner child in me who had always loved plushies.
But none of them were quite right.
I bought over eight of them. Some were too heavy, others too light. Over time I developed a preference, and learned what good versus low quality really meant. Plastic beads versus glass beads inside.
And when it came to weight distribution, almost all of them clumped the weight in the centre, so it never really felt like a hug.
Around the same time, I had friends who were stressed and anxious about things in their own lives, and they found comfort in the weighted plushies too.
That's when I realised I could help others.
So I decided to make my own.
Against all advice, and there were a lot of non-believers, I invested what was meant to be my house deposit, and spent the next 18 months bringing the weighted plush toys I wished the world had to life.
I started local. I consulted Australian occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and hospitals. I worked to understand how stress and cortisol actually build up in the body, and why. How it impacts the nervous system. How people literally can't learn or operate when they're in a state of anxiousness or hyperactiveness. And I learnt about oxytocin, the love and bonding hormone your body releases when you feel safe, in a trusted environment. It's the same thing that gets released when you hug someone.
Then I worked with product and material experts to distribute the weight of the toys throughout the whole body and the limbs, so ours feel like an actual hug, instead of just a lump of weight in the middle, which is what I'd found with all the others.
Then I flew to China.
I speed-dated more manufacturers than I can count. There were so many back and forth revisions that I almost got dropped as a customer for being too pedantic.
But the details mattered to me. The softest fur. The way the weight sat. The quality of every seam. All of it.
Before launching, I tested them.
Back in the same hospitals and clinics, and with occupational therapists. The feedback was extremely positive. Patients were calmer and less anxious during appointments. Doctors and nurses said it made their job easier.
And then I'd hear that the receptionists at some of these clinics were quietly taking them home for their own anxiety. That's when I knew trusting my gut was the right thing to do.
Since 2024, we've helped over 2,000 people.
Just here in Australia. We've helped thousands of people with their grief and anxiety. I wish I could share some stories, but some are private. We also helped kids, particularly with learning difficulties and AuDHD. Elderly people with dementia. And of course, other girls like me, with anxiety and insomnia.
Some customers have said it feels like holding a baby.
I'm still writing this story.
My dream is to help people find comfort going through hard times, the way I did. And to build a community where no one has to feel alone, where talking openly about the ups and the downs of life becomes normal, and destigmatised.
Thank you for reading. And if you'd like, follow along to see where we end up.
