Meet tenacious Tenisha.
Dunedin woman Tenisha Peters has faced her own fairly serious challenges yet, rather than dwelling on them, she remains focused on helping others.
Miss Peters (22) received the award in last year’s Audacious student startup business challenge for the biggest positive impact, after building a business case around polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and speaking out about her own experience with it.
She was at age 17 diagnosed with PCOS — a condition that affects a woman’s hormone levels, causing them to skip menstrual periods and makes it harder for them to get pregnant.
About a year later, having moved from hometown Timaru to Dunedin for a diploma in personal training at Otago Polytechnic, she was seriously injured when crushed by the balcony collapse at a Castle St flat.
While not wanting to dwell on the accident, Miss Peters said the effect had been "immense" — "I don’t know how to describe it, I was so young to go through something so traumatic."
It had taken a long time to get to the point where it was not in control of her life, although she accepted that it would always be part of her life.
Describing herself as very driven, she said she came to Dunedin for a reason and she was "not going to let something like that" dictate the rest of her life.
Exercise and movement had always been a very important emotional outlet and form of self-expression for her growing up. "When I lost that, I didn’t know what to do with myself ... I didn’t feel like myself any more."
She had always been fit and sporty and never previously had an injury before. The balcony collapse had a massive impact in that it changed her perception of herself and training.
It was while later studying for a bachelor of applied science degree that she became involved with Audacious; during her degree, she had done various placements but felt that there was not one thing that directly suited her — so she wondered about creating something herself.
Keen to create a programme more specific to women — rather than focusing on weight loss — she decided she would love to work with PCOS, a condition that directly affected her.
"It’s really crazy to think the two things in my life, I dread the most, had the biggest impact on my drive and reasons for doing what I want to do," she said.
PCOS affected one in 10 women in New Zealand, yet Miss Peters believed it was understudied and underfunded and the contraception pill tended to "Band-Aid" the side effects. Those side effects could include hair growth on the face and body, baldness, weight gain and acne.
She developed PCOS Fit, a programme for women with PCOS, which included group fitness and also a group gathering, talking about the syndrome and its features, and maintainable lifestyle changes.
Many women with PCOS had tried "all the diets", experienced weight fluctuations, and had gone through additional stress of trying to conceive.
Some had been told they would not be able to have a family, while some felt ashamed to talk about it, as it made them feel unfeminine.
"It takes away so much from you, a lot of people don’t understand. It’s a really big thing to deal with," she said.
Miss Peters felt fortunate to have had an upbringing which featured exercise and good nutrition, and grew up having no pressure around weight loss. But a lot of people diagnosed with PCOS did not have that experience.
The best part of PCOS Fit was the sit-down conversations, sitting in a room of women who all understood what each other was going through.
She had just started up with her second group of women when Audacious came along and she signed up for it, keen to get an understanding of what PCOS Fit might look like if she was able to turn it into a business. The biggest hesitation was herself, as she did not initially see it as a feasible business idea.
When she pitched her idea on stage, she was "so nervous" as she was also telling her personal story. She was overwhelmed afterwards by the number of people coming up to her, including men, shaking her hand and saying how touching her talk was.
Winning $2000 for the biggest positive impact felt like validation.
While PCOS Fit was on hold, Miss Peters said she still wanted to continue and was waiting for the right time to do it again.
Audacious built her confidence so much around being able to talk to people, give her something to believe in, and providing contacts. It was a "fantastic" initiative, bringing together creative students and giving them the tools to "do what they want to do".
She gained business skills, which she lacked, as her degree was exercise and health-based — "not how to be a business woman 101". "I’m still not ... but I’ll get there."
Applications closed on Sunday for semester two of Audacious, with 91 student applications received, and the programme would start next week, programme manager Rachel Butler said.
One would be run in person and one online; last semester, 88 students took part in the programme and it had all been delivered online.
