Entrepreneur Spotlight: Little Hands Hawaii

Aloha, my name is Rosalyn. I am a mother of four, registered nurse, and creator of Little Hands Hawai’i. We make a reef friendly sunscreen on the island of Hawai’i. My journey began seven years ago with the birth of my first daughter. I was in a health food store searching for a sunscreen safe for her; I couldn’t find one that had ingredients I could pronounce. With a little research I found an overwhelming amount of information and studies regarding the negative health effects from chemical-based sunscreens.  As a nurse, I understand that these chemical-based sunscreens can cause DNA damage, and is why I refused to put that on my baby. 

So I created a formula in my kitchen and took it to the small business bureau for support on starting a business. I was told to explore this idea, but to not invest any money into it, the market was saturated with sunscreens and something like this would have a hard time catching on. Needless to say, I felt pretty defeated and decided to further pursue my career in nursing. However, I still couldn’t shake the fact that big sunscreen companies were still targeting and marketing families and babies while packing the sunscreen with toxic chemicals!

 I knew something needed to be done; so I made the sunscreen anyways and began sharing with friends and family. In a short amount of time, we had retail locations asking to carry our sunscreen. Soon after, my husband joined Little Hands Hawaii; as a native Hawaiian he made it his mission ensure all of the future generations will have the opportunity to love the same life we live now. We were activists in the chemical sunscreen ban that passed in Hawai’i and are still pushing for further legislation to help preserve coral reefs and human health. Our company has grown organically just as our family has. We know the future belongs to the younger generations and all the little hands, which why we are here to share aloha, awareness and a good clean sunscreen.