My Exclusive Interview with People Magazine: How a French Culture Shock (and a Dead-End Job Hunt) Changed My Life

If you had told me a few years ago that my everyday adjustments, mishaps, and "culture shocks" as an American woman living in France would be featured in an exclusive interview with People Magazine, I probably would have laughed.

But recently, I sat down with People to talk about what it’s really like navigating the beautiful, complex, and sometimes exhausting differences between American and French culture.

Living abroad completely rewires how you look at the world. But if I'm being completely honest, I didn't move to France with a grand master plan to become an entrepreneur. Far from it. I became a business owner because, frankly, I couldn't get a traditional job here.

It wasn't until I had my daughter and fell in love with the french pharmacy baby products that I had an idea. 

The Nursery Culture Shock: "Wait, Where Are the Wipes?"

When I got my list for the maternity hosptial and didn't see wipes as on the list I was confused.

In the US, we are completely conditioned to a specific diaper routine: a mountain of cold, wet, wipes, followed by a thick layer of pasty white diaper rash cream. It’s messy, it can be incredibly harsh on sensitive newborn skin, and we just accept it as "the way it's done."

But here in France, traditional baby wipes are virtually nonexistent in nurseries. Instead, French parents rely on an old pharmacy staple called Liniment Oléo-Calcaire.

Rather than scrubbing a baby’s delicate skin with harsh chemicals that strip away natural moisture, they use a simple, ultra-nourishing, no-rinse formula made from olive oil and limestone water, applied gently with a soft cotton pad. It doesn’t just clean; it leaves behind a protective lipid barrier that naturally shields the skin from acidity.

Watching how French babies completely bypassed the agonizing diaper rash cycles that plague so many American nurseries was a total lightbulb moment for me. I realized that the solution to a problem millions of American parents face was sitting right here on French pharmacy shelves.

Turning a Roadblock into a Mission

Propre Baby wasn’t born out of a corporate boardroom; it was born because I was an American living in France, obsessed with a French parenting secret and knew I needed to share it with American parents. 

Sometimes, failing to find a job is the universe's way of forcing you to build your own mission.

Thank You for Being Part of This Journey

To everyone who has read the People feature, sent a sweet message, or supported Propre Baby from day one: thank you so much! Building this brand from scratch, with my best friend,  in a foreign country has been the adventure of a lifetime, and I am so incredibly grateful to share the best parts of French skincare with your family.

If you’re ready to ditch the harsh chemical wipes and experience the French parenting secret I fell in love with, I’d love for you to try our French Diaper Change method. 

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