The below article was written by Richard (Jacksdale Westwood Community Ambassador) for The Nugget Newspaper. Published 08 March 2022.
“Introducing Tanya, a local lady living in Jacksdale (my neighbour as it happens).
Tanya is a lady who was struggling with the world and how her autism affected her day to day in instances such as work. She tried various avenues of employment and found that it was difficult settling in any of the work places. She found herself masking (covering up her real personality) to fit in and this was exhausting for her, as anyone with autism will know, she would arrive home tired and fed up on a daily basis.Covid hit in early 2020 and Tanya found herself on furlough. Without the pressure of going to her workplace daily she began to feel a lot happier, but she still needed to keep an income. She began to think of ideas of what she could do that would allow her to work from home, incorporate something she was passionate about, and that would also actually be a viable business.
At school Tanya had enjoyed woodwork, almost finding it therapeutic, so she began to form a plan combining her skills and surprisingly her pets. Tanya and her extremely supportive partner, Charlie, have a couple of chinchillas as pets and struggled to find toys and accessories for them at reasonable prices in regular pet shops and online. And so Garden Valleys Small Pets was born with their own branded toys and cage accessories being given the official brand name, Meadowland.
Garden Valley Small Pets specialises in the very things they were struggling to find; toys and accessories for small pets that also kept the animals minds active. These items are all made from scratch by Tanya at her home in Jacksdale.
She used some of her furlough money to buy a multi tool and spent a lot of time researching what kind of items would be good to market. She then began to make her first item – a shelf for the chinchilla to sit on whilst having a nibble on a treat.People started to hear about her merchandise through local advertising and Facebook, and the orders began to come in. Using her profit, Tanya began to invest in better tools and a branding design for her business; labels were designed for packaging and a website was developed.
This year Garden Valley Small Pets has entered ‘The Pet Directory, New Business Awards’ and this will hopefully boost business further.Whilst speaking to Tanya I asked what her ultimate goal would be and she replied, “I would eventually like to be able to employ a team of people that all struggle with employment due to Autism, so they can come to work and be understood and not have to mask their true feelings for hours of the day.” I asked her how she would feel if this became reality rather than a dream, and she said she would then feel she had accomplished what she set out to do.
And so due to Tanya’s solid determination to turn a struggle into a positive business, I think she is worthy of a mention as a ‘Local Inspiration’ and a huge asset to our village (and pets!).
