International Women’s Day celebration showcases Chesterfield entrepreneur at House of Lords

Abby Moorcroft, founder of Colourblind Zebra, attended a special International Women’s Day reception at the House of Lords, recognising her strong contribution to entrepreneurship.

The event spotlighted multi-achieving female business owners from across the country, who are being championed by Small Business Britain’s ƒ:Entrepreneur campaign, which showcases an annual line-up of 100 phenomenal women making a significant contribution to society, economy and communities, called the ‘IAlso100’.

Abby was named as one of ƒ:Entrepreneur’s ‘IAlso100’ this year in recognition of her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, which has involved running a business alongside a roster of other responsibilities. Colourblind Zebra is on a mission to raise awareness of chronic illness and chronic pain and acceptance of neurodivergence and disability, one rainbow at a time.

Abby creates colourful artwork that speaks about everyday experiences she faces as a chronically ill, autistic and disabled woman. Along with her artwork, she creates badges, stickers, clothing and more to empower others in these communities to feel proud of who they are. Her badges help to get across messages about access needs that can be difficult to communicate when you’re experiencing chronic pain, fatigue or anxiety.

Abby said: “The event at the House of Lords was incredibly inspiring and empowering. As a disabled and autistic business owner, I was struck by the amount of other women at the event who also identified as neurodivergent. We need to uplift and showcase the work of disabled and neurodivergent business owners and events like these help us to do just that.”

Abby enjoyed afternoon tea and networking in Westminster, meeting other founders from across the country, as well as hearing from special guest speakers Seema Malhotra MP, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Consumers, and entrepreneur Lucy Griffiths, a business coach and former TV reporter covering the war in Ukraine, who paid tribute to the power of female entrepreneurship.

Seema Malhotra MP said, “As the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, I am passionate about seeing that we do all we can to make Britain the best place to start and grow a business. I was very proud to join Small Business Britain and 100 female entrepreneurs in parliament to celebrate International Women’s Day, to hear their stories, learn from their achievements and recognise the huge contribution of women-led businesses to our economy.

They are an inspiration and tackling the barriers women entrepreneurs face is central to how we grow our economy.”

Delivered by Small Business Britain – the leading champion of small businesses in the UK - f:Entrepreneur campaign was launched in 2017 to highlight the stories of amazing female business owners and help provide inspiration and role models across the wider small business community.

Michelle Ovens CBE, Founder of Small Business Britain and the ƒ:Entrepreneur campaign said: “Female entrepreneurs are a hugely powerful force across the UK, with an inspiring ability to build fantastic businesses, often with a huge sense of mission and passion behind them. It was wonderful to celebrate Abby Moorcroft and all of the phenomenal women involved in this year’s f-entrepreneur campaign.”