Julie is your friendly neighborhood healthcare brand created with GenZ in mind and powered by an all-women’s team. Its core product is its emergency contraceptive, or the Morning After Pill, and it has recently expanded to a cold sore treatment.
Yesterday, USC students were welcomed to “A Night Out with Julie: Your Friend with Benefits!”—an event hosted by USC PRSSA that featured pizza, a “bedazzle-your-own-Julie” contraceptive station, and an evening centered on safe sex and empowerment.
The event included a Q&A with Julie’s CEO and trivia about safe sex and reproductive health with sex-focused prizes from Hello Cake, and merch from Julie.
CEO and Co-Founder Amanda E/J Morrison describes Julie as a content-first pharmaceutical company, which is evident in the informational events they host on college campuses.
“We’re not about spending billions on developing new drugs,” Morrison explains. “Instead, we’re closing the content gap between what people understand about existing drugs and their actual benefits.”
Julie, named for no one in particular but embodying a spirit of empowerment, aims to bridge the information gap surrounding women’s health products. Its bright pink packaging and bold marketing aim to normalize conversations around stigmatized issues. From emergency contraception to its newly launched cold sore therapy, Julie’s products are designed to stand out—and stand up—for women.
“We are taking bottom shelf products and bringing them to the top, making them hot pink and making you talk about it,” Morrison said.
Jackie Lopez and Jojo Arias, friends pursuing their Master’s degrees in Educational Counseling at the Rossier School of Education, attended the event to connect and learn in a safe space.
“We talk things sex with each other, but this is something I wouldn’t talk about with my mom or sister,” Arias said.
Morrison grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina—a region she describes as the “Bible Belt,” where sex education was sparse and the only sex talk she got from her parents was “the birds and the bees.”
In the U.S., only 17 states mandate medically accurate sex education. Morrison believes this lack of comprehensive information is a fundamental barrier, and Julie aims to change this by developing age-appropriate curricula to introduce in schools nationwide.
But Morrison’s path to creating Julie was not linear. After founding and eventually selling Mented Cosmetics, a beauty brand tailored for women of color, Morrison realized that the gaps in community and content extended beyond beauty to healthcare. Morrison’s leadership in the healthcare space is particularly significant as a Black woman.
“Who’s more qualified to talk about women’s issues than a woman?” Morrison said. “And who’s more qualified to speak up for marginalized communities than someone who has had to speak up for themselves?”
Julie stands apart in its dual mission: providing products and education. Its flagship initiative, Julie For All, donates one emergency contraceptive pill for every purchase. To date, over one million pills have been donated to underserved communities, including rural areas, HBCUs, and even war-torn regions like Ukraine.
“It’s about more than just product access,” Morrison said. “It’s about reaching communities that are often overlooked and equipping them with accurate, accessible information.”
Despite the challenges—navigating a healthcare system that is often politically charged, battling misinformation, and tackling stigmas—Morrison remains optimistic. She believes the key to social change in the U.S. lies in commercial enterprise.
“Money rules the world,” Morrison said. “So anything you actually want to change, start a business and not a non-profit.”
For graduate student Arias, given the climate of the world right now, “it’s important to have these things in your back pocket.”
Julie is not just a company; it’s a movement to empower women, normalize difficult conversations, and close the gaps in healthcare access and education. Morrison’s ultimate goal is to inspire others to become the “Julie” in someone else’s life, spreading fact-based information and fostering a new era of understanding in women’s health.
As Morrison puts it, “our goal isn’t just to sell products; it’s to spark a revolution in women’s healthcare.”