Kate and Tim Hall are the dancing faces behind the Ethically Kate brand. Photo: Supplied
She's known for her upbeat, dance-filled takes on sustainable living, but real life has been taking its toll on Kiwi influencer Ethically Kate.
Warning: This story contains content about baby loss
Battling to have a baby has brought nearly 28-year-old Kate Hall to the brink.
Seven weeks ago, she just about walked away from the career and profile she's been building for nearly eight years. As 'Ethically Kate', she has shared everything from her thoughts on sustainable banking to the best eco condoms. Followers have met her family and friends.
She takes us on bus rides, bike rides and book tours. She has shared her sustainable wardrobe, the challenge of eating only locally grown food for a year, packing up her home, saying goodbye to pets and travelling around India.
'Ethically Kate' started with Hall sharing her favourite sustainable fashion on Instagram, aiming questions at big brands. While it was mostly about engaging with Hall's mates at the start, it soon picked up steam. Husband Tim, sporting a long, bushy beard, soon became a key part of the Ethically Kate show too.
It's not all a shiny, thriving, dance routine for Kate Hall. Photo: Supplied
It's now a registered company with two part-time contractors on board, while Hall is content creating, guest speaking and offering professional development in workplaces. Viewed via social media, the Halls seem like an endlessly energetic poster couple who achieve whatever they set their minds to doing.
"A lot of people I've spoken to in my real-life world have said 'Well, you know, finally, we were waiting for you to finally try to chill out' … They were like, 'Something would be wrong if you could keep up'.
"I've always had … just such a big passion and motivation that I think I was … just a bit tired. It's helpful to reflect and think. 'Ok, where am I? What am I doing?'"
And now - as that whirlwind continues - Hall feels a bit like she's on repeat.
She said posts on Instagram that were memories from seven years ago made her think people would already "know this stuff".
"I was almost just a bit over myself and a bit sick of … almost bored of … just the repetitiveness."
But bigger than the boredom, surpassing that slump, is that Hall and her husband want a baby.
"If that wasn't in play, if my innate kind of desire and instincts right now that have been building and developing over the last few years weren't to be a mum and have a child … then I wouldn't have been on the cusp of wanting to quit Ethically Kate."
Hall has never struggled with motivation to work but now her focus has changed.
"I want to be changing reusable nappies or blending up homemade baby food instead of writing another blog post about 10 ethical paint companies," she says.
Kate's followers have gotten to know her beloved bike. Photo: Supplied
"My feelings of no motivation don't take away from how much I really, really love, the community, I'm just so grateful for the fact that I do get to work for myself … I'm paid to do my passion.
"But … it's just hard when … the everyday tasks and actions you're doing, don't align with what you really, really want."
Hall has been pregnant twice. Back in the 2021 lockdown, she had a "playing with fire" pregnancy, which was "brilliant" but an eight-week scan revealed a miscarriage.
"That was our first kind of loss and frustration," she says.
The couple, who married in a regional park filled with sunflowers in 2017, put baby making on the backburner to pack their bags for some intrepid travelling around India.
"Then exactly a year ago, we were all in, 'let's do this' and again fell pregnant immediately, but unfortunately, it was an ectopic pregnancy which was found quite late, which meant as soon as they found it, I was immediately rushed to hospital for emergency surgery to remove the growing embryo in the tube before it burst.
"It was pretty freaky and not fun at all."
While operating, doctors found some endometriosis to add to Kate's fertility challenges. As she's managed to get pregnant twice, the couple she have been told to keep trying.
"A year later I'm not pregnant and I'm frustrated and impatient."
Hall is the primary bread-winner at the moment, while her husband gets his start-up business off the ground. They have rented out their Hibiscus Coast home and have been house-sitting to bring in some extra cash. She's tracking her temperature and doing "all that natural fertility stuff".
"It's a good lesson that we can't control these things and that life happens when life happens.
"I think, as a self-confessed control freak, this is one of the big life learnings that maybe I needed to learn this way."
So, seven weeks ago, why didn't Hall give it all up? Why didn't she jump at the job in sustainability that popped up in LinkedIn?
"I was talking to Tim and he was like, 'Yeah, you know, you'd be great at that job, you could do it,' he said, 'but if you had that job tomorrow morning, you'd have to get up and go to work'.
"Obviously that sounds like such a privileged statement to say, but for me, being able to move and exercise in the morning, to be outside... that's my like sanity while going through this trying to conceive journey.
"I was really surprised at the words that were coming out of my mouth and the feelings I had I want to quit.
"But then at the end of the day, it's hard … good things are hard things and like this is it, this is why there's a whole movement fighting towards change.
"And it's not going to be easy, we just have to strategise around it which is what I did."
