Navigating new motherhood during a season of profound grief, Rutendo Zvenyika found herself holding emotions she had no language for and turning, as she always had, to the pages of a journal. It was there, in the quiet and the complexity, that the vision for RU’NAKO Collective Journals began to take shape. Grounded in the concept of matrescence, the deep psychological and identity transformation of becoming a mother, RU’NAKO creates journals and reflective tools designed not to organise a mother’s life, but to honour her inner world. The name draws from the Shona word “runako”, meaning beauty of spirit, grace and becoming, and carries a personal thread: the “Ru” echoes Rutendo’s own name, meaning faith. Together, they hold the belief at the heart of everything she has built that there is beauty in becoming, even when you can’t yet see it.
The Passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Becoming a mother is described as one of life’s most joyful moments. For me, it arrived during a time of profound grief.
My journey into motherhood came while I had also lost my father. I was preparing to welcome new life while learning to carry the absence of someone who had shaped so much of who I was. Grief reshapes you. So does motherhood. Experiencing both at the same time meant I was holding more than I had words for. I was grieving more than a parent. I was grieving versions of myself that no longer existed.
Journaling had always been part of my life from girlhood through adulthood; I filled pages with hopes, fears and the quiet record of who I was becoming. Those journals became something I could return to: evidence of growth, of survival, of change. When motherhood arrived with all its complexity, it was the only tool I trusted.
Through conversations with other mothers, I realised my experience wasn’t unusual. Many women are navigating motherhood while also carrying love, loss, cultural displacement and the reality of raising children far from the villages and support systems that once held generations of mothers before us.
Motherhood is one of the biggest transitions a woman will ever experience, yet so many of us are left to move through it alone, without language for what we’re feeling or space to feel it.
That gap became the foundation for RU’NAKO.
The name comes from the Shona word “runako”, meaning beauty, grace, goodness and something of beautiful character. It speaks not to appearance but to the beauty found in a person’s spirit and strength.
The “Ru” is also a personal nod to my name, Rutendo, which means “faith”.
Together, the name holds the belief at the centre of everything I’ve built: that there is beauty in becoming, even in life’s most transformative and disorienting seasons. Beauty born from faith. Even when you don’t feel like you’re getting motherhood right.
The Launch: How did you start in the beginning?
RU’NAKO began in the quietest hours of the night.
I remember sitting in the dark, feeding my son at two or three in the morning, notebook beside me. Those feeds became unexpected pockets of clarity, small windows where the vision for what RU’NAKO could be began to take shape, one page at a time.
In the beginning, it was simply an idea and a notebook filled with reflections, sketches and questions I didn’t yet have answers to.
The early stages of building anything are rarely glamorous. There is a great deal to learn, and much of it you learn by doing: navigating suppliers, understanding production, building a brand from a feeling before it becomes a product. Most of all, there is the internal work: moving through fear, self-doubt and the particular anxiety of betting on something that matters deeply to you.
What kept me grounded was the clarity of the purpose. This wasn’t a business idea I had stumbled across. It was something I needed and believed other women need too.
RU’NAKO grew in the in-between moments of motherhood. In many ways, it still does.
The Innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The turning point came when I discovered the term “matrescence”.
Matrescence describes the profound psychological, emotional, hormonal and identity transformation that occurs when a woman becomes a mother. Reading about it felt like finally finding language for something I had been living without a name for. It wasn’t just a concept; it was recognition.
That discovery shaped everything. It transformed RU’NAKO from a beautiful product into a purposeful one. Our journals aren’t designed to help mothers organise their days or simply think positively. They are designed to create space for the emotional, mental, and identity shifts of matrescence, the inner transition of motherhood that the world rarely acknowledges, let alone makes room for.
Most tools available to mothers address one piece of the experience: gratitude, routine, the mental load. Very few honour motherhood as the complete transformation it actually is. That understanding became the heart of the brand, and it changed the way I designed everything.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Honestly, I’ve stopped searching for balance and started looking for rhythm instead.
Balance suggests two things held equal. What I’ve found is something more fluid: a constant, gentle negotiation between what my son needs, what the business needs and what I need. Some days the rhythm flows. Other days it requires patience I have to choose consciously.
I worked mostly at night, waking up to feed my son, during nap times and in the evenings when the house grew quiet. Those hours have become sacred to me not because they’re easy, but because they’re mine.
What has helped most is accepting that this business was born from motherhood and cannot be separated from it. The two inform each other constantly. Motherhood sharpens the work. The work gives meaning to the experiences motherhood brings. I’m not trying to keep them apart; I’m learning to let them belong to each other.
