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A Mom Sees and Fills a Need in the Marketplace: Personal Hygiene Products for Boys How an Atlanta entrepreneur launched Stinky Boyz, a line of sports-themed natural shampoos and body washes.

By Michelle Juergen

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Marie Gelin, founder of Atlanta-based Stinky Boyz
Marie Gelin, founder of Atlanta-based Stinky Boyz
Photo© Natalie Brasington

Entrepreneur: Marie Gelin, founder of Atlanta-based Stinky Boyz, a line of sports-themed natural hygiene products for boys.

"Aha" moment: Back in the mid-1990s, Gelin, who had only daughters at the time, watched her twin sister battle to get her sons to de-stink. "It was a big struggle," Gelin says. "My nephews loved sports, but they didn't like taking showers after their sweaty adventures." When she later had a son, Gelin would catch him running water and pretending to shower while playing video games or reading in the bathroom. So she developed an incentive for boys to drop one kind of ball and pick up another. Shaped like baseballs, footballs, basketballs and soccer balls, Stinky Boyz solid shampoos and body washes contain essential oils and black seed, a strong antioxidant.