The First Time Abeego Was Copied, It Broke Me

The first time I was really copied, it snuffed out my creative spark for nearly three years.

Not because I was weak—I wasn’t—but because I was vulnerable.

It happened over eleven years ago now. It was 3 am. I couldn’t sleep. Stressed, trapped in a moldy, cramped one-bedroom apartment, I worried about what I could afford to eat while carrying my seven-month pregnancy. I opened my laptop to brainstorm Abeego ideas but accidentally landed on a website I thought was mine. It wasn’t.

It took a moment to sink in—my colors, ingredients, sizes, even my words, copied word for word. But the face smiling back wasn’t mine. The smiling face was taking full credit for creating beeswax food wrap, and the blow may not have hurt so bad except it landed straight to my pregnant belly.

The face had a name, one I recognized. A year before, I’d written to them, congratulating them on their small business, thanking them for buying Abeego. Now, they were claiming my creation as their own.

My first baby was stolen while my second was being born. In my vulnerable state, I retreated, locking my ideas away in fear of losing more. The inspiration dried up. It took me three years to realize I’d imprisoned myself.

The day I realized what I had done to myself I was running on my treadmill after a long spell of idleness. I had no business running at full speed but I felt so much anger welling up inside me that I kept increasing the speed as if I could run straight through the actual steel door blocking my way. I ran, I cried, I screamed. I definitely freaked out the neighbors but when I got off the treadmill and walked outside I didn’t feel afraid anymore. 

Breaking free from the fear that my ideas would be stolen reignited my creativity, and Abeego soared. Being imitated taught me a valuable lesson, and no, it’s not about flattery. 

It taught me to never let the fear of losing something prevent me from creating it in the first place. The lesson I learned in rebounding from my first real copycat is that holding ideas tightly locked in your mind keeps them tightly locked in your mind and guess what, those ideas never change the world. 

I’ve been “copied” 1000’s of times and beeswax wrap appears to be motherless; without an origin story or a birth place. With every copy of a copy of a copy, I drift further from being recognized as the inventor but in a way every copy is spreading my idea. I’m proud that I’ve influenced people and their relationship to fresh food around the world even if they’ll never know my name. 

But in case anyone cares, my name is Toni Desrosiers and I invented Abeego, the original beeswax wrap in 2008.

Want to learn more about how Abeego came to life?

Blog: I, Toni Desrosiers, Invented Abeego the Original Beeswax Wrap
Blog: Abeego, the First B Corp Certified Beeswax Wrap in Canada
Blog: Abeego Named Best Reusable Food Wrap by Cook's Illustrated