Suki Waterhouse & Poppy Jamie On New App WithGratitude

Suki Waterhouse and Poppy Jamie are bringing gratitude to your home screen.

On Feb. 28, the duo launched WithGratitude, a new app that invites users to create daily gratitude lists and share them with their curated social community, inspired by the best friends’ habit of texting each other the small things they were thankful for. “We started texting [lists] to each other, which I think it came from me feeling maybe a little far away from everybody and a bit isolated and having my best friends in London,” Waterhouse tells NYLON. “Poppy’s definitely the friend who is actually good at keeping up with stuff. She genuinely has such a strong ability to bounce back from difficulty or just always having a good perspective. We started [texting lists] for probably about six months and then Pops, having the entrepreneurial mind that she has, she was like, ‘I think that’s an app here.’”

The pair, who previously collaborated on the popular handbag and accessories line Pop & Suki, quickly got to work, employing a team of engineers to bring their daily ritual to virtual life. The result is a user-friendly product that allows anyone to write down a list of the little things and interface with their friends and family on the app. When they teased it on Instagram back in January, the response was immediate. “We had nearly 10,000 people sign up in 24 hours,” Jamie says. “We suddenly realized, obviously all humans are quite similar. We all really appreciate connection with people we care about. We were overwhelmed by the interest, but also at the same time, I guess this is normal. Since humans walked on this Earth, counting your blessings has been such a ritual that people have done for thousands of years. We’re not doing anything new here. We’re just trying to make it easy to do and make it fun to do because you’re doing it with your friends.”

For Waterhouse, partnering with her friend once again quickly skyrocketed to the top of her daily list. “I don’t think that I’d be able to run a business with any other friend that I have, to be honest,” she says. “For some reason, it just always worked. I think we’ve always been quite like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. We have that natural ease. And I think it’s friendship above all and knowing that if something doesn’t work out, it’s never going to be more important than our friendship.”

Here, Waterhouse and Jamie talk to NYLON about building the app, finding small rituals, and what’s currently on their personal lists.

Who has the idea in the first place to send each other gratitude lists each day?

Poppy: It was Suki’s idea. She said, “Hey, do you want to start doing these lists, just write ten good things about the day?” And I obviously was like, “Yes, let’s definitely do that.” I am shocked that it’s now been a year and a half and we still do it. It’s the only thing aside from this and brushing my teeth that I actually do every single day. It’s so easy to think about all the things that are going wrong and to call up your best friend and be like, “Oh, this is f*cking sh*t.” But it’s such a nice practice just to go, “Right. Even in the worst days ever, can I find 10 good things?” You can go as small as “I managed to find a tin that I haven’t eaten so I don’t need to go outside in the cold.” That would be on my list in the middle of January in New York.

Suki: I was looking for some kind of ritual to have with friends. Me and Poppy are huge phone chatters and talk for hours, and I do find that this list makes me pick up the phone more and call my [other] friends because I feel like I’m alongside them for the small incremental things that are going on in their life. A lot of the time, I’m picking up the phone and going, “Oh, what happened with that? Because it’s on your list.” It has expanded my empathy for everybody and it just made me see everyone as even more human, and then myself as even more human.

When you first came up with this idea, what was going on in your life that made you crave that extra connection with friends and family?

Suki: It was actually a couple of other friends that were really going through really, really tough times and big bouts of depression. I felt like I wasn’t around to be there for people and go for a walk in the park and actually show up physically. I was looking for a way that I could have some kind of ritual, some kind of lifeline between people that I was really far away from and really cared about so much. So that was where it started from, and it was really interesting to see how much yes it was from people. They were like, “Yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Like I said, it’s also a real joy to see what other people are grateful for. I remember being on tour, and I was just rotting in my bed all the time in between shows, not really leaving the tour bus or going outside, and one of my sisters wrote that she spent a couple of hours under a tree feeling the leaves and I was like, “Ah. I forgot that was even an option.” So the list also serves as these reminders to yourself of things that you can be grateful for.

“It’s the only thing aside from this and brushing my teeth that I actually do every single day.”

When this first started as text messages, were these all individual texts or massive group chats? I can imagine that the latter would become hard to keep up.

Poppy: That’s why we wanted to build the app because we suddenly had 12 different groups, and suddenly I was copying and pasting my list when the whole point is that it’s intimate communication. The beauty of the app is that at the moment I have 15 different groups, and then I write one list, and it sends to all the groups in the app. It’s so nice, and it’s so therapeutic when you flick up your chats and can literally just read each other’s lists for months on end. And that’s what makes it just very easy to use rather than trying to manage lists through WhatsApp or iMessage or some other messaging platform.

How did you first propose to Suki that you guys turn this into an app?

Suki: Well, Poppy’s got much more of the entrepreneurial mindset, and she’s also done it before. When she first mentioned the idea of turning it into an app, I was like, “I have no idea how to do that.” But she does and she has lots of friends everywhere and incredible tech teams who are great at doing this stuff. Next thing I knew, I found myself on a Zoom with a bunch of [engineers], who now are on a group gratitude list with us.

When you first started to meet with the tech team, how did you visualize this as being an app? I imagine part of the beauty of making this gratitude list is it’s so simple. Was it important to you to keep the design simple and streamlined?

Suki: We both spent quite a lot of time going through the design process. One of the images we had in mind was a message in a bottle, and to keep it incredibly easy and clean. I didn’t want it to feel like a super girly thing; we really want men to use the app as well.

Poppy: And the tech team just got it. They were like, “Wow, we love this idea.” And they started doing it because I said, “Look, why don’t we all start [making lists]? And then if you see value in it, then let’s think about turning this into an app.” Everybody was like, “You know what? This has actually really helped me. This has helped me and my girlfriend.” That was such a nice confirmation — I can’t wait for you to use it. Hopefully it is just delightful from start to finish. That was the intention.

Who were some of the first people that you guys shared the app with? And what kind of feedback did you get in return?

Suki: I started with my parents. And it’s quite an eye-opening thing to see what your parents list. I am close with my parents, but I don’t speak to them every day. I remember my mom saying something about how she was grateful for having a home that she felt safe in and regulated, and how that was very different from when she was growing up. It was one of those moments where you’re like, “Oh, my God. My mom’s just a girl that grew up and had a childhood and became an adult.” It was a really sweet way to feel more open and understanding of my parents.

Poppy: We also had friends going through sobriety. That was huge because this became a part of their recovery.

“I didn’t want it to feel like a super girly thing; we really want men to use the app as well.”

Do you ever go back and revisit your own lists?

Suki: I do occasionally, actually. That’s a great thing about the app, you can go back into the calendar and see where you were. It’s always amazing to me what I’ve forgotten about; it reminds you that a month later, you’re not going to be feeling the same way and the anxiety you had about something doesn’t matter. It is an interesting way to reflect. It’s like looking back on a diary. It gives you a wider perspective.

Since becoming a mom, have you noticed a big change in your lists?

Suki: She’s definitely on it every day, seeing big milestones or knowing that she’s happy. Her laugh is always on the list. I’ll also find myself giving gratitude to the people around me that are helping me [with her]: my parents, my partner’s parents, everybody else that has come around, I find myself giving gratitude to them.

“Sometimes we’re f*cking shallow about it. Sometimes it’s like, ‘You know what? I’m in great shape.’”

What on your lists todays?

Poppy: My morning walk; watching the news with my boyfriend because I like decompressing at the end of the day; being excited for this thing I’m doing on Friday; a dance class I did last night; having dinner with a friend; Lime bikes.

Suki: Mine was being able to get a friend a job that’s made her really happy; getting an edit of a video back for something that’s coming up, which I was really happy about; having a great meeting for a film and feeling like we had a good two-hour chat and being creatively fulfilled by that; being able to be a support for friends; writing a cool song and being glad that I made the trip to go and do it; being around my kid and having my sister here; having quality time with a partner.

Poppy: It can be as simple as a good blow-dry. The Dyson Airwrap.

Suki: Sometimes we’re f*cking shallow about it. Sometimes it’s like, “You know what? I’m in great shape.” It can be big or small. That’s the beauty of it.