We recently connected with Jules McKee and have shared our conversation below.

Jules, appreciate you joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

If you would have told 2020 Jules that, in four years, she would be successfully running her own macaron art company, she most likely would have laughed. Such a creative endeavour would have seemed like an unreachable pipe dream at the time. At the beginning of 2020, I was certainly not in a healthy place mentally or physically. I had recently relapsed in my decade-long battle with anorexia and subsequently spent weeks in the hospital. The recovery process from an eating disorder is a long and arduous one which, in part, required me to reframe the way I had been viewing food. As a young adult, I absolutely loved baking. I grew up with a grandmother who excelled in all things confectionary and a best friend who, whenever we got together, would teach me how to bake all sorts of cookies and cupcakes. My love for baking was obviously put on hold when I started struggling with anorexia; sweet treats were no longer joyful celebrations of what food could be, but instead were something to be feared and avoided. Since recovery involved teaching myself that food was not something to be feared, I thought, what better way to do that than to try and get back to my love of baking?
When I started baking again, I never thought it would lead me to a new career. I was simply baking sweet treats to remind myself of the joy that can and SHOULD surround food. However, in the midst of searching for new, interesting recipes to try out, I discovered macarons. A few days into researching these delicate pastries and my passion for baking was fervidly reignited. I soon found myself spending days upon days learning all there is to know about meringues, almond flour consistency and the art of carefully folding macaron batter. I spent countless hours baking batch after batch, striving to master these technically difficult sandwich cookies. I started an Instagram account to document my journey and thus the first iteration of Petite Meringue was born.
From there, I discovered a huge online community of supportive and talented bakers who, through their kind words of encouragement, urged me to continue my experimentation with macarons. Soon, I began playing around with piping macarons into various shapes and decorating them to resemble cute animals or delicate flowers. As someone who has always loved to draw and paint, I had now found a medium that allowed me to combine those early passions with my passion for baking and experimenting with flavour. I was hooked. I began designing and baking character macarons nearly every day while in recovery.
I continued using Instagram as a venue through which to share my creations. The support I received was incredible and, as my following slowly grew, I began to receive requests from people wishing to order my macarons for themselves! I started selling sets of meticulously piped character macarons to friends, family and followers. Since then, Petite Meringue’s main focus has grown and shifted; I’m now concentrating on creatively fulfilling brand collaborations and working on putting together a character macaron course! But the heart of this business will always be about finding joy through food and I never would have found success without the initial support from the online baking community and my friends.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Jules and I am the macaron artist and content creator behind Petite Meringue. I currently live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and work from my home kitchen!

Although I’ve always loved to bake, it’s a passion that took a backseat for the majority of my life. In university, I studied both mathematics and photography – always attempting to find ways to stimulate both the intellectual and creative sides of myself! Despite liking what I studied, I found myself yearning for a career that felt more emotionally fulfilling.

Having spent much of my life battling an eating disorder, never did I think I would end up in a career that focused on the creation of desserts! But I think my battles with mental health are what allow me to remain so passionate about my work. Behind every bake is the core of finding joy in the little things. The focused mindfulness of baking helped me make strides in my own battle against depression and the act of eating the treats I baked played a role in my eating disorder recovery. Petite Meringue isn’t just about pretty character macarons, it’s also about centring the mental health conversation and reminding people that there can be so much good in life even if you’ve been through the darkest tunnels. If I would have given up when I was at my lowest, I never would have seen the happiest days of my life. I love getting to share that message with my community.

As a macaron content creator, I spend my days creating character macarons for my own social media profiles and for other brands. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with amazing companies creating macaron content promoting their characters or products. I hope to continue working with amazing brands, turning iconic characters into delicious edible creations!
I am currently working on developing a character macaron course to teach others how to bake their own cute macarons! I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store for Petite Meringue.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When my social media pages first began to take off, I felt both ecstatic and terrified. Though I was excited to grow my community and potentially have more brand’s eyes on my work, I immediately felt the weight of my new audience’s expectations. A flurry of questions raced through my mind: “What kind of macarons would they be expecting? What designs would they like to see most? Am I posting frequently enough to keep them engaged? Is this creation better than my last?” I thought this new following meant I needed to work even harder; I logged more hours in the kitchen, designed constantly and spent nearly all of my free time on social media engaging with my audience. Surely there was no such thing as working TOO hard to make my audience happy? What’s wrong with wanting to capitalize on the growth I was experiencing? For so long, I had taught myself that, in order to see success, I needed to be “hustling” at all times. Striving for perfection at every turn. But, when you’re running your own business, that kind of mentality is a one-way ticket to burnout. It wasn’t long before I found myself overly exhausted and lacking the creative energy I had before my audience expanded. I knew I needed to rethink the way I was approaching my work. I needed to remind myself of two unwavering truths:
1. Rest is an integral part of the productivity cycle. Without it, you cannot create your best work.
I had to stop buying into the idea that I was a better businessperson because I was working non-stop. Especially in creative pursuits, you NEED time to rest and recover. There is a time to work hard and there is a time to let your mind rest. One is no more important than the other. And opportunities for growth will still be there when you return from your rest.

2. You need to make things because YOU want to make them. Not for other people.
Elizabeth Gilbert has a fantastic quote surrounding the creative process where she says “make things because you like to, or even need to. Don’t wait for someone else’s approval.” The way social media is set up nowadays, it can feel almost impossible to separate our own artistic vision from what our followers want to see from us. But we have to remember that it’s our creativity that got them excited to follow our work in the first place! Your natural, creative ideas and worth chasing down and expressing.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Petite Meringue had the humblest of beginnings. This business began as nothing more than an Instagram page where I could document my macaron successes and failings. From there, I discovered a beautiful community of bakers who were supportive, encouraging and talented. I truly do credit the start of my audience growth to that baking community! When I first started posting my macarons, my intent was simply to find other likeminded bakers with whom I could share in my success. From participating in fun, themed group collabs to hosting virtual baking birthday celebrations for members of the community, we were all growing and thriving together. I didn’t start Petite Meringue thinking it was going to be a business, and I think that’s what allowed me to remain authentic throughout my growth. I was never really thinking about “building my brand” so much as I was focusing on being honest. I wanted to share my own story – the highs and lows I experienced as I navigated being a creative person struggling with mental health. I experienced the most growth not when I was creating the most polished, professional macaron content, but when I was combining my medium with sharing my own personal stories. At the end of the day, I think that’s what we are all looking for, both on social media and in our lives. We’re searching for something or someone to connect to. And what we connect to is authenticity. It’s important to not let yourself get caught up in what everyone else is doing in your artistic niche. That’s their expression, and you have your own. I promise you that, when you start creating from a place of “this is what I feel compelled to share and create right now”, people are bound to react to that. It might not be what goes viral overnight. But it WILL be what builds a community. And isn’t that what we’re all striving for as artists?

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petite.meringue/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@macaronbarbie contact email: julesmacaronbarbie@gmail.com