Some people move through life with an almost instinctive willingness to step toward the things that scare them. For Dr. Manju Dawkins—dermatologist and co-founder/CEO of Thimble—this courage didn’t come from never feeling fear. It came from learning to act despite it, trusting the inner voice that tells her what she’s meant to do.
Her personal journey with fear became clearer after she first heard a speaker at a business retreat say: “When you see the lion, you run towards the lion.” She realized how often fear had quietly shaped her choices—and how she found the courage to push forward anyway.
This was a recurring narrative in college, where moments of doubt from others became opportunities to prove herself. When coaches questioned her ability to compete at the Division 1 level, she answered, “Oh, I'm going to try.” She walked on to the Columbia women’s basketball team, earned a roster spot, and became team captain her senior year.
Academically, the pattern continued. A dean at Columbia told her not to apply to medical school because she wouldn’t get in. “But I did it anyway, and I did get into medical school,” Dawkins explained. At the University of Maryland, she was told dermatology was out of reach. “My dean there was like, don't apply to dermatology, you're not going to get in.” She took a research year, applied, and was admitted. In each case, Dawkins displayed how courage meant acting despite fear.
That same courage now shows up in her everyday life—balancing family, career, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Dawkins lives in Redondo Beach with her husband and company co-founder, and their two daughters. Between raising their girls and running a growing business, moments of feeling overwhelmed are inevitable. Whenever that happens, she turns to the beach for peace and perspective.
“The ocean is so serene and grounding. Everything else can be chaos, but then you realize… this is literally paradise.” The calm and joy she finds at the ocean nourishes her overall wellness. Wellness, to her, is “Balance… the body, but also the mind and spirit… It’s the balance of being aware and paying attention to all parts of that.”
That sense of balance guided Dr. Dawkins' decision to shift from full-time to part-time dermatology, allowing her to dedicate her energy to Thimble, the company she and her husband founded to focus on reducing the pain and stress associated with needle procedures. Thimble began with a moment every new parent understands: wanting to protect your child from pain. After watching her four-week-old daughter receive her first shots, Dr. Dawkins felt “betrayed” on her baby’s behalf. “That was the moment that I was like, this is not right.” As a dermatology resident, she had access to numbing creams—an advantage most parents didn’t have. “It was a total game changer… but then it’s like, what is everybody else doing? That was the privilege that I had.” Years later, research revealed the scale of the problem: “Needle fear has really skyrocketed… it rose to 25% in 2012… now… 63.2% of adults.”
Thimble’s mission is clear: “Everyone deserves pain management.” Dr. Dawkins and her talented team created Prepare, a fast-acting numbing patch, and Recover, a plant-based patch to reduce post-injection soreness and bruising. An app offering research-backed emotional support tools is currently in beta. “Our goal is to change the standard of care for needle procedures… we want everyone to have the option to have pain management before, during, and after.” At its core, Thimble is about compassion. “Love heals… That’s what I hope Thimble is. It's just a simple way of putting a hand on someone's arm and being like, I know this was hard. I hope this makes it better.”
If there’s a consistent thread in Dr. Dawkins’ life, it’s courage—the quiet, persistent kind. She didn’t expect that pursuing her entrepreneurial goal and starting her company would become the very path that forced her to confront her deepest fears. “I was driven by fear my whole life. I was afraid of everything… The journey of building this company has forced me to face a thousand and one of my fears: fear of judgement, fear of public speaking, fear of being seen, fear of being on social media, all those things.” Dawkins is living proof that fear does not have to control you. The retreat mantra now reflects her lived experience: “When you see the lion, you run towards the lion.”
For anyone afraid to pursue their big goals—a new habit, a career shift, a creative dream—her advice is simple: “Get a really nice notebook and a really good pen… and let your creativity flow… Ideas in your head are in your head, but ideas on paper are already realized.” When the path feels overwhelming, she returns to one principle: “When you think about this, this, and this, it's so overwhelming… All we can do is the next step.”
Reflecting on her life now, she laughs: “If I looked back, even five years, I would say there's no way you can do any of those things… but we all literally can do anything we want to if we just open our mind to the possibility.” Her journey—from walk-on basketball player to dermatologist to co-founder—is not about defying odds; it’s about trusting the quiet knowing within. “I think each of us knows what we’re meant for,” she said. “You filter out the noise, and you take the next step. That’s it.”
And when fear appears—and it will—run toward the lion.
“The ocean is so serene and grounding. Everything else can be chaos, but then you realize… this is literally paradise.”
"The journey of building this company has forced me to face a thousand and one of my fears."