Two black sisters create line of yoga mats with visual affirmations

Julia and Cornelia Gibson, who are the founders of Toned by BaggedEm, are also sisters who saw a need in the world of wellness and created a product to meet this need. Black yoga instructors and practitioners don’t exactly stand out in the forefront of the wellness world. And when black women attend yoga classes, they may not see anyone who looks “like them” in the classes.

So the Gibson sisters went to work and designed yoga mats with visual affirmations that include graphic designs of women of color. This way, the sisters thought, if black women could “see themselves” in class – even if it’s on their yoga mats – they may not feel so alone in their journey to wellness.

Julia explained the reason for their creations by saying that the two sisters “didn’t feel motivated by the environment. When we looked around there weren’t many people that looked like us. We used each other as motivation to get results and we wanted to share that motivation with everyone else.”

This family business extends beyond the two sisters – their mom actually does the artwork. Cornelia sums up their wellness mission by saying, “Our everyday experience in society can often be stressful and discouraging and we need to counter that by surrounding ourselves with the things that will make us feel good inside and out.”