Co-Workers Turned Co-Founders Built A Healing Ground For Women Of Color Through Their Wellness Platform The Villij

“A lot of people kind of wonder why are we focusing just on women of color. One of the things that Chanel and I bonded on was the fact that we were in a specific time in our life when we were going to different yoga studios and meditation studios. One of the things that we came across was how exclusive these mainstream wellness places were,” Knight told AfroTech.

She continued: “We had never had yoga teachers, meditation guides that were people of color, let alone women of color. So, we were always one of the very few folks of color in these rooms and that was the pivotal moment for us where we’re like, we want to reimagine what wellness spaces can look like for women of color. And we started with yoga because that was a practice session Shanelle and I both used. We used it as a tool to help with mental health — to help with the stress that we were going through. We’re like, ‘Okay, we feel this way, maybe other women of color felt this way.’”