Our Founder Sara Ku wrote this article for Well+Good for their Women's Empowerment series and to raise awareness on the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes. We're sharing a few excepts that most connected with our community including a personal note from our Founder.

To read the full article, head over to Well+Good here.

A note from our Founder:

The rise of anti-Asian hate crimes this part year, the mass shooting in Atlanta, the attacks on our elderly and community continues - I’m exhausted, devastated and finding everything in me to get people to care and actively support our AAPI community.

Where it started:

A protest sign that proclaimed, “Love us like you love our food” spoke to me as an Asian founder in the wellness space. I wanted to make my own that said, “Love us like you love our yoga”—or our acupuncture or even our matcha latte.

Our Founder's Why:

I founded Kaya Essentials in order to raise awareness for the Asian roots of one of the beauty industry’s most used ingredients: coconut oil. In 2018, the Philippines was the top producer of coconut oil with 1.2M tonnes. Coconut oil has a deep cultural significance in the beauty and wellness rituals passed down by generations—for many Filipino/a/x, it is our first introduction to beauty. My mother showed me that wellness doesn’t have to be expensive with all her DIY treatments (which I believe is the ultimate clean skin care), and coconut oil was always her hero ingredient.

Thoughts that deserve reflection: 

On the surface, wellness may seem to celebrate Asian culture—otherwise, one could wonder why would face massage tutorials using the Gua Sha be so popular? But the reality is that most consumers and practitioners of Asian wellness oversimplify and fetishize our products and practices into something hollow.

A message to all:

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