Chloé Pierre is a digital marketer, a content creator and the founder of wellness community thy.self, which aims to actualise self-care. We spoke to Chloé about starting her own business, all things self-love and making the wellness space more diverse, as well as the importance of community.
Talk us through who you are and your career path up until today.
Chloe is a London girl born and raised and initially began her career in fashion. After finding it difficult to progress in what was a very closed off industry, she decided she could do what she loves in her own way so created her own blog. Now, having founded wellness community 'thy.self', she feels so proud that she is able to promote diversity and change in the industry.
What was your biggest motivation behind starting thy.self?
Whilst working in the fashion industry and becoming more personally aware of diversity and inclusivity, she explained that "I realised this wasn't what I wanted to see". She was interested in wellness but explained that when researching it, you'd only see a very limited and exclusive version of self-care, "photos of Gwyneth Paltrow or face masks, as if that is going to change your life". So she went down her own path of self-care and created thy.self as an inclusive wellness community first, and business second.
A key element to thy.self is also recognising that aspects of self-care originates from marginalised communities that no longer feel included in our modern forms of wellness, so it is essential to create spaces that are truly inclusive to all and respect those origins.
Do you feel that the industry has made progress in becoming more diverse since starting thy.self?
Projects like thy.self are definitely pushing it in the right direction, but there's still a lot to be done by those who hold the most power in the industry. She emphasised that especially after the BLM movement last year, brands need to truly integrate diversity into every aspect of their brand, including their teams.
How can people in our audience join the thy.self wellness movement?
"Get involved in our socials, our community and doing more wellness research!"
What has been your favourite or most exciting project to date?
"Each project has blown me away" but she mentioned a few including Bumble's 'Black Love' campaign, both Nike and Pinterest projects and their collaboration with Chrome Yoga (free yoga session for one Sunday of every month), which aimed to grow the community and make it more accessible.
What is your favourite item to wear when you need some self love?
"Underwear!" She particularly loves SKIMS as it is has an incredible range of sizes and shades. Or any thy.self pieces that remind her to take care of herself!
How would you describe your personal style?
"I'm a practical person", she wears clean lines and neutral shades but knows colour looks great on her and makes a real difference to how you feel. And she never goes without a pair of trainers!
Which brands do you love or feel have had the most improvement in size inclusivity?
"Paloma Wool, Stand Studio, Staud - I want to try all of these brands out." She also loves Nike and her advice is to get to know yourself and which fabrics you like, then you'll know if a brand works for you. For those brands still need to expand sizes, she simply stated "there's no time like the present to change."
If you could rent anyone's wardrobe - dead, alive or fiction, whose would it be?
Either Pam Grier, Cicely Tyson, Diana Ross, Lil' Kim, Ma Rainey or Josephine Baker!
Dream brand to work with this year?
The UN Women! It would be incredible to bring about distinctive change.
