ABOUT US
founders geevie and sophia
Hello! We are Geevie and Sophia and we are Spanish-American identical twins. We graduated college from the University of Minnesota in May of 2020 and we are now 23-year-old business women! Our Spanish heritage comes from our mom, who is from Spain, and our dad is American. We lived in Valencia, Spain for 5 years until moving to Minnesota in 2006. We are still very much connected to our Spanish roots and visit our family frequently.
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Currently, it's just us two running our blog and business. We never thought that after graduating college in 2020, and getting bachelor's degrees in Global Studies, that we'd be making deodorant in our mom's basement for a living (we're twins, so of course we studied the same thing). Global Studies is basically the interdisciplinary study of political, economic, ecological, social and cultural interconnectedness, on a micro and macro level, in the world. Although this study has nothing to do with making deodorant, we have an educated understanding on how our business, and the beauty/skincare industry impacts the planet on all of these scales. We are committed to growing our business ethically and sustainably by keeping the health of the environment and our lovely customers as our top priorities.
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WE CHANGED OUR NAME!
We recently changed our name to 'Sustain Yourself' from 'Sustainyoself'. We are still phasing out our old labels that say 'sustainyoself' on the front, and some of our wholesalers still have old labels in their inventory. Go to our 'locations' tab to see what shops/stores offer our products!
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If you would like to reach us on social media or email, those names have also changed. Our new Instagram handles are @sustainyrself for our blog page and @sustainyourselfshop for our shop page. For customer service, you can reach us at hello@sustainyourselfshop.com.
ABOUT OUR SHOP
We started our blog @sustainyrself during our freshman year of college, in 2017, to document our plastic-free journey and to spread sustainable lifestyle tips and habits, in hopes of inspiring others to reduce their plastic waste. In 2018, we started selling our homemade products through our blog, upon request! It was a fun little hobby that turned into a fulfilling career. We never planned on becoming business owners (or bloggers) and never imagined we'd become business women. Sustainability and design have always been our passions. We have always been very driven, inspired and crafty people, so we are very grateful we get to do this for a living.
When we discovered the zero waste movement back in 2017, we began following other bloggers who inspired us, and quickly learned about the harmful impact of plastic pollution and toxic chemicals that are found in some of the most common products, such as deodorant. That's why all of our products are made using pure, safe, and natural ingredients that are also sustainably packaged in glass jars with metal lids, biodegradable cardboard, and metal tins, all of which can be reused, composted or recycled. Our main goal when starting our business was to keep it completely plastic-free, or as close as possible.
As we grow, we also hope to use our business and platform for change and positive impact. We cannot promote sustainability without supporting climate justice, since minority groups stand at the front lines of experiencing inequalities on a socioeconomic and environmental level. Climate change is a social justice issue and Black/Brown lives deserve the same access and opportunities to a healthy, safe, and happy environment. Our blog is based on the idea of living sustainably to protect our environment. When we protect the environment, we protect those who experience environmental disasters first. Climate change is happening, and awareness on this issue will help sustain life on earth, as dramatic as that sounds. Unfortunately, climate related disasters are already affecting people in the world: minority groups and communities. In most cases, they will always be the first to experience climate catastrophes, have the most difficult time recovering from them due to lack of resources, and are not able to escape it or "move away".
We promise to make donations to organizations that help protect/support people and the planet (whether we share than information or not); eventually hiring a diverse team; continue to spread inclusivity, solidarity, and awareness through our marketing; and continue to spread helpful information that educates our audience, as well as ourselves, on how to be better allies, that also supports and uplifts minority artisans, makers and creators in the small business community. We believe everyone deserves to be treated fairly and equally, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, and more.
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