I spent my entire childhood growing up wanting to "make the world a better place."

I spent my entire childhood growing up wanting to "make the world a better place." In college, I saw firsthand what it was like to be in community, and for community to come together after devastation as a freshman at Tulane in New Orleans during Katrina. I thought I'd get a master's in social work because it was the only degree/job title I knew that was a general "make the world better" type of job.

I didn't end up going into social work, but my first job out of college was working in a refugee resettlement office, working with newly arrived refugee youth. I was also volunteering for an organization focused on social justice issues.

And while my "make the world better" spark never dimmed, it evolved and shifted as I took new jobs and explored what that could look like. I worked for three years at a nonprofit dedicated to supporting social entrepreneurs in making change in their community. Then I left to start my own ethical fashion company after being outraged by learning how horrific the fashion industry is to those involved with the creation of our garments as well as the planet.

Then I got sick (womp womp). And as I started focusing on taking care of myself, unraveling my dedication to working ("hustling," barf) 24/7, wellness came my way. And when I closed my ethical fashion business to focus on my own wellbeing, it only seemed natural that wellness was what I was going to focus on next — writing, teaching, and talking about taking care of yourself and the planet. I went deep into it.

Eventually, one day, I woke up and realized: wellness, well, kind of sucks. It's vain. And it's focused too much on the individual.

Now, I am a big proponent of taking care of yourself. Seriously, it's one of my top priorities. I think there are all types of important and lovely things you can do to ensure you feel good in your body, good emotionally, strong, confident, and happy. It's important.

But then there's the missing piece: what I call the "so, what?"

Many (not all!) of the people who I saw in the "wellness" space cared more about the next vegan paleo burrito wrap than speaking up for Black lives.

What's your "so, what?" Now that you feel strong in your body from taking your supplements, what will you do? Once you drink your fancy morning elixir, what actions do you take?

How does your wellness practice allow you to show up in a meaningful way for the things that matter? For taking care of your family or neighbor? For stocking the community fridge? For having the strength and presence to call out your racist uncle?

When I dove into wellness, I drifted further and further away from my real passion: community care. Social justice work. It was easy to think that by working on myself and talking about "wellness" to others, I was making an "impact."

And I bet I was, a little.

But we have to go so much deeper. We have to take care of one another. Our individual wellbeing is only as well as our community.

And we need to have a brave space to practice. A cozy, warm, resting spot to fuel up, recharge, and find the tools, resources, and nourishment we need so we can keep fighting for a more just and equitable society. A space where we can build the world we want to live in.

I created IMBY to be that space. But it's not for me, it's for us. It's community-informed and community-driven. I will hold the space, do the backend work, and run the "business," but we are co-creating this together. Because I have more privileges than I could possibly need, and I want this community to be inclusive, informed by, and loved by people from all backgrounds, who look, act, and think in different ways, but all care about contributing towards a greater good.

Our health matters. Our mental health matters. Our comfort matters. Our business matters. They matter because they allow us to fight for the world we want to see.

And they all thrive in community.

Welcome to IMBY.

- Sara Weinreb, Founder