About Us
Do you often wonder, ‘is there a more healthy, joyful version of myself?’
Often generalized health and wellness approaches miss the mark when it comes to understanding who we really are and what really matters to us as it relates to our wellness.
Bold & Well Co. aims to bring a more individualized and joyful approach to health and wellness through resources, events, and community impact and dialogue. We seek to inquire, inform, and inspire so everyone can live a longer and bolder life.
The wellness industry has traditionally included fitness, personal care and beauty care, nutrition and weight loss management, and physical health. Bold & Well Co. aims to question and redefine the traditional wellness industry standard. Bold & Well Co. believes wellness should be personal and joyous with connection and community at the center. Wellness should celebrate our differences, acknowledge our cultural, racial, and trauma histories, and be available to every person.
Our Story:
One day, Sara, the founder of Bold & Well Co., was headed to teach a fitness class after a full day of work. She always packed a full bag, including a lotion to put on before class. She decided to turn the bottle of lotion around to find “-paraben” listed 3 times in the back of the lotion. She didn’t know much at the time about the cleaner product movement, but she knew parabens are not a good thing. She stepped out of the stall, and saw 4 other lotions left in the bathroom for community use (hello pre-COVID!). She looked at the ingredient list of all 4 bottles from 4 different companies and saw “-paraben” in ALL of them. That day is the day she started her own journey and sparked her passion for getting the information out to others.
Sara often felt that her suicide history, family history, the latest science and best practices for communities of color, addiction, mental health were often neglected or never even asked about in traditional health care settings. The 10 minutes with the doctor(s) just did not sit right with her. What about everything that I am? What about joy and happiness? What about preventative care instead of reactive care? What about how my mental health connected to my physical health? What about my mom’s history and its connection to my medical history? What about my trauma and trauma informed care? What about looking at wellness instead of prognosis and disease?
About the Founder:
Sara Afayee, the founder and Chief Impact Officer (CIO) of Bold & Well Collective (Bold & Well Co.) has spent her professional career in mental health and substance use policy and program design at the community and federal levels. She is proud of her social work background. It has allowed her to understand the complexity of mental health and substance use issues and work alongside communities facing these important issues. She is a certified group fitness instructor and has coached hundreds of people in the last decade. Her favorite classes to teach are dance workouts, low impact boot camps, and cardio kickboxing. She feels grounded (y muy orgullosa) as a woman of color, drawing on inspiration from her Latina and Middle Eastern roots.
Sara started going grey in her 20s and embraced the salt and pepper strands in her 30s. She stopped dying her hair and embraced one part of the aging process.
One day she started looking at the ingredients list of her personal care products, it was full of items she never heard of or looked into. She assumed that a government entity was protecting against false claims and harmful ingredients. She was shocked to learn that there was limited to no oversight. Sara has begun her own cleaner, safer personal care product journey including clean deodorants, no perfumes, no fragranced lotions, soaps, and shampoos, and using a reusable menstrual cup.
In her early 20s, she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and low Vitamin D, which may have gone undiagnosed for years. Sara wondered if her underactive active thyroid connected to her mental health and suicidal thoughts. After some research, she is now clearer of all the connections her conditions have on metabolism, brain chemistry, and energy levels. Sara is a fierce suicide attempt survivor and thriver!
Sara has gained weight and gained love for herself in the process. She believes that one of the beautiful things about life is how our bodies change. In her fitness coaching and teaching, she never mentions diets, calories, food, or thin-ness. She is an advocate for moving your body when it feels good, and resting when rest is needed.