I'm Gen Z, and My Sister Is a Millennial—4 Wellness Nonnegotiables We Agree On

When you think of wellness, what comes into your head?

Perhaps it's $20,000 at-home infrared saunas, hot Pilates classes, and ceremonial-grade matcha and turmeric lattes. Over the last few years, social media has convinced us that mental and physical health is wealth, but it often comes at a premium. In 2024, experts are estimating the $1.8 trillion-dollar wellness industry has no signs of slowing down, with supplements, skincare devices, and morning routines taking up even more of our brain space in the near future. TikTok and TikTok Shop have only further catapulted the wellness industry into the stratosphere, giving millions of users access to extravagant tools and influencer-peddled oil-pulling kits they wouldn't have otherwise found.

I have to wonder, though, have we lost the plot? Surely, in the quest to demystify the wellness industrial complex, there has to be more to self-care than half-heartedly doing a 10-step skincare routine simply because the internet has convinced you that it's the key to living a fulfilling life.

"Wellness is in every area of our lives: physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally… I think that once we steer away from the idea of wellness being like, "Oh! I just hopped into a cold plunge," I hope people realize that wellness is doing what makes you feel good and what makes sense to you in this season of your life," Ana Escalante Morejon, founder of the genderless wellness brand and retailer Btwnthesheets, told me. While the Miami-based founder admits she's into viral wellness products like mouth tape and red-light masks, it's important to realize wellness, at its core, is about finding community and truly reaching inward to see what brings you joy—it's the whole reason she started her online platform.

Btwnthesheets acts as an incubator for emerging wellness brands, primarily those founded by and for people of color and women. Each wellness founder is highlighted on the brand's digital storefront, where you can buy products to directly support their mission. In an oversaturated, predominately white-led industry, it's more important than ever to uplift founders whose powerful stories are often overlooked due to lack of investors and outward paid-campaign support on social media, Escalante Morejon explains.

While her previous experience as a lifestyle and beauty buyer for BoxyCharm and later Ipsy made Escalante Morejon an expert, I knew I needed to tap her while investigating the wellness industry for a far more important reason: As her little sister, I've basically copied her every move since I was born.

Below, I chatted with Escalante Morejon to learn a bit more about her community-driven brand and, of course, all about the products and wellness rituals everyone should incorporate into their lives.

What's the origin story of Btwnthesheets? I'd love to hear a bit more about how you got the idea to start your own business, considering there are so many wellness startups flooding the market.

Initially, the idea started in 2020 when I created an Instagram account to build a community. I was talking about different products that I came across being a wellness and beauty buyer that I thought were great and how to use them. Around that time, a lot of people were taking their beauty routines more seriously since we were in lockdown, but there wasn't a lot of knowledge or how-to when it came to products, formulations, and things like that. Eventually, the opportunity to make it more than just a fun Instagram profile and instead actually build a company came up, so I took the plunge [in 2023]. I wanted to create something that felt a bit more approachable, fun, and honest—especially as a genderless brand—with having all different people from different walks of life lean into redefining what wellness looked like to them.

There's a lot of intention behind the products and brands you work with. I'm curious about how you decided what brands you wanted to spotlight and champion. Are there any qualities they share that you're passionate about?

My approach to beauty and wellness is that it is not one-size-fits-all. When we look at wellness, it definitely has to do with more than just the physical—it's also the mental. It's the internal. It even comes down to our home. With that in mind, I knew our product assortment had to be really well-rounded. With almost a decade of being a buyer, there are so many things that come across your desk, and it's our job to discover what's our there, what's new. What are people talking about? My job is taking the guesswork out of everything and really providing my audience with a hyper-personalized, vetted brand list I stand behind.

I had a tight-knit circle of testers that spent almost a year trying out nearly every product that caught our attention, especially in a social media filled world where people are really starting to question how effective they are and the integrity of the brand if they see too many paid partnerships. Above all, though, I really wanted to work with brands that wanted to do more than just sell you a great item—I wanted them to have a beautiful story and have something that people could connect with besides than just the physical product. People are being much more intentional about what they buy and truly feel loyal.

So much of your brand and the partners you work with really revolve around community. What does community mean to you?

In terms of brand building, I think it's really all about listening to your audience. What do they need? What can you outsource for them? What are they looking for? Instead of focusing on paid partnerships in order to determine what does well for Btwnthesheets, we're regularly reading our DMs, comments, and checking in with our customers directly and really using them as a focus group. Without your community, your platform is really nothing at the end of the day. In terms of the personal, community, to me, is truly an extension of family—people who support you and connect with you on a deeper, emotional level. I think we should always surround ourselves with people whose lives that we really admire because it pushes us to really better ourselves and not be so scared of change or possibility. It's having people show up for you.

What does your wellness routine look like? What are you prioritizing now?

I've actually started to step away from the word "routine." I feel like it's been so overused and almost toxic in a way. Social media makes you believe that if you don't have a morning routine or an evening routine, then you're fucked, and you're unorganized. I was forcing myself to do a lot of things that didn't necessarily make sense for me, so instead, I've opted for the word "ritual," both for myself and for Btwnthesheets. It's sexier and feels more special and intimate. It doesn't have to be anything overly productive, either. For me, I really love dry-brushing in the shower or reading a non-self-help book at night to unwind.

As a new founder, what's something you've learned about yourself throughout this process? Is there a piece of advice you'd pass on to other female entrepreneurs?

For me, I'm really impatient. I love to figure out things along the way and get things done as quickly as possible. When you're learning a bunch of new systems and new aspects of a business, especially as a first-time business owner, you're truly starting from scratch. It's like going back to school. You have to be patient and learn to give yourself compassion and grace. There's a lot of unspoken pressure, whether from yourself or investors or other people, to be on a timeline on how quick to launch or what you should do. In the end, you really have to tune out that noise as much as you can and realize you're the one putting in work, day in and day out, and things are going to take time. You have to be of the mindset that everything is solvable. You'll figure things out as you go, and if you're really stuck, there are so many people in your network who can help you.

Good Sleep

"Sleep is so important, especially the older that we get. I don't love that people are romanticizing that they can only get three to four hours of sleep and conquer the day. I'm 33 years old, and frankly, there is no conquering the day with three hours of sleep."

Mindfulness Tools

"I truly swear by this category. I think anything that keeps you grounded, helps you think clearly, and helps you regulate your emotions is a mindfulness tool."

Clean Beauty

"Just like we care about the ingredients we ingest, it's just as important to care about the ingredients that are being applied topically to your skin. Clean beauty is so buzzy, and there's a lot of not-so-great stuff out there since it's such a profitable sector nowadays. It's really important to vet the products you're putting on your skin. Plus, these products smell incredible. I like to make my beauty routine as luxurious as possible. If not, I won't do it."

Sexual Wellness

"I think people often forget how sexual wellness is just as important as anything else. Obviously, it can be uncomfortable for some people to talk about openly, but it's not just about what goes on in the bedroom. It's also truly about using natural products and maintaining your pH levels and, for most people, regulating hormones, which has so much to do with how your mental well-being functions down to how your cortisol levels can spike. This one is definitely underrated!"

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