Akiva’ Rooks is a senior public relations student and CEO of the non-profit organization, I’ll Keep Her, which has released a new apparel line, #IKH.
Rooks ‘non-profit organization is centered around women practicing self-love, self-care and self-awareness.
“The transparency and the power that’s worn with learning to love all dimensions of the self-love, self-care, and self-awareness process is sexier than it feels sometimes,” Rooks said.
With this new line, Rooks wants to bring inner sexiness to the forefront and lift the financial burden of the millennial women’s self-care.
Using affirmations can “rewire” your brain and help you make positive changes in your life, according to liveboldandbloom.com.
The shirts will read positive affirmations to help remind women of their self-worth.
They are designed with the phrase, “I’ll Keep Her” in the middle, while the words self-love, self-care and self-awareness are beneath it. Purposely upside down, so the words are readable when looking in a mirror.
This design represents the obstacles millennial women face when trying to maintain an authentic sense of self.
The idea of creating the shirts developed as an idea that could increase the money invested in future self-care events, but quickly became a representation of her brand.
“In my mind, this was just a step towards the productivity that I knew I needed to press down on,” Rooks said.
“I was never required to design anything that had to do with clothing. But even with my limited experience, I knew that I wanted the aesthetic of #IKH to represent all that it truly entailed: inspiration,” she said.
And the shirts did just that. Rooks finished the design of the shirt in mid-June of this year and released it to the public through Instagram in August. As soon as she released it, orders started to come in.
Reviews from her Instagram read, “I see your vision and respect what you’re doing in the community” and, “The white lettering against the black pops and it’s really a conversation piece.”
Although her audience is mainly women, they are not the only people paying attention to her hustle and brand.
Men understand the power of the product. In August, some even purchased the product to encourage their little sisters.
Recently, a male supporter shared encouraging words and purchased five shirts. All for Rooks to keep and gift to five deserving women.
“That type of support is God sent. It meant more to me than anything,” she said.
Since the release of the shirts, Rooks has been entering each customer into the organization’s self-care raffle. Each winner will get a self-care gift.
All the proceeds are invested in future I’ll Keep Her self-care events.
There will be more apparel launching in February 2020 and more #IKH products offered in March 2020.
