Shine’s co-founders, Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi, met working together over seven years ago. Over coffee dates, late nights on projects, and (lots of) wine, the two women started talking openly about the things so many of us struggle with behind-the-scenes: imposter syndrome, burnout, relationship struggles, even credit scores.
They often heard from friends: “You’re so lucky to have each other.” And when they asked their friends where they went for the same kind of support, they heard loud and clear: most self-care tools were preachy, pricey, or privileged.
So they set out to scale the support they gave each other and launched their first prototype in August 2015—a weekday SMS message that made it easier to practice self-compassion. They called it Shine Text.
Three years later: Shine is now an award-winning app, and Marah and Naomi have built the largest global self-care club with 4 million members in 189 countries.
The best part: Compassion is contagious. As each of Shine’s members treat themselves with more self-compassion, the community is building a more compassionate world.
“We realized so many people struggle with the same feelings, yet we often feel like we're the only ones. Through Shine, we want to scale the support we gave each other to as many people as possible to elevate important conversations around living intentionally and being your best self.” - Marah Lidey & Naomi Hirabayashi, Shine co-CEOs
Learn more about the Shine team and our values here.