This Journal Brand Might Completely Upgrade Your Self-Care Routine

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Whether you want to reflect on your life goals or reduce everyday stress, journaling offers a slew of mental health benefits. That’s exactly what led Meha Agrawal to launch Silk + Sonder in November 2017. The company, which is known for its self-care journal subscription service, gives busy women the tools to navigate their day-to-day and work through burnout.

During her time as a software engineer and product manager for companies like Goldman Sachs and Stitch Fix, Agrawal couldn’t find a journal that met her needs. She decided to take matters into her own hands, creating a daily journal to unload her thoughts after a hectic workday. Eventually, that simple habit led to spending nights and weekends building a Facebook group of like-minded people, brainstorming journal concepts that were strong enough to sell, and raising venture capital to officially launch Silk + Sonder.

“I thought I was just solving this problem for my own needs, but you realize that that feeling of chaos and overwhelm, regardless of what stage of life you’re in, tends to persist,” Agrawal explains. “There’s a lot that goes on in our heads, and it’s not just work and home. I knew it [Silk + Sonder] had to be a holistic approach to daily well-being.”

Ahead, Agrawal opens up about the beginnings of Silk + Sonder, the company’s bestsellers, and how being South Asian American shows up in the company’s mission.

How did you come to launch Silk + Sonder?

Silk + Sonder started as a nights-and-weekends project. I have a software engineering and product management background, and worked at Goldman Sachs as well as a few startups, including Stitch Fix. I was dating my then-boyfriend, now husband, and moved from New York to San Francisco. You would have expected me to be happy, because I had checked all the boxes and was building a safety net. However, I was still waking up with this restless feeling. It was a feeling of overwhelm, dread for the day, and a little bit of anxiety.

Clinical psychologists have long recommended gratitude practices and bringing pen to paper for emotional well-being, but I was very much a skeptic. So, I started with a blank diary, creating a little framework to practice gratitude and write down things I wanted to accomplish.I noticed this magical shift to my emotional health, but there was nothing out there that was flexible enough to make my own. That’s what led to the genesis of Silk + Sonder and our main product, which is this guided journal-meets-planner subscription service to help women go from chaos to clarity.

Why did you decide on the subscription format for the journals?

The market either has an overly rigid planner or a blank diary and then everything else is in the format of a podcast or self-help book. I began to think about how habits are formed. It takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days for permanent change. More importantly, you have to understand how to evolve habits as you go, because people create goals in the beginning of the year and then lose momentum by February since there’s no system. I knew there needed to be some kind of daily, weekly, and monthly structure to achieve those longer-term goals. Also, I know the science behind novelty and accountability. Novelty for us means you have a new journal theme for the month. There’s a surprise-and-delight factor, which I learned from my days at Stitch Fix.

The journal also opens up with a reflection for the previous month to help you decide what to start, stop, and continue based on what’s working and what’s not. And then it goes into intentional planning for the upcoming month and then breaking that down into daily approachable steps, because otherwise we will be disappointed month after month.

What are the company’s best sellers right now?

Our journal-meets-planner is definitely a top seller. We also launched stickers because it channels your little girl energy. A lot of what we do is intended to unblock the patterns that you developed as a child.

Another big best seller is the Sonder Kids Journal, which launched during the pandemic and is geared towards kids ages 6 to 12. I partnered with mothers and educators in our community to ensure that the product would be delightful and effective.

Our next best seller is our personalized coaching platform. It’s like an operating system for your mind. People take a series of assessments and then we share their biggest strengths and blockers. We also explain how to make decisions, why you procrastinate, and give an abundance of self-awareness, which you can then use as a shortcut to self-discovery.

Then, we give you daily mental fitness workouts, personalized affirmations, and prompts based on the goals you’ve shared with us. You also have 24/7 access to a coach, who understands your personality and mindset so you can get unstuck. Whether or not you’re a journaling member with Silk + Sonder, there’s just so much power in having this information around your mental well-being and how you make decisions to reduce the overwhelm and, essentially, quiet the decision fatigue we all face day to day.

Who is your ideal customer?

It’s quite broad, but if I had to distill it down, it’s for the busy woman, especially moms. Once you become a mom, you’re not just keeping track of your own to-do’s—you suddenly have to-do’s for your spouse and children, and it’s even harder if you’re a single mom. Busy moms need the support to be guided and reduce the overwhelm from morning to evening. I’ve also seen a recent new ideal customer emerge: retirees/empty nesters.

How does your experience as a South Asian American inform the business?

When I think about our core values at Silk + Sonder, two that stem from my South Asian upbringing immediately jump out to me. Number one is velocity. If you know any South Asian American in your life, there is this sense of speed—a rapid rate of learning that’s just embedded into our culture. Education and achievement are everything. That’s baked into the speed at which we deploy features at Silk + Sonder and also ensuring that we’re headed in the right direction.

Another core value at Silk + Sonder is excellence. Good enough is not great. There’s also radical thoughtfulness, which, to me, is about connecting with your team and customers. Having that connection with our customers and building experiences that aren’t even on the roadmap to better serve them is really embedded into how I was raised.

Lastly, there’s the general ethos of Silk + Sonder. I grew up South Asian in a room full of Caucasians and always felt different. I’d always come home crying to my mom because of the color of my skin or eyes—always wanting to have blonde hair and blue eyes. My mom had to instill strength in me and this belief that we’re not all here to be one thing. We can be many things and we’re not here to fit in. We’re here, and we’re born to stand out. When I think about the American dream for South Asians, or any immigrants who come here, it’s about freedom. And what better freedom than to be able to be yourself and who you truly are?

What’s next for Silk + Sonder?

We’re building the new gold standard for intentional, authentic living as we continue to live in a digitally bombarded world. Beyond my own legacy, I want this world to feel more vibrant, connected, and accepting. I want people to have the shortcuts to self-discovery, joy, confidence, clarity, and all the things that hold us back. That’s really the mission and vision here at Silk + Sonder.

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