Tia Mowry jumped onto the popular culture scene within the mid-’90s when she starred in Sister, Sister, an ABC sitcom. Within the years that adopted, she went on to supply and act in myriad TV exhibits and flicks, together with The Sport and Netflix’s Household Reunion—the latter gained two NAACP Picture Awards for Excellent Kids’s Program.
Along with publishing a number of books, together with her cookbook The Quick Fix Kitchen, Mowry additionally hosts a YouTube channel that she launched seven years in the past, Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix. Greater than 957,000 subscribers have tuned in to observe her shortly reply life’s little questions. After which there’s her new actuality present, Tia Mowry: My Subsequent Act, which premiered in October 2024 on WEtv and has been nominated for an NAACP Picture Award for Excellent Actuality Program. On prime of all of that, Mowry is the mom of two youngsters: a 13-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.
Although she continues to take pleasure in immense success in her three-decade profession, there’s one factor that Mowry has longed to be since she was a teen: an entrepreneur.
“I’ve at all times wished to be one, ever since I knew what the phrase meant,” she says. “I keep in mind I found the phrase once I was in highschool. I didn’t even know easy methods to pronounce it.”
Not solely did Mowry discover ways to pronounce entrepreneur, however she additionally discovered success proper out of the gate. She launched 4U by Tia, a high-performance pure hair care model for curly and textured hair, in 2023. The model is on the market at Walmart, Amazon, choose CVS shops and on the model’s web site.
To Mowry, although, success as an entrepreneur is not only concerning the merchandise she launches.
“I really feel that when one is an entrepreneur, they join with neighborhood,” she says. “It’s about management. It’s about improvement and providing a necessity that appears to have some form of void in place. And I really feel like these qualities, on the subject of the definition of an entrepreneurship or attributes [of an entrepreneur], remind me of myself.
“I completely love neighborhood,” she continues. “I really like constructing, I really like rising, I really like inspiring, I really like creating and I really like management. And I really like the method, that means I noticed at a younger age that I beloved what occurs between developing with an thought after which seeing it to fruition…. I benefit from the course of. I take pleasure in discovering the manifesto. I take pleasure in discovering the aim all for a higher trigger. I believe that’s what excites me about being an entrepreneur.”
When requested what impressed her to create 4U, Mowry first factors to her passions in life, which she refers to as pillars: wellness, community, accessibility and household.
“I felt like there was—and is—a void on the subject of textured hair and our neighborhood,” she says. “Rising up as somebody who has curly hair, as a younger lady, I used to be at all times… compelled to decide on one thing that wasn’t essentially proper for me [or] out of my worth vary. And that didn’t actually work for my hair as a result of there simply weren’t many choices on the market…. So I wished to fill a necessity within the curly hair texture neighborhood by creating some merchandise.
“After I talked about wellness, I’m very captivated with what I put in my physique [and] what I placed on my physique,” she provides. “And I simply felt like once I was doing a little analysis about what was an awesome possibility for me and my household when it got here to our textured hair, there weren’t any merchandise on the market that actually catered to or that had been trustworthy when it got here to pure elements at an inexpensive worth.”
After that, Mowry set to work. She collaborated with a workforce of scientists to create a clear, plant-based method that features elements shoppers acknowledge at an inexpensive worth in order that 4U is extra broadly accessible.
“It’s science-backed [and] there’s efficacy with all-natural elements which are at an inexpensive worth,” she says of her merchandise.
Fewer bottles means higher sustainability
Along with making a pure and inexpensive line of merchandise, one other of Mowry’s intentions with 4U was to create easy routines for individuals with curly and textured hair.
“I’ve totally different curl textures and patterns than my daughter and my son… [and] I’d have all of those totally different merchandise within the family,” she says. “What I really like about 4U is we had been capable of give you a method that works on hair textures from 2A to 4C. So as an alternative of getting all of those totally different merchandise coming out and in of the home, we are able to simplify the entire thing. And principally, the entire household can use the merchandise—it really works on their hair textures in addition to mine.
“[It’s] not solely that the elements are clear—I belief that I can apply it to my youngsters and myself,” she provides.
As a result of the merchandise within the 4U line work on totally different hair sorts, households want fewer bottles of product of their properties, which speaks to Mowry’s mission of protecting the hair care line sustainable. Not solely are the merchandise’ elements clear, plant-based and sourced from suppliers who prioritize moral and sustainable harvesting practices, however the bottles and packaging are sustainable too.
“My purpose with 4U is to consider the buyer [and] their wants,” she says. “I do know that, together with myself, we’re desirous to be extra aware about what we purchase from all totally different angles, from our pockets[s] to the elements that we’re utilizing. After which additionally, how is that this making an affect?
“In the case of our surroundings and waste,” she continues, “I believe that is what… makes 4U simply stand out from numerous different merchandise which are on the market. And there’s a neighborhood of those that assume this fashion, and I felt like there was a void, and I wished to fulfill that want.”
Accessibility 4U
One other of Mowry’s ardour pillars is accessibility, which performed a giant half within the improvement of 4U by Tia.
“It’s and was undoubtedly a cause and a purpose of mine to have clear, pure, high-quality elements which are accessible to everybody,” she says. “I really feel like nice merchandise shouldn’t simply be catered to 1 socioeconomic group, and I really feel like [for] girls and various communities, it’s time that they don’t should be compelled once more to decide on merchandise which are poisonous simply because it reaches their worth level. In order that was undoubtedly a purpose of mine….
“I believe the accessibility… [was] one of many primary explanation why I used to be enthusiastic about our partnership with Walmart,” she provides. “Walmart is thought, in fact, for his or her nice costs.”
The complete-size cleaning, conditioning, nourishing and remedy merchandise within the 4U hair care line are priced at $11.99 and $12.99 every.
Even with the success Mowry has loved with the launch of 4U, she is fast to level out that it didn’t occur in a single day. In reality, it took about two years to take her idea from ideation to actuality.
“I say that 4U is like my third child,” Mowry says. “It takes some time in your concepts to evolve, and that’s the method that I’m taking with this model. Individuals overlook that the [tortoise] gained the race. For me, it’s extra about high quality, it’s extra about constructing neighborhood, it’s extra about authenticity, and that takes time.”
Mowry is lucky to have surrounded herself with like-minded individuals to assist her not solely launch 4U however develop it too. After she shared her thought along with her agent, she was launched to individuals who had been focused on partnering along with her—and from there, she constructed her workforce.
“All of us got here collectively, and we simply began to speak about our concepts and flesh issues out like what is required,” she says. “There was numerous work that was put into it.
“That’s what I used to be saying I really like about being an entrepreneur,” Mowry continues. “That is the a part of the method that I take pleasure in, and… lots of people, they don’t know that’s the method—they simply see the top product or the launch. However there’s simply a lot that goes into it.”
She additionally says that reaching out to others guided 4U’s improvement.
“[What] was additionally extraordinarily useful, when it got here to having my concepts come to life, was not being afraid to achieve out to different individuals… [and] to the neighborhood,” she says. “It is a community-based model, and I believe that… what has been so wonderful about the entire course of is basically understanding the viewers, actually understanding the neighborhood, actually understanding the void and what [the needs are]. We’re always asking these questions.
“We now have some cool new merchandise that we are going to be launching quickly, and what I’m most enthusiastic about is [that] these are merchandise that the neighborhood has wished and has been asking for,” she continues. “So for us to present again on this manner—I simply can’t wait.”
Barnes is a Florida-based impartial journalist and entrepreneur with a ardour for journey, wellness and the atmosphere.
This text initially appeared within the March 2025 issue of SUCCESS+ magazine. Picture of Tia Mowry courtesy of ©Adam Rindy.
