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 presentations and films, together with The Sport and Netflix’s Circle of relatives Reunion—the latter received two NAACP Symbol Awards for Exceptional Youngsters’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 introduced seven years in the past, Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix. Greater than 957,000 subscribers have tuned in to look at her temporarily solution lifestyles’s little questions. After which there may be her new fact display, Tia Mowry: My Subsequent Act, which premiered in October 2024 on WEtv and has been nominated for an NAACP Symbol Award for Exceptional Truth Program. On most sensible of all of that, Mowry is the mum of 2 youngsters: a 13-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.
Despite the fact that she continues to revel in immense good fortune in her three-decade profession, there may be something that Mowry has longed to be since she used to be a youngster: an entrepreneur.
“I’ve at all times sought after to be one, ever since I knew what the phrase supposed,” she says. “I consider I found out the phrase when I used to be in highschool. I didn’t even know the way to pronounce it.”
Now not best did Mowry discover ways to pronounce entrepreneur, however she additionally discovered good fortune proper out of the gate. She introduced 4U by Tia, a high-performance pure hair care emblem for curly and textured hair, in 2023. The emblem is to be had at Walmart, Amazon, make a choice CVS retail outlets and at the emblem’s website online.
To Mowry, regardless that, good fortune as an entrepreneur is not only concerning the merchandise she launches.
“I believe that after one is an entrepreneur, they connect to network,” she says. “It’s about management. It’s about construction and providing a necessity that turns out to have some type of void in position. And I believe like the ones qualities, in terms of the definition of an entrepreneurship or attributes [of an entrepreneur], job my memory of myself.
“I completely love network,” she continues. “I really like construction, I really like rising, I really like inspiring, I really like developing and I really like management. And I really like the method, that means I noticed at a tender age that I cherished what occurs between bobbing up with an concept after which seeing it to fruition…. I benefit from the procedure. I revel in discovering the manifesto. I revel in discovering the aim excited about a better reason. I feel that’s what excites me about being an entrepreneur.”
When requested what impressed her to create 4U, Mowry first issues to her passions in lifestyles, which she refers to as pillars: wellness, network, accessibility and circle of relatives.
“I felt like there used to be—and is—a void in terms of textured hair and our network,” she says. “Rising up as anyone who has curly hair, as a tender lady, I used to be at all times… pressured to make a choice one thing that wasn’t essentially proper for me [or] out of my value vary. And that didn’t truly paintings for my hair as a result of there simply weren’t many choices available in the market…. So I sought after to fill a necessity within the curly hair texture network by way of developing some merchandise.
“Once I discussed wellness, I’m very keen about what I installed my frame [and] what I placed on my frame,” she provides. “And I simply felt like when I used to be doing a little research about what used to be a super choice for me and my circle of relatives when it got here to our textured hair, there weren’t any merchandise available in the market that truly catered to or that had been truthful when it got here to pure substances at an reasonably priced value.”
After that, Mowry started working. She collaborated with a group of scientists to create a blank, plant-based method that incorporates substances customers acknowledge at an reasonably priced value in order that 4U is extra extensively available.
“It’s science-backed [and] there’s efficacy with all-natural substances which might be at an reasonably priced value,” she says of her merchandise.
Fewer bottles approach better sustainability
Along with creating a pure and reasonably priced line of goods, every other of Mowry’s intentions with 4U used to be to create easy routines for folks with curly and textured hair.
“I’ve other curl textures and patterns than my daughter and my son… [and] I might have all of those other merchandise within the family,” she says. “What I really like about 4U is we had been ready to get a hold of a method that works on hair textures from 2A to 4C. So as a substitute of having all of those other merchandise coming out and in of the home, we will simplify the entire thing. And principally, the entire circle of relatives can use the goods—it really works on their hair textures in addition to mine.
“[It’s] no longer best that the substances are blank—I believe that I will apply it to my youngsters and myself,” she provides.
For the reason that merchandise within the 4U line paintings on other hair sorts, households want fewer bottles of product of their properties, which speaks to Mowry’s challenge of retaining the hair care line sustainable. Now not best are the goods’ substances blank, plant-based and sourced from providers who prioritize moral and sustainable harvesting practices, however the bottles and packaging are sustainable too.
“My purpose with 4U is to take into consideration the shopper [and] their wishes,” she says. “I do know that, together with myself, we’re in need of to be extra aware of what we purchase from all other angles, from our pockets[s] to the substances that we’re the usage of. After which additionally, how is that this making an affect?
“On the subject of our surroundings and waste,” she continues, “I feel that is what… makes 4U simply stick out from a large number of different merchandise which might be available in the market. And there’s a network of people who assume this fashion, and I felt like there used to be a void, and I sought after to satisfy that want.”
Accessibility 4U
Any other of Mowry’s pastime pillars is accessibility, which performed a large section within the construction of 4U by way of Tia.
“It’s and used to be undoubtedly a explanation why and a purpose of mine to have blank, pure, fine quality substances which might be available to everybody,” she says. “I believe like nice merchandise shouldn’t simply be catered to 1 socioeconomic crew, and I believe like [for] ladies and numerous communities, it’s time that they don’t should be pressured once more to make a choice merchandise which might be poisonous simply because it reaches their value level. In order that used to be undoubtedly a purpose of mine….
“I feel the accessibility… [was] one of the crucial primary the explanation why I used to be serious about our partnership with Walmart,” she provides. “Walmart is understood, after all, for his or her nice costs.”
The whole-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 good fortune Mowry has loved with the release of 4U, she is fast to indicate that it didn’t occur in a single day. In truth, it took about two years to take her thought from ideation to fact.
“I say that 4U is like my 3rd child,” Mowry says. “It takes some time on your concepts to conform, and that’s the means that I’m taking with this emblem. Other folks overlook that the [tortoise] received the race. For me, it’s extra about high quality, it’s extra about construction network, it’s extra about authenticity, and that takes time.”
Mowry is lucky to have surrounded herself with like-minded folks to lend a hand her no longer best release 4U however develop it too. After she shared her concept along with her agent, she used to be presented to those who had been fascinated by partnering along with her—and from there, she constructed her group.
“All of us got here in combination, and we simply began to discuss our concepts and flesh issues out like what is wanted,” she says. “There used to be a large number of paintings that used to be put into it.
“That’s what I used to be announcing I really like about being an entrepreneur,” Mowry continues. “That is the a part of the method that I revel in, and… a large number of folks, they don’t know that’s the method—they only see the top product or the release. However there’s simply such a lot that is going into it.”
She additionally says that achieving out to others guided 4U’s construction.
“[What] used to be additionally extraordinarily really useful, when it got here to having my concepts come to lifestyles, used to be no longer being afraid to succeed in out to other folks… [and] to the network,” she says. “It is a community-based emblem, and I feel that… what has been so wonderful about the entire procedure is truly working out the target market, truly working out the network, truly working out the void and what [the needs are]. We’re repeatedly asking the ones questions.
“We now have some cool new merchandise that we can be launching quickly, and what I’m maximum serious about is [that] those are merchandise that the network has sought after and has been soliciting for,” she continues. “So for us to provide again on this means—I simply can’t wait.”
Barnes is a Florida-based unbiased journalist and entrepreneur with a keenness for trip, wellness and the surroundings.
This text initially gave the impression within the March 2025 issue of SUCCESS+ magazine. Photograph of Tia Mowry courtesy of ©Adam Rindy.
