As an entrepreneur, Christy founded two business inspired by her longtime passion for Yoga, Nuala and Sundari.
With her background in fashion & yoga, her desire to promote healthy lifestyles for women and girls helped develop Nuala (natural-universal-altruistic-limitless-authentic.) and Sundari (which means beautiful woman). Nuala is a brand she launched in partnership with PUMA. The collection came from Christy's own desire to find clothing appropriate for her ever evolving and active lifestyle. She says, "the clothing allows me to move freely and confidently throughout my life. I call it 'meditation in motion'."
Christy also partnered with two cosmetic industry executives in the Fall of 1999 to create Sundari a luxury skin care line. After a successful 4 years, Turlington and her two partners successfully sold Sundari to Marico Industries Ltd., one of India's fastest growing consumer products companies, which only made sense to continue building the brand within its heritage’s country.
As a Woman, Mom, and Role Model for her family and many of us M.O.Ms here, Christy inspires us even more today with her advocacy work. After the passing of her father to lung cancer, she works very hard to educate on lung cancer with awareness advocacy projects, and now, maternal and child health advocacy.
In 2008, Christy began working on a documentary film profiling the status of maternal health worldwide. In her gripping directorial debut, Christy shares the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States. NO WOMAN, NO CRY made its world premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City with the broadcast premiere forthcoming in spring 2011. Concurrent with the debut of her documentary, Christy launched Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal and child health. Every Mother Counts seeks to engage policymakers and thought leaders, develop new partnerships and encourage people to take action to improve the lives of women worldwide. The keystone of the campaign is http://www.everymothercounts.org/, an interactive platform providing the tools to raise awareness, education and action. We all will have the priveledge to see her work this Mother's Day on OWN.
Christy lives in New York City with her husband - filmmaker Edward Burns - and their two children.
Let’s Chat with Christy the M.O.M and Learn More About Every Mother Counts
M.O.M Katie ~ Christy, thank you for chatting with us. You are an extraordinary woman and m.o.m! From Model, Entreprenuer, Mom, Author and Advocate & Voice for cancer and now maternal & child health, where does your passion and drive come from?
M.O.M Christy ~Thank you! I have always been an optimist, adventurous and curious about the world. Traveling the world has inspired me in countless ways. I have found meaning and a sense of purpose in my world travels and through my yoga practice I have learned to set intentions and take action.
M.O.M Katie ~ Clearly you have become a M.O.M (master of multitasking) raising kids and maintaining your career. Any Tips for us M.O.Ms on the best way to balance it all?
M.O.M Christy ~ Like most M.O.Ms I probably take on too much at once. I'm also a student again, but I have a hard time saying no or putting things off that I want to enjoy now. I am at a place in my life where everything seems to be on track and I am enjoying the continuous fruits of my actions. I think we can easily feel off balance when we are not being true to ourselves. All of my efforts at the moment are pretty much directed toward the same end so nothing is at odds right now, which feels great.
M.O.M Katie ~ As a woman, entrepreneur, and a mom, how can other M.O.Ms use their voice, companies, products, etc… to fight for a cause they feel strongly about supporting?
M.O.M Christy ~ One of the things that many American women take for granted is how many choices we have in just about everything from our partners to when or if we marry, have children, pursue education, careers, and the products we buy for ourselves and our families. We also have our voices. Millions of girls and women have none of these things. Becoming a woman should be empowering for girls. Becoming a mother should be empowering for women. But without choices, too often these transitional periods in our lives are disempowering. Those who feel empowered must support others who are not or are less so. I have found that the most deeply personal experiences I have had connect me with others that I may never know, yet I care about them and their well being and that compels me to do all that I can with what I have.
M.O.M Katie ~ Your most recent campaign is to help improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality with your documentary No Woman. No Cry. Please help us understand this issue and how can we unite to help and take action with EveryMotherCounts?
M.O.M Christy ~I started looking into this issue more after suffering a complication during the birth of my first child. Thankfully I had a great team and made it through my own ordeal but I learned that around the world, 1000 women die every day in pregnancy and childbirth—mostly in the developing world. Once I realized that the vast majority of those deaths were preventable I knew I had to take action. The film shares my own journey to uncover the faces behind the statistics on maternal health and through the Every Mother Counts campaign, I’m hoping to share that journey with more people to get them energized about making a difference. Ultimately, we need our government involved in the solutions so we want moms to speak up to say that this is a priority but we also know that moms each have their own unique talents and resources that can make a difference immediately so I’m also hoping to create opportunities to engage with great groups on the ground too. If we demand more engagement from our own elected officials while at the same time we scale up proven, effective programs to SHOW them just how serious we are—we’ll send a strong message and save a lot of lives.
Thank you again! We hope everyone can help spread the word about http://www.everymothercounts.org/ and sign the petition and take action.
Please follow Christy and look for No Woman, No Cry on Oprah's OWN this Mother's Day!
Christy can be followed on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/cturlington and on her site: http://www.christyturlington.com/ as well as http://www.everymothercounts.org/
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