Our Story

Through Each Child, a New Carrier Was Born

Aloha & Light was never created from a business plan. It was born through motherhood.

What began with one baby, a sewing machine, and my need to keep my little one close has grown alongside our family for more than a decade. Today, my husband and I have five children, and when I look back at the evolution of Aloha & Light, I can see each of them woven into its story.

As my babies grew, my needs as a mother changed. And through each season, I found myself creating something new.

Before Aloha & Light

Long before Aloha & Light, I was an artist, a dreamer, and probably always an entrepreneur at heart. As a little girl growing up in California, I sold lemonade and cookies to neighbors. As I got older, I spent much of my time painting, skating, surfing, creating jewelry, and trying to figure out exactly where I belonged.

I tried college more than once and explored different paths, but the traditional route never quite felt like mine. I kept coming back to creating. Whether I was painting, making jewelry, or dreaming up something new, working with my hands was where I felt most like myself.

Then I became a mother.

My twin boys came into my life, and suddenly everything changed. Motherhood became my greatest adventure. I wanted to give them a childhood filled with freedom, sunshine, ocean and possibility—and eventually that dream brought the three of us to Hawaiʻi.

I didn’t know it then, but that decision would change the course of my life and eventually become part of the heart of Aloha & Light.

 

Finding Home in Hawaii

When my twins were little, I had this dream that by the time they were five, we would live near the ocean and they would grow up surfing. I didn’t have everything figured out—I just knew I wanted something different for us.

So when they were almost five, I packed up our lives and moved to Hawaiʻi.

It was just me and my two boys, and in so many ways we were starting over. There were a lot of unknowns, but there was also this incredible feeling that we had found where we were supposed to be.

Hawaiʻi changed me. We spent our days near the ocean, my boys learned to surf, and we found people who became our ʻohana. I began creating again, dreaming again, and finding pieces of myself that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Somewhere in all of that sunshine, salt water, motherhood and new beginnings, Aloha & Light began.

At first, it wasn’t a babywearing company at all. It was simply a little Instagram page where I shared the things I was making and pieces of the life we were creating. I chose the words Aloha & Light because they represented what I wanted to put into the world—love, goodness, creativity and light.

I had no idea those two words would eventually become the name of a business that would grow right alongside my family.

My boys experiencing one of their first Hawai'i sunsets. We had found home.

And Then Came Keli'i...

Life changed again when I met my husband and our family began to grow.

When I became pregnant with Keliʻi, I found myself looking at motherhood differently than I had the first time around. I was researching everything—birth, breastfeeding, food, gentle parenting—and becoming much more intentional about the way I wanted to raise my children.

And when Keliʻi was born, one thing became very clear very quickly:

He wanted to be on my chest.

I was also raising two active boys, so sitting still wasn’t exactly an option. I needed a way to keep this sweet little baby close to me while still being present and active with his big brothers.

I tried a structured carrier. I tried a long stretchy wrap. Nothing felt quite right. They were hot, bulky or uncomfortable, and the wrap felt like miles of fabric when I was just trying to get out the door with three children.

What I wanted seemed so simple—a carrier that would hold Keliʻi naturally against my chest, feel comfortable for both of us, breathe in the Hawaiʻi heat, and still allow me to move through everyday life with my boys.

So I started searching.

Eventually, I discovered ring slings. I loved the simplicity of the design, but the artist in me immediately started wondering:

What if I made my own?

I bought a sewing machine, found the materials I wanted, ordered rings, and started creating.

Making my very first sling with Keli'i right there with me --as usual. 🤍

That first sling wasn’t created in a design studio or around a conference table. It was created in the middle of motherhood.

I made it because my baby needed me.

And somehow, it worked.

Keliʻi settled against my chest exactly where he wanted to be. My hands were free. My back was comfortable. I could move, play with his brothers, and still have my baby tucked safely and closely against me.

For the first time, I had the carrier I had been searching for.

The very first Aloha & Light sling-- with the little boy who inspired it. 

I posted a photo of it on my little Aloha & Light Instagram account, never imagining what would happen next.

Other mothers started asking about it.

Where did you get that sling? Could you make one for me?

One request became another. Then another.

Without a business plan, without investors, and without really realizing what I was building, Aloha & Light Baby Slings was born.

It began with one mama, one baby, one sewing machine, and a need.

Keliʻi inspired the very first carrier—and he wouldn’t be the last.

As My Babies Grew, So Did Aloha & LIght.

Aloha & Light continued to grow, but so did my family—and each new season of motherhood seemed to bring a new need.

When Atticus came along, I already knew how much babywearing could change everyday life. But Atticus was different from Keliʻi. As he grew, he loved being up high on my back, where he could see the world over my shoulder and be right in the middle of everything.

And once again, I found myself searching for a carrier that worked the way I needed it to.

This time, that search led me to the Onbuhimo.

I loved the simplicity of a waistless carrier and the freedom of a high back carry, but—as had happened with the sling—I began imagining how I could make it my own. I wanted something beautiful, comfortable and supportive, but still light enough for the way we lived in Hawaiʻi.

So I started experimenting.

There were prototypes, adjustments, sewing, testing and plenty of trial and error. I wasn’t designing something based on what I thought a mother might need. I was the mother who needed it.

And little by little, our Aloha & Light Onbuhimo was born.

Atticus, my little backseat designer--the baby who inspired our Onbuhimo.

🤍 Looking back now, I can see a pattern I didn’t recognize at the time.

My children were helping me design Aloha & Light.

Keliʻi taught me what I needed when I wanted my baby close against my chest.

Atticus taught me what I needed when that baby became a curious little person who wanted to see the world from my back.

And I thought maybe I had figured babywearing out.

I hadn’t.

Because years later, another little girl would come into our lives—and she would inspire an entirely new chapter for both our family and Aloha & Light.

And Then Came AVA

Years passed. Our children grew, Aloha & Light grew, and life carried our family through seasons of incredible joy—and seasons of great loss.

After losing a baby, there was a tenderness surrounding the next chapter of motherhood that is difficult to put into words.

And then came Ava.

Our sweet baby girl brought a new kind of light into our family. By then, I had been babywearing and designing carriers for years. You might think that after all that time I would have had everything figured out.

But motherhood has a funny way of reminding you that every baby is different.

And once again, my baby inspired me to create.

Our sweet Ava--a new little light, and the beginning of another chapter.

I had an idea for a carrier that could give me more structure and support while still keeping the simplicity, beauty and freedom I loved about babywearing.

That idea became the Eco-Fin.

It didn’t happen overnight. There was a tremendous amount of trial and error—prototypes that worked, prototypes that didn’t, changes to the fit, the straps, the support and all of the little details that make a carrier feel just right.

I kept working on it because I knew what I wanted it to become.

Eventually, after years of creating carriers for other mothers, I found myself once again designing around the baby in my own arms.

Ava helped me find the missing piece.

And the Eco-Fin was born.

But Ava wasn’t finished inspiring me.

She grew into my biggest little one, and as she became a toddler, I needed something that could comfortably carry a bigger child while still feeling like Aloha & Light.

At the same time, her little personality was beginning to shine. She loved color. She loved art. She loved creating alongside me.

Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised me that this season would lead to another carrier.

I went back to designing, testing and perfecting again—this time creating something stronger and more substantial for those bigger babies and toddlers we still aren’t quite ready to put down.

And eventually, the Eco-Infinity was born.

When I look at our carriers today, I don’t just see products.

I see my children.

I see Keliʻi curled against my chest while I tried to keep up with his big brothers.

I see Atticus riding high on my back, wanting to see everything I could see.

And I see Ava—my little artist—growing right alongside the carriers she helped inspire.

Through each child, a new carrier was born.

And through every season of motherhood, Aloha & Light became a little more of what it is today.

Our Story Is Still Being Written

Today, my husband and I are raising five children, and somehow I find myself standing in two very different seasons of motherhood at the same time.

Our twins are 19 now, stepping into lives of their own. One is out experiencing life with the love of his life, while the other is pursuing his dream of becoming a pilot.

Keliʻi—the little baby who wanted nothing more than to live on my chest and unknowingly inspired the very first Aloha & Light sling—is now 13.

Atticus, my high-riding little Onbuhimo baby, is 10.

And Ava, our sweet baby girl and little artist, is two—still very much in my arms, still inspiring me, and still reminding me that apparently my babywearing story wasn’t finished quite yet.

Sometimes I look at all five of them and wonder how we got here so quickly.

The babies who inspired my earliest creations are growing up. My oldest children are beginning their own adventures, while I’m simultaneously chasing a toddler around, running a business, dyeing silk, dreaming up new designs, and doing my best to soak in this last season of having a little one at home.

And through all of it, Aloha & Light is still growing with us.

The carriers have changed. My art has evolved. Our family has grown. I’ve learned, failed, redesigned, started over, and created things I never could have imagined when I sat down at that first sewing machine with Keliʻi in my arms.

But the reason behind it all has remained remarkably simple.

I create for the same reason I began: to keep our babies close.

Every Aloha & Light piece carries a little bit of this story—the babies who inspired it, the hands that created it, the colors of Hawaiʻi, and all the beautiful, messy seasons of motherhood that came along the way.

I don’t know exactly what the next chapter will look like.

And I think I’m finally okay with that.

Because all those years ago, when I wrote the original story of Aloha & Light, I ended it wondering where this little dream might take me.

Now I understand that there was never really a finish line.

I wasn’t just building a business. I was building a life.

And Aloha & Light has had the privilege of growing right alongside it.

Five children later, I’m still a mother. Still an artist. Still creating. Still learning.

And our story is still being written.

With aloha,
Janel
Founder & Mama, Aloha & Light