What began as an Instagram page sharing encouraging reminders has grown into a community centered on self-kindness, mental wellness and human connection.
Behind Self-Care Is For Everyone are Sasha Aronzon-Martofel and her husband, AJ Martofel, a South Jersey couple who have spent the past eight years building a platform designed to remind people that taking care of themselves doesn’t have to be complicated – or expensive.
Aronzon-Martofel, who now lives in Somerdale, grew up in Scranton after her family moved from Russia when she was 5. She later attended Temple University and earned a master’s degree in higher-education counseling from West Chester University.
Her original goal was to work with college students and help them develop a sense of belonging. But while attending graduate school, she met AJ, whose family is from Argentina and who grew up in Voorhees.
Six months into dating, the couple was already discussing ways they could create something together. Both shared an interest in psychology, and Aronzon-Martofel’s counseling coursework gave them another avenue for exploring topics that were personally meaningful.
On Sept. 1, 2018, they published their first post on the Instagram account Self-Care Is For Everyone.September is officially recognized as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
“We started as an Instagram curation page where we were just sharing reminders online that meant something to us,” Aronzon-Martofel recalled. “Organically, our page grew very quickly and these messages resonated deeply for a lot of individuals.”
The couple soon realized those messages could exist beyond a phone screen.
With AJ’s background in direct-to-garment printing, they began putting encouraging messages and artwork on clothing. Their website launched on World Kindness Day, Nov. 13, 2018.
The concept was simple: Someone wearing a sweatshirt or T-shirt with an encouraging message could potentially brighten another person’s day, start a conversation or create a moment of connection between strangers.
Eight years later, the couple has seen those interactions happen repeatedly.
For Aronzon-Martofel, those connections represent a definition of wellness that differs from the increasingly commercialized version seen online.
“I think wellness from our brand’s definition starts with being kind to yourself,” she said.
Self-care, she explained, doesn’t have to begin with purchasing a product or developing the perfect wellness routine. Sometimes it means taking a deep breath, giving yourself grace or recognizing that you’re doing the best you can during a difficult period.
That philosophy has become increasingly important as social media itself has evolved.
While platforms promise connection, Aronzon-Martofel believes they can sometimes produce the opposite result, with users sitting alone and comparing their lives to strangers online.
Self-Care Is For Everyone attempts to interrupt that cycle.
The account offers approachable messages about mental health and practical language people can use to advocate for themselves. A post about asking for help, for example, might provide actual scripts followers can use to begin that conversation.
“We want to be the page that you go to where you can just kind of escape into a more peaceful, hopeful, approachable way to these conversations,” Aronzon-Martofel said.
Art is central to that approach.
The couple has collaborated with more than 200 artists from around the world over the past eight years, combining their messages with artwork intended to make difficult topics feel approachable.
Their latest project takes that philosophy into a new format.
The couple’s latest venture, a self-care journal, will be available in mid-November.
Sasha and AJ are co-authors of “How Do I Self-Care?,” an interactive journal scheduled to arrive in bookstores Nov. 11. The project features contributions from more than 20 independent artists and explores self-care through different seasons of life, including loneliness, heartbreak, sadness, grief, joy and hopefulness.
The journal grew from an unexpected opportunity. An editor who followed their Instagram account approached the couple about writing a book. It ultimately took approximately three and a half years to complete.
During that process, the couple’s understanding of self-care became deeply personal.
About a year into writing the journal, the couple lost their first baby at 36 weeks of pregnancy.
The experience forced them to confront grief while reconsidering what caring for oneself actually looks like during a life-altering event.
There were days, Aronzon-Martofel recalled, when simply crying and managing to eat something was all she could accomplish. Learning to recognize that as enough reinforced a central idea behind the journal: Wellness isn’t a destination.
Instead, she views self-care as a collection of skills that change depending on what life brings.
The goal isn’t to dismiss painful feelings with positivity, either. Aronzon-Martofel is wary of “toxic positivity” that encourages people to ignore difficult emotions. Their journal instead makes room for those feelings while leaving open the possibility of hope.
That perspective is reflected in the couple’s interactions with followers.
Sasha recalled approaching her car one day when someone noticed stickers displaying the brand’s messages. The stranger became emotional and shared that they had lost their son to suicide.
Moments like that have shown the couple how a few words can create an opening for people to feel seen and connected.
As Self-Care Is For Everyone continues evolving from Instagram posts to apparel and now publishing, Aronzon-Martofel wants one element to remain unchanged.
Kindness.
She hopes the journal can reach people who need support while allowing them to interact with it in whatever way works best for them. Someone who doesn’t process feelings through writing, for example, could use the prompts with a voice recorder instead.
But regardless of the format, the message remains the same.
“I never want to get away from kindness and self-kindness from being at the core of our message,” she shared. “I think the world is already a harsh place and we could all use a little more kindness.”
