Check Out Imani Jones’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Imani Jones.

Hi imani, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always been creative. I went to school at FIT in NYC for Advertising, Marketing and Communications and at the time I got pregnant, I was building a career as a makeup artist in the fashion industry. It was an exhilarating time in my life. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was talented. I started collaborating with photographers at school and one connection led to another. Soon I was doing Fashion Week, working celebrity events, and finding myself in rooms with powerful people. I was just a girl from the Bronx who somehow climbed her way into spaces that never felt built for someone like me.

When I got pregnant at 22, I went back and forth on whether or not I was going to keep the pregnancy. I knew from the beginning that I would be doing it alone. My son’s father was a deeply abusive and damaged person and at the time, I was still very young and carrying my own wounds. His love felt like a drug. It was constant highs and lows, love bombing followed by withdrawal and emotional abuse, and I became addicted to the cycle. Looking back, I realize part of why I stayed so long was because chaos already felt familiar to me. I grew up in a home without much stability and I think that uncertainty is part of what drove me so hard academically and creatively. I graduated high school at 16 and started college at 17 because I was always searching for a way out and a way forward.

So when I got pregnant, even through the fear and devastation, there was also a part of me that thought, maybe this is my chance to finally have a family of my own. Of course, as many women learn, a baby does not change a man. Even while I was pregnant, I knew this was ultimately a “me” job, and I chose to have Jude anyway.

What I didn’t expect was for Jude to be profoundly autistic. I knew nothing about autism at the time and honestly, I was heartbroken. That experience is what eventually led me to create The Hippy Mom. I started sharing my pain, my challenges, and my experiences as a single mother raising a child with profound autism and unexpectedly, people connected to it. My platform grew because I was speaking honestly about caregiving, burnout, grief, survival mode, and motherhood in a way many people related to but rarely saw spoken about openly.

I didn’t start my herbal business until the pandemic. That period changed everything for us. Jude’s aggression and regression intensified during isolation and the stress completely consumed my body. I became inflamed constantly. My eczema mirrored lupus flare ups so severely that for a while I thought I had an autoimmune disease. My hair was falling out, my skin was covered in rashes, and my nervous system felt like it was collapsing under pressure.

That was when herbs found me. It started small. Chamomile tea before bed. Lemon balm to calm my nervous system. Then I started researching deeper and discovered herbalism and adaptogens. I became obsessed with learning what chronic stress does to the body, especially for caregivers living in constant fight or flight. Slowly, I started healing. My body transformed from inflamed and exhausted to clear, grounded, and regulated. For the first time in years, I felt like I had some control over my body again.

So many caregivers and parents of children with autism have nervous systems comparable to soldiers in combat. Most people expect sleepless nights and survival mode to end after the baby years, but many caregivers continue living that reality for years, sometimes for life. Of course the body revolts. It thinks it’s being chased by a bear.

That understanding is what shaped The Hippy Mom into what it is today. I create herbal teas, herbal smokes, and tinctures for people like me. Overwhelmed caregivers. Mothers trying to hold themselves together. People searching for softness while carrying heavy lives.

I don’t claim herbs can heal an overwhelmed nervous system. Real healing also requires support, rest, community, and resources that many caregivers simply do not have access to. But my herbs can offer relief. I think of them as oil on a wound. A small exhale for people carrying difficult things.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been easy, to say the least. I have struggled mentally in ways I don’t think people fully understand unless they’ve lived it. I battle chronic exhaustion and depression from handling everything on my own and being everything to Jude. He’s about to be 10 years old and sometimes I cannot believe I have done this for an entire decade without a handbook and without physical support.

One of the lowest moments of my life was when Jude and I were told to vacate our apartment in Yonkers, New York. It was honestly such a beautiful apartment with huge Victorian style windows and a loft space that at the time felt like a dream come true for us. Getting that notice completely blindsided me. But inflation changes everything and the landlord wanted to sell the unit.

At the time, I was surviving off a fixed income working as a paraprofessional at a high school along with whatever small amount of income I was making from my herbal business. I had to stay below a certain income threshold because I was receiving food stamps, so financially I constantly felt trapped. Looking back, I genuinely do not know how I was paying $1,800 rent every month while bringing home checks that were sometimes under $1,000. The rest I tried to make up through my business however I could.

So when I got that notice, I knew it meant Jude and I were facing homelessness. I had no savings. No backup plan. No family with extra space waiting for us. Writing about it now still makes me emotional because it was deeply traumatizing.

But that season also showed me that my online community truly became my village.

A woman I had met only once through Instagram, who was also part of my THM support group for mothers raising autistic children, lived in California. When I shared what was happening, she personally reached out and told me she wanted to help get us here. I am not religious, but honestly, how else do you explain something like that? She felt like an angel appearing exactly when I needed one.

She created a GoFundMe and my online community showed up for us every single day. Ten dollars here. Twenty dollars there. Small donations from people who genuinely cared. It kept growing until we reached my original goal of $5,000 and then exceeded it. At the same time, I was desperately searching for apartments in Los Angeles because I knew California had resources that could genuinely change our lives, especially IHSS, a program that allows parents like me to become paid caregivers for disabled children.

By that point, it had become painfully obvious that traditional work was no longer realistic for me. Jude is nonverbal and completely dependent on me for almost everything, from feeding and bathing to dressing and constant supervision. He is also at risk for elopement, which means running away without understanding danger. It is terrifying. One time Jude slipped out of our apartment while I was doing laundry in the next room and I could not find him for seven minutes. Seven minutes may not sound long to most people, but when your child is vulnerable and unaware of danger, it feels like your soul leaves your body.

Jude also self injures and headbangs on hard surfaces. At any moment he could seriously hurt himself, so I knew we needed more support than New York was offering us.

Just days before our move out date, my friend in California helped me secure an apartment in Los Angeles. Then she flew all the way to New York to help me pack up my car with only what we could fit inside. No furniture. No huge moving truck. Just important documents, some clothes, my herbal supplies, and my two cats.

Then we drove from New York to California in four days.

My mother stayed with Jude while I transported everything ahead of us so I could secure the apartment and get settled before flying back for him. What still amazes me is that I barely knew this woman personally before all of this happened, yet she showed up for us in one of the darkest moments of my life with so much love and generosity.

I will never forget that.

I do not have millions of followers online, but what I do have is a real community. People who have watched Jude grow up. People who have watched me survive every version of myself over the years. People who reminded me that community still exists, even online.

When I finally arrived in California, I remember sitting there in disbelief. I could not believe I had actually done it. I had uprooted our entire life and driven across the country with no certainty other than the feeling that staying would destroy me.

It has now been two years since that move and without question, it was the best decision I could have made for myself, Jude, and even my two cats. Looking back, the entire experience felt spiritually guided. There were too many impossible things that aligned at the exact right moments for me to believe otherwise. Something much bigger than me carried us through that season.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What sets me apart is that I’m not just selling a product for monetary gain. I genuinely believe our gifts are not meant only for us, they are meant to be shared. Herbalism completely changed mine and Jude’s lives and because of that, sharing what I’ve learned feels deeply personal to me.

I don’t just use herbs for myself. Herbalism is woven into our everyday life, especially through tinctures, which is the main way Jude receives herbal support. I have personally seen herbs help support his aggression, anxiety, nervous system regulation, and sleep struggles. Of course herbs are not a cure for autism and I never present them that way, but they have brought real relief and softness into our home during some very difficult seasons.

That is why The Hippy Mom exists. I am not simply selling teas, tinctures, or herbal smokes. I am sharing lived experiences in hopes that another overwhelmed caregiver or parent somewhere out there feels a little less alone and maybe finds something that brings relief into their own home too.

Most of my offerings are currently sold directly through Instagram and TikTok which has allowed me to stay personally connected to the people supporting my business. I think that direct connection and sense of community is a huge part of what makes The Hippy Mom feel so intimate and intentional.

I think what people connect to most is the authenticity in what I do. I live this every single day. There is no separation between my life and my work. I create from real experience, real exhaustion, real healing, and real love for my son.

I have experienced some of the absolute lowest moments imaginable and I believe those experiences gave me a deeper understanding of people, pain, and survival. We are all reflections of each other in some way. If my story can inspire someone else to transmute the hardest parts of their life into something meaningful, beautiful, or healing, then I feel like I am walking in my purpose.

That is what I am most proud of.

Even now, living in California away from family and physical support systems, I continue building this life for Jude and me from the ground up every single day. It is not easy, but it is real.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
My online community deserves an incredible amount of credit. I think people underestimate how life changing online spaces can be when they are built from genuine connection instead of performance. So many mothers, caregivers, and women found me during seasons where I was speaking honestly about autism, burnout, grief, healing, and survival and over time, many of them became a real support system for me.

I also give a tremendous amount of credit to the women who supported me emotionally during my darkest seasons. Other mothers of autistic children who understood what this life actually looks like behind closed doors. The internet can feel very surface level sometimes, but I have built really meaningful relationships through shared vulnerability and honesty.

My spirituality also deserves a tremendous amount of credit in my journey and in the way I move through life. My relationship with my ancestors, my spirit team, and the Divine is a huge part of who I am. It is what keeps me grounded regardless of what is happening around me externally. There have been so many moments in my life where logically things should not have worked out, yet somehow they did. I move through life with a deep trust that I am spiritually guided and protected and that trust has carried me through some of the darkest and most uncertain periods of my life.

Making tea is also a huge part of that connection for me. It is one of the few moments in my day where I intentionally slow down and reconnect with myself. Tea for me is not just a drink, it is ritual. It is grounding. It is a moment to breathe, reflect, regulate my nervous system, and reconnect to something bigger than myself. In many ways, herbalism became the bridge that brought me back to my body, my intuition, and my spiritual connection after years of surviving in constant fight or flight.

A lot of The Hippy Mom was built during the hours most people never see. After Jude finally falls asleep. Between meltdowns, therapies, school meetings, exhaustion, and trying to regulate my own nervous system at the same time. People often see the aesthetics of my brand first, the herbs, the teas, the visuals, the rituals, but underneath all of it is a woman trying to create softness inside a life that has often been very hard.

I think that is why so many people connect to my platform. I am not performing wellness from a perfect life. I am trying to survive while still creating beauty inside of it. There is no separation between my life and my work. I create from real experience, real exhaustion, real healing, and real love for my son.

Motherhood also completely changed the way I view caregiving and the conversations women are having around becoming mothers. I think many women are sold a very romanticized version of motherhood without enough honest conversations about what can happen when a child requires lifelong care and support. None of the parenting books I read while pregnant prepared me for profound disability, for isolation, for becoming a full time caregiver, or for the reality that many parents are doing this without a village.

So many mothers in my community never imagined they would one day leave careers, relationships, or parts of themselves behind in order to care for a disabled child full time. I think women deserve more honest conversations before becoming mothers, not to scare them away from it, but so they fully understand the depth of what unconditional love and caregiving can truly ask of a person.

At the same time, loving Jude taught me that love exists far beyond words, expectations, or the life I originally imagined for myself. Even though he is completely nonverbal, the connection we share is one of the deepest relationships I have ever experienced. Loving him taught me that the deepest forms of love do not always require words. Even through the grief, exhaustion, and sacrifices, I would still choose him every single time.

My son Jude deserves the deepest credit of all. Becoming his mother completely transformed the direction of my life. He is the reason The Hippy Mom exists. He pushed me toward herbalism, advocacy, storytelling, and creating softer spaces for overwhelmed caregivers. Loving him forced me to become stronger, more patient, more intuitive, and more compassionate than I ever thought possible.

And honestly, I also give credit to younger versions of myself that kept going during survival mode. The version of me navigating New York alone. The version of me creating while exhausted, grieving, and uncertain about the future. I think she deserves a lot of love too because without her, none of this would exist.

Pricing:

• Herbal tea blends beginning at $22
• Specialty blends and seasonal offerings vary
• Herbal smokes and tinctures available in limited drops

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thehippymom
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehippymomblog/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thehippymom
• Other: tiktok @thehippymom

Image Credits
Imani Jones