Although Mom 'N' I was launched in 2014, the company's foundation was laid much earlier.
In 2011, when Aneesa Sood was a high school senior, she experienced bullying. Determined to take a stand, she founded But Words Will Never Hurt Me, an anti-bullying program that has been featured in U.S. News and World Report and other publications.
In 2014, Aneesa wrote Freshman Fifteen: The Most Important Things I Learned in My First Year of College. She continued to speak out against bullying and also began giving presentations on academic success and self-esteem.
As she traveled to schools, churches and clubs to speak, Aneesa realized the many students lacked the encouragement she had gained through her early involvement in Girl Scouts, Jack and Jill of America, Leadership University and her church, New St. Luke Missionary Baptist in Jackson, TN.
One afternoon in the summer of 2014, she shared her concern with her mother, Mary Sood, who served as editor of Freshman Fifteen and frequently traveled to speaking engagements with Aneesa. They began brainstorming for solutions.