By Melissa Moore-Randall
Since COVID, many have relied on crystal healing for anxiety and depression to restore balance and harmony.
Revere’s Alie Leone combined crystal healing with childhood favorite plushie toys creating Soul Mates Plush Toy. A 2021 graduate of RHS, Alie is from a large, loud Italian family. “I was lucky enough to come from a home filled with love, support, and imagination. My sisters and I were always keeping busy by playing pretend or indulging in pop culture. We loved collectibles.”
“I graduated from RHS in 2012 with not a single clue what I wanted to do in life. I started my college years at Bunker Hill Community College and decided that I loved writing.”
Alie would continue her education at Salem State, graduating in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, majoring in Journalism. She looked forward to pursuing a career as a freelancer, or even running her own publication. She worked at a media company in the Back Bay, and wrote for a pop culture blog she created. However, she never really pursued her dream of being a writer once COVID hit. Shortly after Soul Mates Plush came to life.
“I was newly into crystal healing. One day, I wasn’t having a good mental health day. I was laying in bed snuggling my beloved childhood plushie, Dakota, I had since I was 5 years old. In my hand, I was also holding a rose quartz crystal and an amethyst crystal. I then thought, while holding these three emotional support items, “Dakota, what if I was able to store these crystals in you?”
Alie leapt out of bed and began brain storming. She thought of bunnies because she felt like they were the most recognizable kinds of plushies, other than a teddy bear. She searched “plush bunnies” and saw examples of colored plushies. She thought about what if the colors of each bunny represented a crystal and how she would store them. The plushies would have zippered pouches in their backs storing the crystals. They could then be taken out so customers can get to know the crystals themselves, feel them, hold them, and even cleanse them. The bunny would offer genuine emotional support with rose quartz for love, clear quartz for clarity, amethyst for inner peace, and jade for luck.
“My mom helped me come up with the execution of sewing pouches and zippers into generic plushies we bought at Five Below. Next was coming up with a business name and logo. I wanted the name to embody friendship but also refer to the crystals somehow. I remember thinking of Care Bears and saying “hmmmm Care Hares?”
Alie googled synonyms for “friends” which led to mate and then it clicked … Soulmate. Soul refers to the crystals being good for the soul, and Mates embodies friendship. Her work didn’t stop there. It was time for logo design.
“I love being creative so I wanted to come up with it on my own. I knew Soul Mates would be plush bunnies with pink noses. I didn’t want just a regular pink nose, so I made it a heart because Soul Mates are all about love. What started off as a brainstorm exercise of just doodling, ended up being the final version of the logo. And I’m really proud of it all. When I was confident in the next step I bought a bulk of plushies I wanted to test out and sell to friends and family. The plushies available were Rosie, Claire, Amy, and Jade. These would be the bunnies that started out my business. Then when I started to really grow faith in this project from testimonials I was receiving, it was time to get serious and reach out to manufacturers to help me create my own plush bunnies that would still embody the colors of the crystals each one is named after.”
To learn more about her plushies and find your “soulmate”, visit her website www.soulmatesplush.com. There you will find direct links to her Etsy shop. She is also running a campaign on IndieGogo called ‘Believe In Magic, Believe In Soul Mates Plush.’ IndieGogo is a crowdfunding platform where passion projects can get kickstarted. To learn more about her IndieGoGo campaign, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/believe-in-magic-believe-in-soul-mates-plush/x/38353064#/
