Renee Watkins

Renee Watkins is an entrepreneur, yoga teacher, birth doula, and influencer based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the creator of RW Yoga, a yoga brand and method that aims to show people, especially women of colour, that yoga is a practice that runs far deeper than contorting your body. Among her innovations are the #stereotypicalyogis movement and Super Sis Sundays, which are weekly yoga and wellness socials she hosts in Roswell, Georgia. She has built a large social media following, including over 67,000 followers on Instagram and over 2,400 YouTube subscribers.

Watkins studied for, and obtained, a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Tennessee State University with the intention of becoming a lawyer. In her senior year, however, she decided to change path for moral reasons and decided to become a yoga instructor instead. One of the first things she had to overcome however was the perception that yoga is for thin, rich, white women — she also found it difficult to be taken seriously because of her colour. To combat such awful prejudice, she began spreading the #stereotypicalyogis hashtag, drawing attention to the fact that yoga can be and is practiced by all kinds of people, regardless of ethnicity or background.

Since then, Watkins has established herself by hdoing everything from hosting yoga retreats in Jamaica to training as a birth doula. Her story is as inspirational as her teachings as she proves that stereotypes can be successfully challenged and we can become a positive, inspirational figure in the world.