Owning Pink founder Dr. Lissa Rankin, an OB/GYN physician, professional artist, author, and mother, grew tired of wearing different hats that left her feeling fragmented. She longed to express all aspects of herself as one fully integrated being, and as a result of her quest, Owning Pink was born in April, 2009.

Why Owning ‘Pink’?

The color Pink arouses mixed and often strong reactions. We most often associate it with femininity, and hence weakness, oppression, or shallow frilly girlytude. Actually, that’s kind of how this all started …

Years before Owning Pink was born, Lissa’s friend Carmen was pregnant with a little girl when her husband Stephan spouted off, “My little girl is NEVER gonna wear pink. Red, green, blue, purple- she’s going to be a feminist. She could be President.” There was Lissa, dressed head to toe in a pink sundress, and pink fur sandals. She said, “You tell your daughter she just has to OWN pink.” This spawned a whole art series Lissa titled Owning Pink, and the rest is history. At the art openings, men and women alike showed up to let their pink flag fly, giving themselves and each other permission to be authentic, to OWN themselves, and to be truly whole.

The response to her artwork signaled to Lissa that the world was desperate to Own Pink, so she began leading workshops aimed at fostering people’s journey to wholeness. Those who attended workshops such as Owning Creativity, Owning Spirituality, Owning Joy After Loss, Owning Sexuality, and Owning Health, longed to continue their journey beyond the workshop. Lissa created Owning Pink to fill this need. 

We’re all Pink on the Inside

Pink is one of the most powerful colors there is. It is the color of universal love and top physical health. Energetically, if you combine the colors of the top most six chakras (orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), you get white. Mix that with the color of the root chakra (red) and you get Pink. It is a color that nourishes, nurtures, and heals.  It speaks to not only a strong divine feminine creative energy, but also a universal humanity – after all, we’re all Pink on the inside.

When Owning Pink, both women and men are empowered to claim the parts of themselves that are most true, most authentic, and most magnificent.