Black Mom, Former Inmate Who Won a Grant From Beyonce, Expands Children’s Underwear Line

(ATLANTA, GA) Yolanda Perkins, founder and CEO of Undies by BlendiTone, a line of underwear for children of color, has overcome a lot of obstacles in her life. She has transformed herself from being incarcerated in prison to a successful entrepreneur who promotes representation for Black children. She also is an advocate for the restoration of former prison inmates.
Yolanda couldn’t have predicted what the Beyonce Effect would do to catapult her children’s underwear line into market exposure, but she is thankful and excited about her journey to making a dent in the industry.

“I see the reaction from my kids when they see faces that actually look like theirs on their underwear, not a Disney character that doesn’t look like them. It’s a sense of empowerment, and I want to give that to Black kids all over the world with this line,” she explained. As a recipient of the NAACP and BeyGood Impact Award, Yolanda now has startup funding to scale her company, Undies by BlendiTone at the same rate as her now-viral fame.

The idea started in early 2019 when she and her then 6-year old daughter were shopping for underwear at a major retail store. Displeased with the options of designs and characters available to her, Yolanda’s daughter made a comment that sparked the business idea. “She said ‘I want something with someone that looks like me on it. None of these characters look like me,’ and she was right,” Yolanda said. From there, Yolanda began to do market research and had samples made with children’s characters that looked more like her own children.