Lauren Sanchez Can't Stop Knocking Off My Work

There’s a difference between inspiration and imitation. And then there’s something else entirely, something far more nefarious and cruel.

First it was my children’s book about an aspiring astronaut. Then the environmentalist themes. Then my book series teaching kids about the wonders of planet Earth. Then the multicultural, all-girl trip to space.

And now my Wear Your Art Out collection—a huge favorite of Lauren Sánchez, who owned every piece from the collection, including several one-of-a-kind samples I gifted her that were never mass produced.

I gifted it all to her, and she still chose to keep taking from me.

My collection centers around art, giving back, celebrating artists, sustainable fabrics and body positivity.

Imagine that someone you trusted with your ideas—sat across from, shared vision with, opened the door to—takes what you built and walks off with it like it was always theirs… laughing as they kick you while you’re already on the ground, asking for help.

That’s not inspiration. That’s not even imitation. That’s opportunism and sheer cruelty.

The kind that doesn’t just take what you built—it waits until you’re already fighting to hold your life together… and then decides that’s the perfect moment to move in and take what you hold dear, assuming that you’re not in a position to defend yourself.

The irony? This heartless person is lifting projects that are literally about caring—for children, for the planet, for sustainability. Do you see the oxymoron here? I certainly do.

A truly caring person doesn’t steal from her former yoga teacher—her projects, her work, her ideas, her dreams—then initiate smear campaigns against her and try to tear her life down behind the scenes.

That’s not care. That’s a performance.

And to quote the very first words out of Ms. Sanchez’ attorney’s mouth, during our first meet and confer, “In case you hadn’t noticed, Ms. Sanchez has come a long way from when you were friends. She has done well for herself and no longer cares about you or your little books.”

You can dress it up as philanthropy all day long in your efforts to land Mr. Bezos, but eventually the truth shows itself. It always does. A leopard can’t hide its spots with camouflage makeup forever.

I didn’t set out to write about this. For a long time, I avoided it. Not because I didn’t see it—but because I really cannot stand the sight of Lauren Sanchez. I am just so tired of her entitlement, her plastic appearance, and her delusions of grandeur as she pays for news articles about herself, forcing herself into our lives.

But she is clearly obsessed with me.

Lauren knew that I was in an abusive relationship. That was why I quit working for so many of my clients in 2009 and 2010; I didn’t have any capacity left for narcissists like Lauren Sanchez, Adam Levine, and the like. My truest regret is that I also stopped working for Rob and Michele Reiner at that time, even though they were incredibly kind and supportive of what I was going through. I just needed time to heal.

But instead of caring about what I was going through—of even responding to my emails and messages when I reached out in 2022 to discuss a collaboration with the Bezos Earth Fund—Lauren chose something else.

She chose to keep taking.

Replicating my projects.
Lifting my concepts.
Copying my stories.
And attempting to replicate the loving intent behind the brand I built.

But you can’t copy intention.

Imagine surviving an abusive relationship at the exact moment your life was taking off—global opportunities on the stovetop, some of the most influential people in the world as your clients.

Imagine taking time to step away from these projects to heal, as I did—trusting that what you were building would still be there when you came back.

That’s what I did.

Now imagine opening your eyes… and realizing it didn’t wait for you.

That someone you trusted—someone you talked with about partnering, someone who loved your brand, your projects, your vision—took it.

She knew what you were going through. She knew the violence. She knew you were barely holding it together, trying to survive.

She knew your heart and your creative spirit.

And instead of showing up with any humanity, she stepped right over you, picked up what you were building… and kept going.

Then tried to bury you in what was left behind.

Back in 2009, when everything still felt possible in that bright, naïve way, I was building something I hadn’t yet seen in the world.

I was working with eco-friendly fabrics before sustainability became a marketing buzzword. I was printing artwork onto clothing: capris, leggings, wraps—not as decoration, but as extension of art. The body as canvas. Movement as expression. I called the collection Wear Your Art Out, because that’s exactly what it was meant to be.

Art for the fashion, while implying Heart for the planet. Because style without soul is just surface—and sustainability without heart is just branding.

That’s when Lauren Sánchez started showing real interest in what I was building—my children’s books, the toys, the activewear, all of it.

And I’ll be honest—I loved how much she loved it.

She didn’t just like it, she was really into it. Texting me, “I am obsessed with these capris! Bring me everything you have!”

There were meetings. Conversations that felt, at the time, promising and aligned. She was enthusiastic—more than that, she was animated. Curious. Complimentary. Engaged.

It felt like something was about to open.

But life doesn’t always unfold in clean, upward lines.

Around that same time, my world was collapsing in a way that didn’t leave room for ambition. I was in a relationship that turned violent—suddenly, then repeatedly, then unmistakably.

As my life bloomed, my jealous boyfriend fumed.

And the abuse began.

In hindsight, this isn’t uncommon. When a woman’s life starts expanding outside of a relationship, controlling and jealous men often become abusive.

He started suggesting that I get breast implants as there was a wave of surgeries and buzz when silicone implants were once again approved by the FDA in 2007. But plastic surgery was always something I had been adamantly against. I told Lauren Sánchez, and instead of relating to how I felt, she introduced me to her plastic surgeon and delighted in the idea. After all, plastic surgery was her favorite topic.

I began researching fat grafting as a healthier option, and flew to Vienna to see one of the world’s leading plastic surgeons who specialized in the procedure.

Lauren was intrigued by my research and my progress every step of the way, as reflected in our emails back and forth.

While in Vienna, I visited several of the world’s greatest art museums—and it was there, standing in front of The Kiss at the Belvedere Museum, that I came up with my Wear Your Art Out collection: printing artwork onto sustainable fabrics, then transforming them into one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art.

Again, Lauren loved my collection, and we spoke in detail about partnering with my children’s projects, my activewear collections, a fitness program, and a lingerie line for Lauren.

But, again, I was dealing with an increasingly abusive intimate relationship while at home.

There are moments your body never forgets. One of mine is the crack of my own wrist breaking as my ex grabbed both of my wrists and twisted them with force, while screaming in a jealous rage after Adam Levine texted my phone.

Another is the confusion that follows trauma—when reality starts bending under pressure and you find yourself both defending your truth and, at times, questioning it just to stay upright.

Lauren knew what happened.

She knew I was struggling from the abuse. She knew then—and she knows now.

And yet, fifteen years later, she chose to use that against me.

When I filed the lawsuit against her in 2024, and editors began reaching out for information about my relationship with her, she instructed her PR team to state: that she barely knew me, that I was crazy, and that I was involved in the Adam Levine scandal, as an obvious attempt to discredit me and paint me as a yoga teacher turning on her clients.

I didn’t know at first what her agents were telling editors—I just knew something felt off. Then a producer at TMZ and an editor at another major news outlet told me what was actually being said.

That’s when it clicked.

That’s when I realized the smear campaign happening behind the scenes—an intentional move to discredit me and silence me.

What I find most ironic—without even reading her actual, recent (and very tone deaf) The New York Times interview, which already comes across as steeped in her desperation to be liked, and only from what I unwillingly saw on Instagram—is her statement that she “can’t imagine writing a negative comment on someone’s Instagram post.”

She doesn’t have to write the comments, she pays teams of people to do the dirty work for her, behind the scenes. That is the essence of Lauren Sanchez: two-faced and fake.

Thankfully, Laura also perjured herself multiple times in a declaration she served to my lawyer last year. That will come in very handy as my lawsuit moves forward.

Imagine a former friend, now in a desperate ploy to fool the richest man in the world, using your passion projects and essence as a means to re-brand herself in his favor—knocking off your hard work, projects, concepts—and then using it against you as a means to silence you from telling the truth about her.

Her MO: Discredit the person who knows the truth. Paint them as unstable. Make editors and press question their credibility before they even listen.

She did the same thing to her brother (far worse!), and to her own mother.

Because if you can control how someone is perceived, you don’t have to answer for what’s actually true.

But here’s the thing—people aren’t as blind as she hopes.

They see through the performance.

Here is a woman who took the essence of what I create—my heart, my intention, my care—and used it to present herself as something she’s not: Philanthropic. Creative. Caring.

And it probably sounds even better in a company meeting—when the people in the room have no idea where it actually came from. That kind of validation? I can see how it becomes addictive. And maybe that’s exactly what she’s protecting.

She simply cannot handle the truth about where all of it came from—the books, the stories, the series, the toys, the clothing, the Fashion Is Art concept, the space suit design, sustainability angle, the trip to space.

All of it.

So when I look at what’s been done to me—my work taken, my ideas repurposed, my name dragged while I was trying to heal—

I don’t see care. I see someone who only cares about herself and her ascent up the social ladder. Someone who treats people the same way they treat everything else: Replaceable. Disposable. Usable. Certainly not Sustainable.

And that’s the part I can’t relate to. Not the copying. Not even the ambition. But the complete absence of conscience behind it.

Because I could never imagine building something off someone else’s work… while actively trying to erase them at the same time. Let alone it was your friend and yogi who was suffering from abuse at the time.

That’s not success. That’s desperation and emptiness dressed up to look like it.

And I’ll wait patiently for the truth to reveal itself, because it definitely will.

Below are just a few Facebook posts, with dates stamped, showing our Wear Your Art Out collections going back to 2013—along with Lauren Sánchez wearing our Chakra Capris on a FOX Good Day LA episode.