Successful Stoners: Valeria Hinojosa - Eco-Entrepreneurship, Lifestyle And Plastic-Free CBD

This special feature was made possible thanks to the Gabo Foundation and the Fund for Research and New Narratives on Drugs. You can read the original in Spanish on El Planteo. Learn about more Successful Stoners here.

Valeria Hinojosa - Eco-entrepreneur and Activist - Bolivia

There are certain people who come to this planet to shake structures and rethink the way we live. Valeria Hinojosa* is one of them. Born in La Paz but raised in Santa Cruz, this multifaceted Bolivian, covered in mystical tattoos and adorned with exotic jewelry, grew up surrounded by conservative traditions and taboos that permeate a society restricted by the last name one bears, the neighborhood where one lives, or the school in which one studies—contexts that define much of local life in Latin America. For Valeria, each of these boxes represented a barrier that had to be overcome, not a guideline on how to operate under the eyes of what is expected by the traditional families of her city. 

She left her country to leave the restrictions behind, but even far from home, she felt like she was still going around in circles. She went to Washington to study International Business. Her family celebrated the achievement. At the end of the day, Valeria was fulfilling her mandate. But inevitably and as a lesson, she ended up adhering to similar standards but in foreign lands. In Miami, Valeria got a good job in banking: just as expected by her family. She did it with an impulse that was somehow foreign, confirmed time later with her first emotional crisis. For several years she worked in finance, growing in that role that had been tacitly imposed on her. But very soon, that ideal began to feel more foreign than her own, causing existential discomfort.

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Even though she had an excellent salary, a corporate card, free tickets to events, and elegant dinners paid for by her company, Valeria felt once again locked within parameters that didn’t represent her. “In the industry, all of these perks are referred to as golden handcuffs that keep you tied to a job for monetary rewards and VIP access. I can't deny that I enjoyed it for a while, but I quickly felt that I wasn't being consistent with my way of thinking, or with the way I wanted to live life,” says Valeria. “It was a strenuous rhythm, with a lot of partying, very superficial. Every day I arrived at an office with a sea view, and the only thing I thought during my shift was that I wanted to be there, in the sea, exploring the water, feeling light and free. 

Her days were spent glued to a computer, making investment models in Excel and talking to bank clients who cared more about their financial statements than their moods.” Battling this existential contradiction plunged her into a depression that she faced in silence until the day her boss at the bank called her into a meeting. “That day they offered me a dream position; more money, more growth opportunities in the company, more decision-making power,” says Valeria. "That's when I decided to quit. My superiors were stunned. They asked me which other bank I was going to, promising to outbid the competition. When I told them that I was resigning to dedicate myself to growing a conscious lifestyle blog about eco-responsible travel, they didn’t believe me.”

The year was 2015 and social networks had just begun to become as present and essential as they are today. Valeria took her savings and started traveling the globe, visiting ecological hotels, vegan restaurants, holistic centers, and idyllic destinations with transparent seas, just like the ones she dreamed of from her corporate cubicle. At first, she shared her experience with an intimate handful of followers, several of whom followed her from Bolivia, gossiping about what seemed to be a nervous breakdown to those back home.

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Without a stable job and with a platform that only a few hundred people saw, Valeria's savings vanished between Balinese bungalows and Thai massages, forcing her to sell the belongings she had left (high-end shoes and watches that she once wore to impress as she strutted through the corridors of the bank), sell her car and give up her apartment, only to end up sleeping on her mother’s couch. “Those were tough times, especially having my mother reprimanding me for living on her sofa. But I knew I couldn't give up my search,” says Valeria. “I taught yoga classes, city tours, worked in bars—I did anything that allowed me to continue traveling and fulfilling the goal of making my lifestyle a steady job.” 

Valeria began to amass more followers who connected with conscious lifestyle content—which included vegan recipes, movement and meditation sequences, as well as non-toxic beauty and sustainable fashion—suddenly becoming a media personality. It coincided with the great commercial transitions that emerged, in which traditional media budgets started to be invested in digital scenarios, focused on a nascent industry that required a leap from traditional to modern media. TV, newspaper, and magazine ads were migrating to social media. “Suddenly several brands started offering me paid jobs; I developed relationships with those with whom I shared values and started a new career dedicated to teaching people to live more slowly and more connected to the environment.”

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Seven years and more than two hundred thousand followers later, once again Valeria began to feel imprisoned by the standards that govern the world (in this case, marketing). To feel empowered again, the content creator decided to put on her entrepreneurial hat and launched Intu, the world’s first plastic-free CBD company. “Part of my life change included gradually giving up drugs, opting for natural medicine to relieve myself. I had been using cannabis for several years to treat pain, migraines, and my occasional insomnia,” says Valeria, “but I couldn't find a product that was organic, good quality, and great tasting—so I launched my own. Working with growers who cultivate the plant in the sun and without chemicals. We developed an oil that can be taken sublingually or used topically. And we also have some unique joints on the market: we mix cannabis with less than 0.3% THC with other flowers that also have therapeutic properties, including mullein, lavender, and roses. We’re the first plastic-free brand; we designed a bottle that uses a biodegradable cork and sealed it with vegan wax (instead of the traditional plastic dropper cap) to prevent waste.” 

Creating a company from scratch is not easy. More so if it involves cannabis. Even worse if the founder is Bolivian. “I grew up with the idea that this plant was consumed by bums and criminals. Propaganda against this sacred plant abounded and was directly linked to drug trafficking and all the country's problems”, continues Valeria. "There are several people who consume it, but they do it in secret for fear of social repercussions." Valeria, used to breaking taboos, began by showing her family and friends the different scientific studies on the benefits of CBD. “Education is a fundamental part of the destigmatization of cannabis; There is more and more information about how cannabidiol can help us heal by strengthening our immune system. We grew up used to taking a pill to solve even the slightest discomfort when in reality nature offers us different tools to heal ourselves.”

*The author and the interviewee are a couple and co-founders of Intu, the first plastic-free CBD company.

Illustration by @chyataller

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