It didn’t begin with a business plan. It began with a breath.

It was March 2022. On a yoga mat in a quiet Los Angeles apartment, Cristina Calderaro sat cross-legged, somewhere between heartbreak and healing. The music industry had worn her down. The dating scene had numbed her. Her dog was gone. Her childhood pain was resurfacing. And still—somewhere in the stillness—she heard something else: the faint but unmistakable voice of her inner child.

Not the part that had been disappointed, silenced, or passed over—but the part that knew her voice mattered.

She remembered what used to make her happiest as a child: The sweet reward of making and gifting custom, tech-enabled teddy bears to her friends in elementary school. The safety of using her imagination and being creative. The trance of a lullaby. And the power of care.

That afternoon, something clicked.

What began as a whispered idea became Handle with Bear—a sanctuary for the emotionally fluent, the quiet yet powerful, and the ones who feel a great deal in a world that connects too rarely.

Cristina didn’t set out to launch a wellness brand—she created an atmosphere, and that atmosphere grew into something profound: a way to carry out her purpose— to heal, guide and elevate others emotionally.

Handle with Bear is a soft-tech ritual space that speaks to the soul-led and overstimulated—through adult-coded lullabies, meditations supercharged with benefits, mood-elevating visualizations, and mantras that land like they were delivered by your greatest cheerleading friend. Every detail is intentional. Every phrase designed to soothe and connect without invading.

A musician, writer, and former office manager with a deeply cinematic mind, Handle with Bear is Cristina’s love letter to the sensitive. Her rebellion against the noise. And her invitation to anyone fed up enough to slow down and come back to themselves.

She’s not viral. She’s vivid.

She’s not an influencer. She’s an atmosphere.

And this brand? It’s her soft revolution.