by Ava Fleisher | Special to the Courier

March is Women’s History Month, and with female business owners and leaders plentiful in Claremont, mirroring recent national trends, the Courier took a look at just a few.

MPower Yoga and Lifestyle

Yoga was integral to Johannah Bradley after the recent losses of her husband and parents. No longer just a physical tool, she found it helped with healing as well. In 2019 she opened her practice in Rancho Cucamonga, with the Claremont location following a year later. MPower Yoga and Lifestyle houses a small boutique and a studio, and the business also hosts retreats and a teacher training program. Bradley’s mission is to empower others to find what works for them to improve physical and mental health.

MPower Yoga and Lifestyle owner Johannah Bradley (center) working with clients.
Photo/by Miesha Dees

Her shift to owning her own business was also guided by her experiences in the corporate world.

“I felt like I was constantly fighting to have my voice recognized on an equal level,” she said. “There are so many small businesses owned by women. And a part of it might be this frustration of working in an area where you don’t feel like you’re recognized, and then getting to be completely autonomous and recognized and do it the way that you want to do it.”

MPower Yoga and Lifestyle, 201 N. Indian Hill Blvd. Suite 101, Claremont, CA 91711. Studio hours vary. Boutique open Monday-Wednesday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone: (909) 450-5517, Email: info@mpoweryoga.net, web: mpoweryoga.net.

Feel Good Market

Christy Tyler-Cooper had been an audit partner at an accounting firm who loved soap making when she decided to open Feel Good Market in 2020. Her mission is simple: to offer sustainable goods for the body and home with clean ingredients. She works with other small businesses to provide a range of products and a refillery where customers can refill shower products, cleaning solutions, and more.

She faces some unique challenges as a female business owner.

“I do know that we’re at a little bit of a disadvantage because we still do live in a world where if my husband asks somebody to do something, they do it,” she said, using the buildout of her store as an example. “Sometimes the contractors wouldn’t take me seriously or would change pricing on me, or stuff like that.”

Feel Good Market, 110 Harvard Ave. North, Claremont, CA 91711. Open Monday 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (909) 398-1887, email: hello@feelgoodmarket.com, web: feelgoodmarket.com.

Buzzworthy Beverages

Born out of her own “sober curiosities,” some health challenges, and after searching for non-alcoholic alternatives and being disappointed in a lack of options, in 2025 Nicole Stark and her husband Jon Stark launched Buzzworthy Beverages.

Buzzworthy Beverages co-owner Nicole Stark. Photo/by Ava Fleisher

The shop is a “judgment-free zone,” carrying alcohol-free wine, beer, and spirits, and drinks with kava, CBD, and functional mushrooms.

Nicole Stark previously worked as a substitute teacher. As a business owner she has tapped into a new skillset, where she finds herself “not second guessing myself through a lot of things,” she said. “We have a lot of framework to measure ourselves against the standard way, the way it’s always been done, and I think it’s okay to rewrite the story.”

Buzzworthy Beverages, 305 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Phone: (909) 447-0876, email: hello@buzzworthybevs.com, web: buzzworthybevs.com.

Cheese Cave

Marnie Clarke grew up surrounded by dairy. Although she didn’t live on a dairy farm, all her cousins did. So after college she began working on one as a cheesemaker. Soon however she realized the early mornings and isolation weren’t for her, and in 2010 she and her sister Lydia Clarke opened Cheese Cave in Claremont. An immediate hit in the Village, the sisters have since been selling notable cheeses, wines, meats, pastas, sandwiches, tinned fish, and have hosted classes on all things cheese.

Cheese Cave co-owner Marnie Clark. Photo/by Ava Fleisher

In 2013 they opened a second location in downtown Los Angeles, which Lydia Clarke now runs.

Marnie Clarke said she leans on her sister and makes business decisions based not solely on the bottom line.

“I’m thinking about it from an empathetic view of, ‘Does this fit our ethos? Is this a good company? Is this what I want to support?’” she said.

Cheese Cave, 325 Yale Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (909) 625-7560, web: claremontcheese.com.

The Claremont Forum 

Each year, the nonprofit Prison Library Project sends more than 30,000 books to incarcerated people across the country. Eva Lopez, manager of The Claremont Forum — the bookstore that serves as the project’s operational hub — is integral in making this possible. At the volunteer-run shop, she coordinates bookselling and team training, ensuring the project adequately responds to the demand for books.

Lopez began as a volunteer but is now one of the many people that make The Claremont Forum’s work possible, alongside Rachel McDonnell, the president of the organization’s board.

Lopez highlighted ways to stay confident in her leadership, even when doubt creeps in.

“I think that this is a constant trick of the trade,” she said. “In any kind of leadership position, reminding yourself that you deserve to be in that room [and] you are in that room for a reason, and just really maintaining composure and moving forward with that.”

The interior of the Claremont Forum Bookshop. Photo/Courtesy of the Claremont Forum

The Claremont Forum, 586 W. First St., Claremont, CA 91711. Open Thursday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (909) 626-3066, email: info@claremontforum.org, web: claremontforum.org.

Ava Fleisher is a sophomore at Scripps College where she studies writing, politics, and anthropology and is news section editor for Claremont Colleges newspaper The Student Life.