A visionary exploration of reimagining the bra-fitting experience through consent, body education, and nervous-system awareness, introducing LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios as an alternative to traditional retail.
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Influential Woman · Women’s Wellness, FemTech & Yoga
Shannon Giles
Founder, Inventor & Women’s Wellness Innovator, Lumen SoulTech LLC
Amarillo, TX 79110
3Years experience
1Article published
In Conversation
Shannon Giles for Bold. Brilliant. Unstoppable.
Read the transcript
Shannon Giles: To me, being an influential woman isn't about having the biggest platform or being the loudest voice in the room. It means having the courage to question what we've been taught to accept and then using your voice to help create something better. It means turning your experiences, including the painful ones, into purpose. It means opening doors for other women and girls, helping them feel seen and reminding them that their bodies, their stories, and their ideas matter. True influence isn't control, it's connection. It's leaving people with more courage, dignity and hope than they had before they encountered you. That is the kind of influence I want in my life and everything I build to have.
What's one piece of advice you would give to younger women chasing their dreams?
Shannon Giles: The advice I would give younger women is stop waiting for permission and stop waiting until you feel completely ready. You can begin before you have every answer, every resource, or everyone's approval. Trust your intuition, protect your vision, and allow yourself to learn while you build. There will be people who don't understand your dream, that doesn't mean it isn't meant for you. Rejection may redirect you, mistakes will teach you, and your path may look nothing like you originally planned. Just don't abandon yourself while chasing the dream. Your voice, your values, and your lived experiences are part of what makes your vision worth pursuing.
Full transcript available
Her Story
About Shannon
Shannon Giles is an inventor, certified yoga instructor, breathwork facilitator, and women’s wellness entrepreneur based in Amarillo, Texas. With more than 10 years of experience in yoga and embodied wellness, she combines her knowledge of movement and mindfulness with a professional background in business administration, operations, regulatory compliance, sales, and customer education.
As Founder and Chief Visionary of Lumen SoulTech LLC, Shannon develops thoughtful wellness concepts designed to support nervous-system regulation, body awareness, confidence, and well-being. Her work includes the LUMEN Band and LUMEN Litl’s CORE, a developing wearable concept intended to help children recognize and regulate stress. The project has received technical support through NASA’s Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP), while the LUMEN Litl’s CORE prototype is being developed in collaboration with the Texas A&M Capstone team.
Shannon is also the visionary behind LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios, a women-centered bra-fitting, education, and wellness concept focused on personalized fit, consent, dignity, and confidence. The first studio is currently in its founding stage, with Shannon building community support and crowdfunding to bring the experience to life.
In addition to her entrepreneurial work, Shannon teaches yoga at Crunch Fitness and works in customer education and sales at Fountain of Health, where she gains firsthand insight into the wellness needs and concerns of her community. Her mission is deeply connected to the love she carries for her daughter, Sarah, whose memory inspires her to transform personal loss into purposeful innovation that helps other women and children bloom. She also supports her community through volunteer work with the High Plains Food Bank and encourages aspiring women entrepreneurs to believe in their ideas and take meaningful action.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shannon
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my mission and to the love I continue to carry for my daughter, who passed away seven years ago. I have transformed that love into a purpose that helps other women bloom. Receiving technical support through NASA’s Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) and collaborating with the Texas A&M Capstone team on the development of the LUMEN Litl’s CORE prototype have allowed me to turn that purpose into meaningful innovation. I also dedicate myself to building relationships, growing community support, and securing crowdfunding for LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I have received is to never stop believing in myself. Judy Booth, the owner of Fountain of Health in Amarillo, Texas, has mentored me for the past three years and has encouraged me to continue believing in my abilities, ideas, and mission.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Never think that your idea is not worth pursuing. Believe in it, run with it, and take the steps necessary to make it happen, whether the idea is small or big. An idea can grow into a profitable business when you are willing to take action, remain committed, and see it through.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in my field is securing funding and finding the right investors. Another challenge is getting my inventions and ideas in front of influential people who can help expand their reach. At the same time, these challenges create opportunities to build meaningful connections, attract the right partners and investors, and spread awareness of the work I am developing through Lumen SoulTech.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are most important to me are continuing to invent things that can help people through natural wellness approaches, honoring my daughter through my work, and supporting others on their wellness journeys as a yoga instructor. I am passionate about developing solutions that offer people additional approaches to wellness while staying true to my mission of helping others.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Shannon
The Bra Isn’t the Problem. The Experience Is.
Reimagining the bra-fitting experience as an act of care and personal dignity.
Most women can remember their first bra.
But what they remember is not always the bra itself.
They remember the fluorescent lighting. The awkward measurements. The rushed sales associate. The embarrassment of a changing body being discussed as if it were a problem to manage. They remember being handed a size, sent behind a curtain, and expected to somehow know what “correct” was supposed to feel like.
Then, over the years, their bodies changed.
Puberty. Pregnancy. Breastfeeding. Weight changes. Surgery. Aging. Menopause. Grief. Healing.
Yet the experience surrounding the bra barely changed at all.
Women have been taught to believe that pinching, slipping, digging, gaping, and constant adjusting are simply part of wearing one. When something does not fit, we often blame our bodies before questioning the system that failed to serve them.
That is the problem I want to help solve.
A BRA FITTING IS MORE PERSONAL THAN WE ACKNOWLEDGE
A bra fitting is not merely a retail transaction. It involves a woman’s body, privacy, confidence, history, and sense of safety.
For some, being measured is mildly uncomfortable. For others—especially those who have experienced trauma, major body changes, surgery, or a difficult relationship with their bodies—it can feel deeply vulnerable.
That deserves more care than a tape measure and a sales goal.
What if the process began with consent?
What if women were educated about their bodies rather than silently assigned a size?
What if the environment helped the nervous system feel safe instead of rushed?
What if technology supported human connection rather than replacing it?
And what if a girl’s first bra experience taught her that her changing body was worthy of understanding—not embarrassment?
WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER PLACE THAT SIMPLY SELLS BRAS
We need a better experience.
That belief became the foundation for LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios, an emerging women’s wellness and fitting concept I am building in Amarillo, Texas.
The vision brings together body education, personalized fitting, nervous-system awareness, consent, and thoughtful technology in an environment designed to feel welcoming rather than clinical or transactional.
The goal is not to tell women what is wrong with their bodies.
The goal is to help them understand what their bodies need.
Inside this experience, a mother and daughter could approach a first bra fitting with trust and celebration. A woman navigating menopause could receive support without being made to feel invisible. Someone experiencing changes after surgery, pregnancy, or weight fluctuation could be met with patience rather than pressure.
The bra matters, of course—but how a woman feels while finding it matters, too.
INNOVATION CAN BEGIN WITH A BETTER QUESTION
Women are often told that innovation must look highly technical, disruptive, or futuristic.
Sometimes innovation is simply having the courage to ask:
Why are we still doing it this way?
The most meaningful businesses are not always born from inventing a completely new need. Sometimes they begin by finally seeing an existing need clearly.
Women have been tolerating an impersonal and often frustrating bra-shopping experience for generations. We have adapted, joked about it, complained about it, and accepted it.
But acceptance is not proof that a system works.
It may simply mean no one has built the alternative yet.
BUILDING WHAT SHOULD HAVE EXISTED ALL ALONG
LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios is currently in its founding stage. The first studio does not exist yet—and I believe there is power in saying that honestly.
Building something new requires more than a polished final reveal. It requires women willing to recognize the need, share the vision, and help shape what comes next.
My hope is that this idea reaches mothers, daughters, survivors, wellness professionals, innovators, investors, and every woman who has ever stood in a fitting room thinking, “There has to be a better way.”
There is.
And together, we can build it.
Shannon Giles is the founder and chief visionary behind LUMEN SoulTech and LUMEN Build-A-Bra Studios. She is also a trauma-recovery yoga instructor and certified breathwork facilitator committed to creating experiences that unite innovation, education, and human dignity.
Learn more at lumenbuildabra.com.
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