I Didn’t Just Want My Children to Learn About Their Heritage. I Wanted Them to Feel It.
Part of CULTR’s AAPI Heritage Month Maker Series, where we hand the mic to the founders shaping our shared culture.
Today, we are sitting down with Katy Spada, founder of Ary + Maan, a Seattle-based brand creating culturally inspired pajamas and lifestyle pieces for multicultural families who want culture to show up not just in big celebrations, but in the small everyday moments that become childhood memories.
Here is Katy, in her own words.
Tell us about yourself. Where are you based?
My name is Katy Spada, and I’m the founder of Ary + Maan. We’re based in Seattle, but the heart of our brand lives between cultures, deeply rooted in South Asian heritage while designed for modern, multicultural families navigating identity, tradition, and belonging in everyday life.
As a parent in a mixed-culture family, I know firsthand how meaningful it is to create intentional ways for children to feel connected to where they come from.
What is the story behind starting your brand?
Ary + Maan started with a question from my daughter, Arya.
One year before Diwali, she asked me something so simple, but it completely stopped me in my tracks: “Why don’t we have Diwali pajamas like we do for Christmas?”
Like many families, we had matching Christmas pajamas, a tradition that felt cozy, celebratory, and full of anticipation. But when it came to Diwali, despite how important it was to our family and culture, there wasn’t an equivalent tradition readily available. We could find beautiful traditional clothing for celebrations, but nothing that captured that same warmth, comfort, and memory-making feeling of matching holiday pajamas.
Her question stayed with me because, honestly, she was right.
Why didn’t we have that? Why was one celebration wrapped in ritual, excitement, and products designed to make it feel magical for children, while another, equally meaningful in our home, felt harder to find reflected in everyday family life?
That moment made me realize something bigger: representation doesn’t only matter in major ways. It matters in the small rituals children grow up with. The traditions they normalize. The memories they carry with them.
I didn’t just want my children to learn about their South Asian heritage. I wanted them to feel it. So I started Ary + Maan to create the thing my daughter instinctively knew should already exist.
What does your cultural heritage mean to your brand?
For our family, culture isn’t something fixed or one-dimensional. It’s something living, evolving, and deeply personal.
I grew up in America with European roots and a lot of Hispanic influence around me, but I didn’t always have a strong understanding of where my own traditions came from. That experience stayed with me.
Now, as a parent raising children in a multicultural family, I think a lot about what it means to help my kids feel connected to their Indian heritage, but in a way that feels empowering, not prescriptive.
I don’t want culture to feel like a box handed to them with instructions on how to belong. I want it to feel like a world they get to explore.
I think of culture like something they get to curate. They’ll discover the pieces that resonate with them, ask questions, create meaning around traditions, and ultimately decide what connection looks like in their own lives. Because culture itself is ultimately created by people. Every tradition exists because someone before us chose to keep telling the story.
Our job as parents is to help our children understand the chapters that came before them while giving them permission to help write the next ones.
That philosophy shapes everything we create at Ary + Maan. Our prints are inspired by South Asian culture, our products are made in India, and what matters most is the feeling behind them. We want our products to act as little bridges, sparking curiosity, conversations, memories, and moments of connection between generations.
Who do you make for?
I think about the parent who is trying really hard to preserve culture while raising kids in a world that often asks them to assimilate.
I picture multicultural families, parents balancing identities, building new traditions, and trying to make sure their children feel rooted in where they come from. Maybe it’s a mom looking for something meaningful for Diwali that still feels modern and elevated. Maybe it’s a parent who grew up disconnected from parts of their own heritage and wants something different for their children.
Our customer isn’t just shopping for pajamas. They’re creating memories. They’re building traditions. They’re trying to answer the question many parents quietly ask themselves: How do I help my child feel proud of who they are?
What is your most meaningful product?
Our Diwali pajamas will always be the most meaningful product to me because they’re the reason Ary + Maan exists in the first place.
They began with a question from my daughter, Arya, and what makes them meaningful is that they represent something much bigger than sleepwear. They say: your traditions deserve celebration too.
Growing up around Indian celebrations, I’ve always loved the beauty of traditional clothing. But if we’re being honest, every parent has also had the moment where their child is tugging at itchy fabric or melting down because the outfit is uncomfortable. I wanted to create something that captured the feeling of celebration and beauty without sacrificing comfort.
That’s why quality matters so deeply to us. Our velvet and satin robes were designed to feel indulgent, soft, elegant, and comforting in a way that still feels special. Because the dream was always this: what if getting ready for Diwali could feel just as magical as dressing up, but also like being wrapped in comfort?
Those are the moments children remember.
What do you want people to feel when they buy from you?
I want people to feel seen.
I want them to feel like someone finally created something for families like theirs, families navigating multiple cultures, trying to honor tradition while building something beautifully their own.
Of course, I want there to be joy and excitement when they open their order. But deeper than that, I want there to be pride. Pride in their story. Pride in their culture. Pride in creating traditions their children will carry forward.
Because the best compliment we can receive is hearing: “Our kids ask for these every year.”
What does AAPI Heritage Month mean to you personally?
AAPI Heritage Month feels especially meaningful because it reminds me how much representation matters in everyday life.
When my kids were younger, finding ways to celebrate and connect them to their Indian heritage often meant piecing things together myself. I spent hours on Pinterest and YouTube making decorations, researching traditions, and trying to create celebrations that felt joyful and meaningful for our family. At the time, there simply weren’t many products designed for multicultural families in a way that felt modern, accessible, or reflective of how we lived.
What feels beautiful now is seeing how much has changed. There are more brands, books, products, and founders helping families celebrate culture in ways that feel personal and relevant.
AAPI Heritage Month is a reminder that representation matters, not just in big ways, but in the small everyday moments that help children feel proud of who they are and where they come from.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about your culture?
I wish more people understood just how layered and diverse South Asian culture really is.
There isn’t one language, one tradition, one religion, or one experience. It’s incredibly nuanced, rich, and beautifully varied. But if there’s one thread that feels universal, it’s the emphasis on family and togetherness. So much of the culture revolves around gathering, storytelling, food, celebration, and showing love through care.
That spirit of closeness and connection inspires so much of what we create at Ary + Maan.
What is next for your brand?
We’re excited to continue evolving Ary + Maan from a Diwali pajama brand into a year-round lifestyle brand for multicultural families.
What started with one holiday has grown into a much bigger vision: helping families celebrate culture in everyday moments. That means expanding beyond seasonal collections, growing our family matching offerings, introducing new categories, and creating products that help children feel connected to their roots through sleep, play, travel, and family traditions.
We’re just getting started.
Anything else you want our community to know?
At the core of Ary + Maan is a belief that culture isn’t only passed down in big ways. It lives in the small moments too. The bedtime routines. The family traditions. The stories children hear before sleep. The holidays they grow up remembering.
Ary + Maan was born from one child asking a simple question about Diwali pajamas, but what we’re really building is something bigger: a way for families to feel connected to their roots, to one another, and to the memories they’re creating together.
If our products help even one child feel proud of who they are and where they come from, then we’ve done something meaningful.
Find Ary + Maan on CULTR and follow along as the brand grows.
CULTR’s Maker Series spotlights the founders shaping multicultural living. Follow along on @shop_cultr and at createdforculture.com for more features all AAPI Heritage Month long.
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