{{Short description|American yoga teacher}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=March 2016}} {{advert|date=March 2016}} {{notability|Biography|date=November 2022}} }} {{Use American English|date=March 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}} {{Infobox model | name = Tara Stiles | image = Tara StilesSteveShaw (cropped).jpg | birth_name = Tara Leann Stiles | birth_place = Morris, Illinois, U.S. | occupation = Strala CEO | death_date = <!--{{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}}--> | death_place = | height = {{height|ft=5|in=9}} | website = {{URL|www.tarastiles.com}} }}
'''Tara Leann Stiles''' is an American model turned yoga instructor, and founder of Strala yoga in New York City. Stiles grew ''Strala'' from a studio based in SoHo, New York City to a studio and training business with over 1,000 instructors. Harvard did a case study on Stiles' business titled ''The Branding of Yoga''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/hbs-cases-branding-yoga|title=HBS Cases: Branding Yoga|date=2012-09-10|website=HBS Working Knowledge |access-date=2020-02-25}}</ref>
In 2007, Tara starred in ''Yoga For'', produced by Ford Models. ''Vanity Fair'' reported on a yoga video that Stiles specifically designed for Sarah Palin; the "Vanity Fair" reporter commented, "Tara Stiles has got to be the coolest yoga instructor ever."<ref>[http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/10/a-yoga-regimen-just-for-sarah-palin.html/ "Vanity Fair" coverage of Tara Stiles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830123708/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/10/a-yoga-regimen-just-for-sarah-palin.html |date=August 30, 2009 }}</ref>
==Early life==
Stiles grew up in Morris, Illinois. Her parents designed their passive solar home, helped by the fact her father worked at a nuclear plant.<ref name="NYT profile">{{cite news|last=Alvarez|first=Lisette|title=Rebel Yoga|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/nyregion/23stretch.html?pagewanted=all|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 23, 2011|access-date=January 24, 2011}}</ref>
==Career==
Stiles studied dancing in Chicago, where one of her ballet instructors introduced her to yoga.{{cn|date=April 2026}} Stiles appeared in ads for American Apparel.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/08/tara-stiles-does-yoga-for-american-apparel | title=Tara Stiles does yoga, for American Apparel. | elephant journal | date=August 8, 2009 }}</ref> Stiles has been a spokesperson for Nissan Motors.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190106153657/http://www.mastertheshift.com/masters/stiles/videos/index.asp?videoID=ts14 "Master the Shift"]</ref>
==Strala Yoga==
In 2008, Stiles met her husband Michael Taylor at the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-stiles/why-yoga-needs-a-rock-sta_b_182819.html "Krishna Das"]</ref><ref name="NYT profile" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Stiles, 27, and Taylor, 34|first=Alisa|last=Wolfson|newspaper=New York Post|date=August 17, 2008|url=http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/weddings/stiles_and_taylor_Si4AjqGCLIuE75sm14IujL|access-date=March 1, 2010}}</ref> The couple founded the NYC yoga studio Strala<ref>[http://www.seventeen.com/fun-stuff/special/tara-stiles-ford-model-peace-treaty-121007 Strala] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130202085457/http://www.seventeen.com/fun-stuff/special/tara-stiles-ford-model-peace-treaty-121007 |date=February 2, 2013 }}</ref> later that year. They made up the name, which is similar to the Swedish word "stråla" which means to "radiate light". Deepak Chopra and Jane Fonda are among her students; the former considers her his personal instructor. "I have been doing yoga for 30 years," he says. "I have had teachers of all kinds. Taking lessons from her has been more useful to me than taking yoga from anyone else."<ref name="NYT profile" />
Stiles does not follow any school of yoga and focuses purely on its physical aspects and health benefits, with no philosophical or spiritual dimension. She eschews the Sanskrit names for yoga positions and does not ask students to chant. She hires instructors without regard to the certification process normally required elsewhere, preferring to assess them by watching them teach, although Strala does offer a teacher-training program. Strala's per-class fee, $10, is lower than other Manhattan yoga studios.<ref name="NYT profile" />
Her goal is to make yoga more accessible. "People need yoga, not another religious leader. Quite often in New York, they want to be religious leaders, and it's not useful," she explains. "I was never invited to the party anyway—so I started my own party." Too many people outside yoga, she believes, see it as "something Jennifer Aniston does." Fonda has praised "her ability to make yoga accessible to people who might be scared of it or think it might be too esoteric." Stiles says she receives letters regularly from people, such as military men, who do her videos but are afraid to go to a yoga studio. "This studio is the first place I have felt comfortable," one Strala student told ''The New York Times''. "It doesn't feel like it's all 26-year-old former dancers."<ref name="NYT profile" />
Stiles' approach to yoga has met with some controversy in the yoga community. Jennilyn Carson of the popular YogaDork blog reports that some practitioners consider it "disrespect to what the practice is" for Stiles to promote it as a weight-loss method. "I don't care what Tara Stiles says yoga is," another yogini says. "It's not about making your body beautiful." Others have complained about her willingness to draw on her modeling background and exploit sex appeal in yoga-wear advertisements and her videos, some of which she has appeared in wearing short shorts and a tank top.<ref name="NYT profile" /> "Who made these rules?", Stiles has responded. "I feel like I'm standing up for yoga." To critics of her videos and photo shoots, she says, "We should not be hiding behind our bodies. [They] should be empowering."<ref name="NYT profile" /> To critics of her method of yoga instruction she said, "When they come to class, they see that we're guiding every single moment of movement. It's not chaos."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rinkunas|first1=Susan|title=Tara Stiles: Handstands Won't Change Your Life|url=https://www.thecut.com/2015/08/tara-stiles-wellness.html|website=The Cut|date=August 27, 2015 |publisher=New York Media LLC.|access-date=6 February 2018}}</ref>
==Collaborations==
Stiles partnered with Reebok to design and launch Reebok Yoga in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.reebok.com/GLOBAL/reebok-partners-with-global-yoga-expert-tara-stiles-/s/47040d45-4e1e-44f4-a8e0-4c9a80d66639 |title=Reebok NEWS STREAM - Reebok partners with global yoga expert Tara Stiles |access-date=2013-10-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022164405/http://news.reebok.com/GLOBAL/reebok-partners-with-global-yoga-expert-tara-stiles-/s/47040d45-4e1e-44f4-a8e0-4c9a80d66639 |archive-date=October 22, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
Stiles is an avid knitter and collaborated with Wool and the Gang on a yoga-street wear line, featuring ready-to-wear, as well as knit kits, designed by Wool and the Gang and Tara Stiles, featuring the "Tara Stiles" label on the garments.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kollabora.com/blog/introducing-tara-stiles-x-watg-free-pattern-download-win-exclusive-kit|title=Introducing Tara Stiles x WATG|last=|first=|date=|website=www.kollabora.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225172145/http://www.kollabora.com/blog/introducing-tara-stiles-x-watg-free-pattern-download-win-exclusive-kit|url-status=usurped|archive-date=February 25, 2020|access-date=2020-02-25}}</ref>
==Books==
* 2014 ''Make Your Own Rules Diet'' (Hay House). * 2015 ''Make Your Own Rules Cookbook'' (Hay House).
==Television==
Stiles was a contestant and winner of MTV's Fear episode 9, "Fort Gains."{{Citation needed|date=May 2026}} She also has appeared in Matthew Barney's ''The Cremaster Cycle: Cremester 3.'' She co-hosted three segments on fitness and fashion with Pedro Andrade, Siafa Lewis, and Margherita Missoni.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://lxtv.com/search/?search=tara%20stiles&cid=2&sid=5 |title=LX-TV |access-date=August 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714010334/http://lxtv.com/search/?search=tara%20stiles&cid=2&sid=5 |archive-date=July 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb name|1423093}} * {{Cite web |url=http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/models/tara_stiles/ |title=Tara Stiles at FashionModelDirectory.com |access-date=December 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223000954/http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/models/tara_stiles/ |archive-date=December 23, 2009 |url-status=bot: unknown |df=mdy-all }} * {{Cite web |url=http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=284197564 |title=Tara Stiles on iTunes |access-date=August 14, 2009 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100810021659/http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=284197564 |archive-date=August 10, 2010 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} * {{Official website|http://www.tarastiles.com}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100105200127/http://thedigitallifestyle.tv/home/2009/12/4/tdl-profile-tara-stiles-online-yoga-guru.html Tara Stiles Video Interview] on TDL Profiles
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Category:1981 births Category:21st-century American businesspeople Category:American female models Category:American non-fiction writers Category:Living people Category:People from Morris, Illinois Category:American yoga teachers Category:Women yogis Category:21st-century American women