Celebrating Black History Month with the HIP Team
As Black History Month draws to a close, the Health: It’s Personal team took some time to reflect on some of the people they’ve found most inspiring. We wanted to share these individuals with you all and encourage you to reflect on your own inspirations. Keep in mind this is absolutely not an exhaustive list, as we have so many other heroes to look up to, but amplifying these voices and exploring the impact they’ve all had on ourselves and others is so meaningful to us.
Our Past Guests
We’d be remiss if we did not also mention some of our own amazing guests we’ve had on the podcast, including what they’ve been up to lately! They will forever inspire us, but they continue to find new ways to make a difference in this world.
After the Miss USA pageant ended, Gabriella Deyi found a new calling and way to make a difference in others’ lives, joining Logitech in order to help inspire social change. As Gabriella shared on her episode of our podcast, she loves telling stories and sharing the lives and experiences of others. She is continuing with that passion in her new role as Lead Storyteller for Logitech! She is also now the host of Logitech Talk, and you can view her first interview with Leah Thomas over on Logitech’s Instagram page!
As you all likely know already, Michael Tyler is one of our favorite people in the universe! We’re thrilled to share his latest work with you all now, and we hope you love it as much as we all loved “The Skin You Live In”! His newest book is called “Mirror Face,” a collaboration between Michael Tyler, Jordan Gillman, and Lisa Fields, which you can learn about on their website - including a way to donate $18, providing 3 copies of the book to Atlanta Public Schools. Their website also offers great activities for all ages to join in on this journey of self-acceptance and self-love!
We also wanted to share a few resources with you all, should you wish to learn a bit more about Black History Month. There are lots of great resources for teachers and kids here as well.
Some Inspirational Voices
Finally, below is a list of the voices each member of the HIP team chose to amplify in this post. Kate, McKenna, Morgan, and Sean all chose a few to include here, as well as a brief description of why they’re so inspirational to us all. We hope you enjoy, and if you want to share your own choices with us, please tag us on Instagram to let us know!
BLONDERY
This 100% minority and women-owned online bakery offers bespoke blondies with a powerful mission to showcase bakers and businesswomen through craftsmanship and artistry. Owner and professional pastry chef Auzerais Bellamy has really created something special and continues to surprise us with new creations and consistently ethical practices. You can also check out some of their amazing goodies over on their Instagram!
After making it as far as she could in the food industry, Bellamy noticed she wasn’t as supported as her white peers. Instead of waiting around for the industry to get its act together, she set off to create her own business and stand out in the crowd with her incredible creations. If you’re interested in seeing her in action, she also has a YouTube Channel where she shares some of her process!
THE COOL MOM CO.
Lizzy Mathis, founder of The Cool Mom Co. and mom of three, brings the “cool back to motherhood.” On The Cool Mom Co Instagram page, she shares her favorite products, style, and real-life mom moments, reminding moms of their own inner cool selves. She also has a YouTube channel where she shares a glimpse into her special family and even dedicated an entire video last April to Black Maternal Health Week. We are also obsessed with her blog where she shares a ton of her favorite things!
JERRELLE GUY
As a blogger, food stylist, and James Beard Award nominee and creator of the renowned cookbook “Black Girl Baking: Wholesome Recipes Inspired by a Soulful Upbringing,” Jerrelle Guy is beyond cool. Her cooking is stunning, modern, and steeped in black culture, and she couldn’t be more fun and funny herself. Her instagram offers major food inspo, while her cookbook dives deeper into story and inspiration. Our favorite thing about this all is that it combines her love for photography with her love for food!
Marie Beecham
Marie Beecham is an advocate and educator who strives to promote unity and understanding while provoking thought and action. Her Instagram is full of tons of inspiration and motivation, and her website offers some great resources and reads we recommend checking out. We really appreciate her helpful videos where she shares some education as well as her personal experiences with each topic. Recently, we appreciated her video about her experience with getting caught in an echo chamber.
Her passion in life has always been anti-racism, which has been a difficult topic throughout the years. Of course, over the past year, this conversation has been more prominent across the US and the globe. By using social media to make a difference, resources such as her graphic entitled “How To Ally” have made a huge impact on so many people!
Bola Sokunbi
Bola has long been a huge inspiration for us all, and we are so thrilled that she agreed to chat with us on the podcast! Her advice has been instrumental to our own journeys through finance, investing, and thinking about money in general. We also love that her financial education courses are 100% free, as she truly aims to make a big difference in the world by empowering women to achieve financial independence.
Her work with Clever Girl Finance is amazing to follow, both on Instagram as well as on the podcast. We also love her books, “Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth,” “Learn How Investing Works, Grow Your Money,” and “The Side Hustle Guide: Build a Successful Side Hustle and Increase Your Income.”
Misty Copeland
Misty has been a trailblazer in the ballet world. She is American Ballet Theater’s first African American principal dancer. She is stunning to watch and has incredible strength and technique. She’s amazing to follow on Instagram too! She even has an incredible MasterClass course available, which is absolutely amazing! Recently, she also shared her thoughts on why ballet has so few black dancers, which you can view or listen to here.
Morgan is also a ballerina, and she highly recommends people check out Misty’s documentary: “A Ballerina’s Tale.”
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is an author, professor, feminist, and social commentator who is well known for her collection of essays entitled “Bad Feminist.” She has also released incredible short stories and other writings in “Ayiti,” “An Untamed State,” “Difficult Women,” and “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.” Her work combating stigmas against weight, racism, sexism, homophobia/biphobia, and so much more make her a true hero to us and many others, and we especially love her online presence of speaking nothing but the facts all day, every day. She shows us that we while we can combat ignorance head on, it is not really our job to do so at all times.
We adore her podcast, Hear to Slay, and she recently launched a new Substack newsletter called The Audacity, which also features The Audacious Book Club!
Dr. Mae Jemison
Dr. Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to travel to space, making history in 1992. She has also been inducted into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame. She spent her school years facing racial discrimination, but she still took her energy and spent it in so many positive ways, giving back to communities all over the world. Her educational journey led her to degrees from Stanford and Cornell, eventually graduating with a Doctorate in Medicine. She then used her skills to help refugees in Thailand, and then later joined the Peace Corps as a medical officer.
Despite applying to NASA around a devastating time surrounding the Space Shuttle Challenger, she persisted in her dreams and continued to pursue the astronaut program. She finally achieved her dream, served as an astronaut for six years, and raveled to space on the Endeavor in 1992. After that, she has continued to give back to others, forming The Jemison Group that helps to encourage science, technology, and social change. She also created an international space camp for teens called The Earth We Share. Dr. Jemison also released an amazing book about her life, “Find Where the Wind Goes,” which we absolutely recommend! Oh, and for younger readers, we also recommend the book “Mae Jemison: A Kid’s Book About Reaching Your Dreams.”
The Ladies of Science Fiction
This may come as a surprise, but Sean is absolutely obsessed with science fiction and Star Trek. (Hey, Mae Jemison was even on an episode!) One of the best parts of Trek especially is the impact it has now had on generations of young women, encouraging them to enter STEM fields throughout the years. A particularly inspirational character played by Nichelle Nichols, Uhura, from the Original Series made history as becoming the first black woman on television to play a non-stereotypical character. This role was not an easy experience for her at the time, but she was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. to remain in the role and continue serving as an inspiration for others herself. She eventually went on to become a recruiter for NASA in their search for more minority and female personnel - including recruiting or inspiring Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, and Charles Bolden!
Nichelle Nichols also served an important role for aspiring actors such as Whoopi Goldberg, who became famous in her own right but also eventually went on to star in Star Trek herself! These trends continue, especially when considering strong characters such as Michael Burnham in Star Trek Discovery, portrayed by Sonequa Martin-Green. Another series of books and television, The Expanse, also has strong, inspirational characters, such as Naomi Nagata, portrayed by Dominique Tipper. These characters are able to explore space and the very depths of what make us all human, and they continue to inspire people all over the globe.
After Black History Month is Over
As we wrap up Black History Month, please remember that we shouldn’t stop talking about these topics or individuals just because it’s no longer the right month to do so. We should continue to have these conversations and uplift or amplify these voices all year long. With this in mind, we also want to share an amazing new book that has inspired us this month: “The Sum of Us” by Heather McGhee. You can learn a bit more about it on this episode of Fresh Air on NPR: “‘Sum of Us’ Examines The Hidden Cost of Racism - For Everyone.”
Finally, please remember to reach out to us any time on social media if you have any questions or topics you’d like to see us cover in future blog posts or episodes. We’re always looking for new ideas, and we want to make sure our listeners’ voices are heard as well. If we can do anything to provide you with more information and help you feel less alone, we are here for you.