If you could thank any Black woman for her contributions to history and society, who would it be?
Oh, my gosh that’s so hard. The first to come to mind is Oprah. She and others that came to mind — of course, Maya Angelou and Cicely Tyson.
As a Black woman, what do you consider your superpowers to be?
My superpower is empathy. You tell me a story of trials and tribulations, I bet I can relate. If you tell me a story of feeling like an outlier I bet I can relate. So I think for me that’s been beautiful because, in the midst of not feeling, I feel like I’ve made space for other people to feel like they belong.
How can your book give Black women permission to love themselves?
When I talk about feeling completely liberated it’s giving myself permission to feel deeply. It’s giving myself permission to change my mind it’s giving myself permission to have the audacity to dream big. You know, I think the more that we don’t give ourselves permission, we are literally trapping ourselves within the bounds of the confines of what the world expects of us.
