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-Shilpa

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News Roundup

Explore Your Dark Side 📰

Health

It’s time to explore your dark side 👤 Apparently we all have one! Dr Gauri Khurana breaks down the art of shadow work, and how it can support your mental health and wellbeing. It’s all about tapping into your unconscious (aka, repressed thoughts and emotions) and understanding how it can show up as negativity towards others. “We first meet our shadow when it is projected onto other people, as we cannot identify that these contents are actually within us.”

See also: Women in India are kicking down the period stigma door with the help of period charts 🩸

Women who made history

"I refused to take no for an answer.” 👩🏿‍✈️ Bessie Coleman became the first Black woman ever to earn a pilot's license in 1921. She made her first public flight in 1922. In honour of this, a crew of Black women operated an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Phoenix. A beautiful way to celebrate a woman who "bravely broke down barriers within the world of aviation and paved the path for many to follow.”

Extra Nuggets 👀

• Breaking down the Archetypes 👏🏾 Meghan Markle’s new podcast series is live. More on that in recos...

• Bringing down the patriarchy through … Dracula? 🧛🏽‍♂️ Nathalie Emmanuel shares how her new vampire film, The Invitation, explores patriarchal power structures and the fight to dismantle them.

• Inside the mind of Jameela Jamil 👩🏾 Well, sort of. The actress extraordinaire answers 15 questions from her celeb friends in her latest Vogue interview.

Glowreel Recos

What we’re loving this week:

Watch - Melody Oilvera aka melodyskatess on TikTok and Instagram. Melody’s rollerskating videos (mainly on TikTok) are soothing and mesmerising - the perfect antidote to a busy week!

Listen - Archetypes. Meghan Markle’s first episode with Serena Williams is like catching up with your friends over brunch and having some fun but also critical chats about being labelled an ambitious woman.

Make - Calcutta style masala chips recipe by Chef Sneha Singhi. It’s giving moorish 🤌🏾🤌🏾🤌🏾

Brunch, But Make It Melanated

Lillian Jackson and Melissa Mason are literal bffs. They’ve been best friends for over 30 years, ever since they met as second graders living in Richmond, Virginia.

In 2018 they founded Brown Skin Brunchin’: an app and social group that meets over the best meal of the day - brunch.

We caught up with Lillian to hear all about Brown Skin Brunchin’, and Lillian’s top tips for how you can blaze your own trail. Let’s go!

How did you come up with the idea for Brown Skin Brunchin’?

It all came about after me and Melissa ended up being apart.

A few years ago I moved out to Las Vegas for a job opportunity. I figured I needed to find some friends to make the most of the move. I started going to brunch and realized that it was different compared to traditional networking. We’re sitting down, we’re drinking and eating and having fun. The conversations were organic and I was getting to know people in a relaxed atmosphere.

I started posting about my brunch adventures on Facebook - we had this whole brunch squad happening. And Melissa was like “I want to make more friends too!”. So we decided that she would do the same thing over in Virginia.

We decided to call this thing we were doing ‘Brown Skin Brunchin’. Because we wanted to brunch with people like us, that had possibly gone through some of the same challenges and were looking for community and connections.

Who can join the Brown Skin Brunchin’ group, and where do you brunch?

Brown Skin Bunchin’ is for women of colour. It’s an opportunity to meet, have fun and chill with people that have similar experiences to you! We have over 17,000 app users, and counting.

We brunch in over 75 major cities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Our members get to expand their personal and professional circles monthly - via social media and in real life.

What have been the highlights and challenges of starting Brown Skin Brunchin’?

Highlights: Doing something that fuels our fire! Hearing the stories from our brunches, and hearing how much our community appreciates what we’re doing is a highlight. As is seeing some of the lifelong friendships that have been built from this community.

Challenges: We’re first-generation business owners, so we haven’t had any support system along the way. It's been a lot of trial and error, and self-funding, to get this kicked off the ground. Another challenge, especially when you’re self-funding a project, is having to juggle all the different roles in a business. But, it’s been an amazing journey and we have learned a lot along the way.

Your top tip for BIPOC women who are wanting to blaze their own trail?

My top tip is jump out there and do it. What is the worst that can happen? As they say, you miss a hundred percent of the shots that you don't take.

I think a lot of us as women, we doubt ourselves, we doubt our abilities. We have a lot of amazing ideas that could be great, but we doubt ourselves and believe that we can’t actually achieve them. So believe in yourself, because if you don't believe in you, no one else will.

Love to brunch? Join the Brown Skin Brunchin’ community here, and follow their adventures on Instagram here.

Lioness Thoughts

Tell Us Your Story

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This week's email was brought to you by Shilpa Bhim, founder of Glowreel. You can see more of her work at www.shilpabhim.com or follow her on Instagram @shilpa.bhim

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