How Attia Taylor’s Womanly Magazine Is Shaping The Future Of Black Maternal Health – Essence
Motherhood is a beautiful, transformative, and miraculous experience for many women. But when it comes to Black maternal health, the statistics aren’t in our favor. Black maternal mortality rates are three times higher than white women and significantly higher than Hispanic and Asian women, regardless of education, income, or socioeconomic level and status. From 2022 to 2023, Black women were the only demographic to experience an increase in pregnancy-related mortality.
Several factors contribute to this disparity—from lack of access to the proper pre-natal care to a higher likelihood of pregnancy complications and underlying chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes. Regardless of the contributing factors, the predominant cause of these discrepancies is systemic racism and discrimination in medicine.
Attia Taylor, founder of the indie publication Womanly, has dedicated herself and her community to resisting the system of racism within the medical field and helping bring awareness and education to Black maternal, sexual, and reproductive health. “When we go to the doctor, we’re like, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” says Taylor. “We hope for the best. But I very quickly realized that whether it’s race related or not, hospital systems that serve lower income folks, people on Medicaid, people who are low income communities, they get the shorter end of the stick.”
In a study conducted by Black women community members in the maternal mental health community, Pathways To Equitable And Antiracist Maternal Mental Health Care: Insights From Black Women Stakeholders, five key pathways are laid out to solve some of the maternal and reproductive health issues disproportionately affecting Black women. Some of them include increasing the number of Black obstetric professionals, valuing and honoring the traditional birthing and healing practices of doulas and midwives, and investing in Black women-led community-based organizations that serve Black mothers and birthing people.
As an employee of Planned Parenthood and a lover of art, Taylor created Womanly to be a community where readers and audiences can get a little sugar with their medicine while learning about health through an artistic lens. “I love the art world and wanted to lift Black artists and Black culture within what I could control, which was the health space,” says Taylor. She explains that people resonate with art more than a doctor stating a list of symptoms.
“Between art and health, there’s more ways than one that people experience care, and more obviously, more ways than one that people learn,” she adds. Through Womanly, Taylor and her community of artists, educators, and contributors cover a wide range of topics from health and art to fashion and body image.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Attia Taylor, the founder of Womanly discusses how she created the publication that sits at the intersection of art, community, culture, and health. Taylor also discussed the state of Black maternal health, the sustainable fashion brands she’s looking to at the moment, and more.
ESSENCE: When I was conducting research for this piece, I got this feeling of warmth and safety from looking at a lot of the magazine’s posts on Instagram. It feels like Womanly is positioning itself as the bedside manner for Black women when it comes to Black maternal health.
Attia Taylor: That’s very flattering and an honor to hear. I think we’ve spent the last eight years trying to get there and trying to be that, whether people felt that or not, that’s where we’ve wanted to be, is to be support system, a liaison, an advocate, a resource for Black women who are going into the medical system in the United States. So whether that’s for reproductive health or for heart health. But particularly Black maternal health, [which] is such a huge issue in our country. So it became a no-brainer for us. I’m a Black woman. I have had my share of issues with reproductive health and going up against the system. There were lots of things I wish I had known.
We try to help people with things that maybe they should know before they go. To protect themselves and to put their best foot forward when going up against the system. it. Womanly is this platform or service, whatever you want to call it, to say, “Hey, I went through this thing. Here’s my story. Here [are] the resources I found.” So that you don’t have to go what I went through.
What has sustained us over the years, where there’s been maybe a hard time with funding or support, is people needing this. People saying, “Hey, you helped me at the hospital.” This feels like too big to give up sometimes, right? So that’s been the driving force is just this feeling that started Womanly, but has snowballed so much because people are like, I want to tell my story, or I want to use my art, that is my story, and I want to be a person to put that out in the world.
I noticed that Womanly is very art, culture, and community-forward. You made an intentional decision to mix Black maternal health with these areas. How do you see connections between each of these topics?
I’m an artist, I’m a musician, and that’s always been my first love. I also love print magazines, and I live in the world of art, and when I started my professional career, I felt this passion to help people. I love the art world and wanted to lift up Black artists and Black culture within what I could control, which was in the health space. So I just threw something at the wall with this project.
Also, I work at Planned Parenthood, and back when I was 25, I started working at Planned Parenthood and worked on an app that we were building for period birth control tracking. I noticed how many people were so excited just to share period art and art [centering] birth control. And while the Internet has blown up since then, back then, there was not a lot of art around sexual reproductive health on the Internet. It was on Tumblr, and it was kind of buried, so it wasn’t [in] the mainstream.
As the work of Womanly has evolved, we’ve gone into different spaces, like fashion and into film, and [we’ve] put up billboards. We are looking in every space that we can because health and art, or to me, in my brain, they’re very intertwined. Most people don’t see it that way, but I see it that way because health is everything that we are and art is everything that we are. Finding ways to be playful and to be to throw things is Womanly’s [modus operandi]. You know, maybe we [could] do a fashion show to promote stories. Or maybe we interview a designer or a model, or anyone who has gone through something important. There are a million ways that we can share our experiences and also promote better health outcomes through art.
When you said Tumblr, something clicked in my mind because I was a big Tumblr girl in high school and then in college too, and it’s making a comeback, but I think it’s apropos of everything that you’re talking about with Womanly. I see the connection because that is how Tumblr works, which is a multi-disciplinary approach to creativity. Womanly nails that.
[Womanly] is very inspired [by Tumblr]. I’m glad it’s having a resurgence because so many people found themselves and found their communities on spaces like Tumblr and Instagram. Our community was formed on Instagram. It was like right after Tumblr really kind of switched over, and I’m very grateful for it. People find us all the time through Instagram, and if it wasn’t for the platform, I don’t know if we would be where we are. It’s all related. It’s all media history.
Womanly does an amazing job merging artistic expression with serious issues. What is the thought process behind creating content at the intersection of fashion and health?
That’s a great question. This one interview we just did with the founder of Kynd. They’re a new a Black-owned weave that’s sustainably made. And so there are these new, really beautiful, Black- owned brands of hair, like weaves and wigs, that are coming out that are like plant-made and sustainable, and they can be reused. And it’s just so exciting. Because hair is fashion. And you know, there’s been so much information coming out about how the chemicals that we wear in our hair, and so the chemicals that we wear in our hair are causing, you know, maybe causing cancer or just toxic. And we’re not being informed.
Many of us grew up getting perms, wearing all kinds of synthetic hair, and it’s just [that] we’re learning it more and more about how that’s not sustainable and healthy. So part of us going into investigative reporting on brands that are creating, whether that’s hair, underwear or clothing. We should be aware of what we’re consuming, obviously eating, but also wearing on our heads every day, or putting in our ears or putting on our bodies. The body is sacred. There is so much more that we need to know, but we are getting there. And I think as a as a health focused like culturally inclusive media outlet, we want people to be informed, especially when it comes to items that are very specific to Black women or Black and brown folks.
We’re not always consuming the same things as white people or other cultures, so we need to stay just as aware because they’re not going to do that research. It doesn’t apply to them, right? So, you know, they’ll sell us anything if nobody’s looking, nobody’s paying attention. I want to try and keep my ear to that world of sustainability, and I care about the planet, I want people to know how to protect Earth and themselves.
I love that you brought up Kynd. What are some of your favorite green or sustainable fashion brands out right now?
They’re not Black-owned, but they’re woman-owned. It’s called Oddobody. They make beautiful, very comfortable cotton underwear that I’m obsessed with. We just did an article on eight sustainable brands to shop, and one was Barkal, a Sudanese shoe brand that I love. They’re making really beautiful leather shoes in Sudan.
There’s also The Consistency Project. They’re woman-owned, and they’re based in Brooklyn, doing beautiful work. And Khiry [by Jameel Muhammad], their jewelry is gorgeous. They’re Black-owned. So those are my tops right now, but I’m always looking for more. Always trying to find out who’s making it work. It’s not an easy thing to do. I mean making it affordable is so embedded in our culture, and now we’re trying to move into sustainable practices that I think are like, sometimes cheaper, but it can’t always be. It’s not always easy. So I applaud brands who are trying hard to make sure that they’re creating sustainable products.
It’s hard because accessibility of clothing has always been an issue, but we’re moving into how do we get to sustainability, but also being inclusive. Womanly’s most recent issue is “The Future Is Fat” issue. When we talk about accessibility with fast fashion, it’s made clothing more accessible to those who have been traditionally excluded, but now we’re moving into a more sustainable fashion. How do you feel about merging those two goals to include everyone who wants to be involved in fashion?
I want to start by saying I’m not the right person to speak [about] fat fashion. I’m just not so I don’t want to speak to it as something that I personally experienced. But, during the research for the issue, we spoke to Professor Cheyenne Davis, who is doing fat liberation work and speaking to fat fashion and the issues that are persistent in our culture. And so what I’ve learned from them is, while there are a lot of opportunities for people to have more availability for fat fashion with fast fashion, yes, that is true, but we have to think about the systems that are built on those.
Those fast fashion infrastructures are harmful to people. So while, yes, they might be a short-term solution, I don’t believe that they’re a long-term solution or a sustainable solution. The sustainable solution is creating pathways for more sustainable fashion designers, more fat designers, more visibility for fat people in general. I also learned that fat models are not being hired as much as they used to be. That’s an issue because of who we see when we’re represented. When you see fat people in ads or in fashion, you feel more motivated and excited to get into whatever it is you’re getting into, whether it’s fashion or not. So we need to create more space for fat people. We need to create more conversations. And so that was what it was behind the issue.
The photographer who did the cover [Rochelle Brock] champions fat people in their photography [and] does a ton of fashion campaigns with fat folks. It’s just a shining example of why it matters from behind the lens. We’re all consumers at the end of the day.
What are some projects that you hope to work on, and what does the future of Womanly look like for you, or do you have a dream issue?
I love this question. It’s one I need to hear all the time because sometimes I just get like bogged down in the moment. But my dream scenario is to be running just a full suite of programming for health, education through art, so creating film projects in partnership with larger organizations. We did a film with Mount Sinai last year, doulas and their free program in Queens and Elmhurst. So more projects like that. To show what beautiful initiatives are popping up, whether it’s New York or Chicago or Alabama, I want to be showing the progress of health and teaching people about what’s possible and what they need to know.
More films, more billboards. In terms of issues. I mean, we’re planning to do an issue on grief with Rachel Cargle, and that’s a dream come true. That’s in the near future, where I’m like, this is one of the goals of mine. So more on that, and more global health. Maternal health and mortality is not just an issue in the U.S., it’s a global issue, and women are being, particularly Black and brown folks, whether it’s in Africa and Middle East, are being silenced. And I want to be a voice for more global folks. I want our work to be at the center of health education.
