Founder Feature: Attia Taylor of Womanly Mag
Attia Taylor is the founder of Womanly Magazine, a publication dedicated to providing accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art. Her work is rooted in social justice, art, and design, to bring inclusive and culturally relevant content to sound, print and digital realms. We caught up with Attia to learn about how she cultivates communities through journalism, music, storytelling, and research. See what being a feminist means to her below!
Photograph by @marionaguas
Q: What sparked your desire to start Womanly Mag?
AT: Growing up without a lot of money and access played a huge role in wanting to create a resource for BIPOC to learn, create art, and see themselves represented in a positive light. So many Black and Brown people have been overlooked, mistreated, and underserved in the healthcare system in the U.S. to date so this was the response we had to filling the gaps. Our magazine is a hopeful solution for a problem that goes very far back and runs incredibly deep. We're simply looking to start a movement toward helping women and non-binary people understand their personal health and how to live long and healthy lives aside from the prejudices or economic barriers that they face through representation and opportunity.
“I am a proud descendant of generations of strong Black women who made a way when there wasn’t one. I come from a long line of single Black women who worked tirelessly to provide a better future for us little Black girls with big dreams.
However, like many families, we didn't receive the health prevention and support that is needed to live a full and successful life. Womanly was founded to provide the resources and tools to help women and non-binary individuals fiercely and confidently take care of and advocate for themselves. Through innovative, engaging, and arts-centric preventative health programming, Womanly dismantles the most fundamental barriers that women and non-binary people–particularly low income and people of color–face in gaining autonomy over their own health outcomes.”
— Attia Taylor, Editor-in-Chief, Womanly Magazine
Photograph by @marionaguas
Q: Tell us about the team who founded Womanly Mag, how did the team inform the identity of Womanly?
AT: The Womanly team was originally a small group of friends who believed in this mission and wanted to create something that had a real positive impact on our collective communities. We are an incredibly diverse group of health care providers, artists, teachers, curators, and professionals who have the same interest in health equity. As a small team starting out with no money, we pooled together as many friends and family as we could to begin working on what would be the first digital issue of Womanly. The team and the work both snowballed into a much larger operation than we ever imagined.
The first issue was a true reflection of our community. We worked within our network to share experiences on sexual health and sex education. So many people showed up and shared their truths. I think what we've seen the most in creating Womanly is that people desire to see themselves and their communities represented in the media they consume. We were able to create a new platform for the communities we intend to serve because they are us.
Q: How do you use the power of your platform to empower your community?
AT: We are extremely focused on creating a platform that provides visibility. Visibility for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, non binary folks, and the disabled. Because so often, our lives, stories, and experiences are left out of the main narrative. We are dedicated to sharing those stories along with the health information that help these communities survive and thrive. We intend to inspire people to not only be loud and proud about who they are but also to take care of their health in whatever way that means for them.
Q: Since you first launched, has the narrative around women's health shifted?
AT: Since we launched in 2017, we have seen a huge boom in the amount of honest and representative women’s health content out there. Especially on social media. Conversations about Black maternal health had been going on for a very long time but people really started to pay attention on a larger scale during that time. A beautiful article was released by The New York Times about Black women dying in the U.S. health care system trying to give birth and that was a turning point in the conversation.
We are definitely proud to be a part of this wave of women’s health media and finally beginning to share the stories and health needs of non binary and trans folks who have been left out of this conversation for far too long. Publications like Salty, gal dem, and even Teen Vogue, have really been doing incredible work to break down stigmas and tell honest stories for folks typically ignored in these spaces.
Q: What advice would you give to someone trying to unlearn societal biases surrounding women's health?
AT: Remember that we are all human and we all deserve empathy, compassion, and dignity. Especially if you are someone who has patients or you work in health care. It’s so important to remove any judgements you have about someone’s livelihood, lifestyle, and think through the reasons you have these biases in the first place. Lead with compassion and understanding first. We did a great interview with M’balu Bangura who is Baltimore City’s Equity Specialist. She said, “ I think the best way to promote equity for marginalized people is to help make sure that our institutions really understand what the inequities are, that they acknowledge the roles they have played in perpetuating these inequities, and that they actively work towards reducing the barriers to equity prevailing in our communities.”
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
AT: Feminism is the fight for equity for women and non-binary people in this world and for the future. That includes all trans people, people with disabilities, and people at every intersection of what it truly means to be free and autonomous as a human being.
Support Attia and Womanly Magazine by following @womanlymag on Instagram and Twitter, and checking out their website at womanlymag.com
Attia Taylor is also a psych-pop musician, discover her beats here.
