Black Girls Smile's Paige Woods Speaks About Preserving Young Black Girls' and Women's Mental Health

ATLANTA–Black Girls Smile Chief of Staff Paige Woods appeared on the latest TeacHER podcast with host Kristi Morale, founder of The Innocent Brown Girl Project.

Woods and Morale discussed how our community and lineage has traditionally been influential on how we take care of ourselves.

"...when I think about my ancestry I think about my great grandma Annie and how she was so strong.. For me I'm wondering what did she do to take care of herself to make sure she restored herself? Was she feeling like she was not able to be vulnerable because she was so strong?", pondered Woods.

Woods also stressed the importance of learning the lessons of the past and prioritizing mental wellness over hustling and being a savior for everyone else. According to Woods, the current generation is far more self aware and are more accepting of taking a break and asking for help. Witnessing their self awareness has been encouraging.

"My younger sister is Gen Z and I'm always inspired by her. I'm like wow, you're trying to make sure you're in touch with your intuition and not just being this robot that many of us were conditioned to do.

Listen to the full podcast here.