Sustainable Baddie of the Week: Priscilla O. Agyeman of Saddie Baddies

🌞: Sagittarius 🌙: Scorpio ⬆: Scorpio

In 2019, Solange Knowles dropped "When I Get Home”, and with it the mantra, “do nothing without intention.” "Do nothing without intention" encourages you to live in a way that is both mindful and intentional, to align your values, and to approach life with a sense of purpose. It’s a mantra that has helped Priscilla O. Agyeman to grow her platform, Saddie Baddies, into a space where Black and multiracial people can safely hold conversations around mental health through community, authenticity and intentional living. 

Baddies need help sometimes too and, though mental health stigma is changing for the better, there is still a persisting taboo that can keep baddies everywhere from being able to truly express their feelings and get the help they need. This week we had the honor of chatting with sustainable baddie of the week Priscilla O. Agyeman about destigmatizing mental health, inner child healing, learning to ask for help, intentional living and more. 

Priscilla O. Agyeman, MPH is a first-gen Ghanaian-American public health professional, mental health advocate, and founder of the online platform Saddie Baddies. Saddie Baddies is a virtual sanctuary for Black and multiracial people to come together and remove the stigma that surrounds mental health in their communities through resources like open conversation, in-person and virtual events, and the essential language that is needed to identify and understand one’s emotions. 

Community care, a value integral to Saddie Baddies’ ethos, was instilled in Agyeman from a very early age. “I come from a family that has always prioritized community care. Before I even knew that there was such [a] thing as community care my parents were practicing it and drilling it into our heads,” she tells us.

“We were always taught to be mindful, generous, helpful, and compassionate of the people around us, and even people we couldn’t help.”

Agyeman’s West African heritage and upbringing has inspired Saddie Baddies’ emphasis on collective well-being, community-oriented approach, empathy and compassion, and has helped her create a culture of openness and inclusiveness. 

Agyeman created Saddie Baddies after noticing there wasn’t an existing space where mental health could be discussed openly and safely amongst BIPOC. Though communities of color and many non-western cultures value community over individualism, for many it also seems that community ends where conversations around mental health begin. As the world changes for the better and the next generation has a say in how we discuss mental health in our communities, Agyeman and Saddie Baddies are paving the path for marginalized communities to have conversations about mental health, breaking taboos that further marginalize their own communities. 

In a world where BIPOC, especially womxn, have been historically told their feelings are not a valid representation of their lived experiences,

“having language is so important. It helps you to name your feelings, it helps you to express yourself, and I think it increases the collective consciousness of everybody that's going through similar transitions in their lives,” Agyeman says.

Language like “liminal space,” which describes “that (not so) sweet spot between what was and what’s next” and is further explained in the episode “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Deal with Liminal Spaces” of The Soft Life podcast, or ideas like “getting to the root” of your triggers and challenges, can become part of our mental health practice. 

Conversations about mental health and the wellness space can often take an individualistic approach, too. People often see their own experiences with mental health as unique and separate from others, resulting in a movement that focuses on individual symptoms and treatments, rather than on the societal and systemic factors that can contribute to mental health challenges. Mental health stigma perpetuates this individualistic wellness culture and leads people to keep their struggles to themselves out of shame or embarrassment.

“A lot of us are still uncomfortable talking to someone who has severe mental illness or struggles with bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder or other things that really prevent them from being welcomed into our communities and our society,” Agyeman says.

Saddie Baddies’ purpose is to help others, no matter what their experiences are, to feel closeness,  feel seen, and get them the support and resources that they need in a more understanding and supportive environment. 

Often framed as a personal responsibility, people may feel that they should be able to manage their own mental health without seeking help from others, reinforcing the idea that mental health is a solitary experience and discouraging people from having collective and community-oriented conversations.

Learning to ask for help and leaning on community are often underappreciated methods of improving mental well-being, though they offer a support system, resources, empathy, and an opportunity to feel heard. Teaching others to protect and heal their mental health through community has not only been at the center of Saddie Baddies’ ethos, but also a major part of growing the platform and Agyeman’s own growth as a business owner and community builder:

“It's okay to ask for help even in your business and especially as a Black woman founder. A lot of times, we tend to be like a one woman show, and I realized I didn't want to completely take on all this burden of growing this brand and growing this community and not ask for any help,” Agyeman says of her own experiences.

“Asking for help has really helped me to not only connect and find so many amazing people who can do what I do, but maybe even better. Or, [find others who] have a skill set that I really appreciate and need in order to grow the space. It also allows me to take care of myself…”

Support systems save lives and are the root of collective healing. Not everyone is going to be able to have access to therapy or to other mental health resources, but there’s so much we can do to start building a community where empathy and support can be found.

“If you have a neighbor, you know someone that's in need, and you have a few extra dollars to spare, you have your time that you can spare, you can show up for that person and each other,” she says. “That's why I think community care is at the root of self care. We can't expect people to take care of themselves when we don't give them the support system to be able to take care of themselves.”

In tandem with community care, Agyeman emphasizes that self-care and mental health cannot be nurtured in the absence of authenticity. Authenticity is essential for creating a sense of connection and trust within oneself and with others, “authenticity will always always win because people can tell when you're not being authentic… The more authentic you are, the more relatable you are, the more people feel comfortable connecting with you,” she says. 

Authenticity means accepting your experiences and emotions without shame or judgment, and in community care, it means building trust and fostering a supportive environment through that same kind of acceptance, mutual understanding, compassion and empathy. 

You may have heard that the most authentic version of yourself was the version of you as a child or teen when the world had yet to place its limiting beliefs on you. The inner child represents the essence of who we are and our earliest experiences, beliefs, and emotions. In a January 2023 episode of Agyeman’s podcast, The Soft Life with Saddie Baddies, she discusses the importance of nurturing your inner child and teen:

“There's always going to be a five year old version of you or a ten year old version of you. What are the parts about that version of you that you love?” She tells us to ask ourselves. “Did you love the way you used to be super creative, or did you love how self-expressive you were? Maybe over time, some of us have [had] situations or experiences that dim our light or change who we are as people, but always remember that that's still a part of who you are.” 

By reconnecting with this part of ourselves we can gain a deeper understanding of our emotional landscape and the impact that our childhood experiences have had on our lives. It’s easier to be hard on yourself than to allow yourself the space to breathe and grow. Connecting with your inner child can help you to be more compassionate with yourself, especially when we are all still growing. 

“It's never too early or too late to start,” Agyeman says. “I think about some of the lessons that I learned in my 20’s and, how if I had kind of looked at it from more of a compassionate angle, how much I would have probably been easier on myself.”

In the four years since Saddie Baddies was founded, the platform's message has spread and allowed so many people to come together, share their stories, and collectively heal. In 2021, Agyeman and Saddie Baddies held space with the help of Nike through the virtual event Saddie Baddies Sanctuary. Hearing the attendees share their voices was uplifting for Agyeman as she saw her efforts truly help those who were there to express themselves. 

Saddie Baddies also held their first in-person event last year in Brooklyn titled The Living Room, “seeing so many people come out and really have some super honest raw vulnerable conversations was everything because I had always imagined it being a safe space and an environment where people feel really comfortable sharing, but also feel empowered walking away and that's exactly what it was” Agyeman says.

Finding the strength to build Saddie Baddies and continue to create resources for the community has been a mental health journey on its own for Agyeman. We can often keep ourselves from doing the things we are most passionate about simply out of fear. The Soft Life Podcast could have been an earthly treasure ungifted if Agyeman had not found the strength to work past her fear and bring the idea into fruition. Instead, we’ve had the opportunity to access resources and episodes on topics like healing your inner child, dissecting the Lucky Girl Syndrome trend, and a host of conversations with amazing Black womxn and leaders like writer, producer, and director Tanya Lewis Lee.

These episodes have also had a profound impact on Agyeman’s own healing journey. “Sometimes when you go through [...] your difficult moments in life, you can really start to internalize that as part of your personality…” We are not our anxieties or our stressors, and we need to give ourselves the time to be able to adjust to a new mindset. 

On the future of Saddie Baddies, Agyeman says, “I hope that through Saddie Baddies that mental health can be even more of a palatable topic and it can be a conversation that people have even if it’s uncomfortable, even if it makes them hesitate.” What we can learn from Agyeman and Saddie Baddies and take with us into the future is the truth that no one is self-made. “I hope that people really remember that there is no self-care without community care and we need each other and there’s no such thing as being self made… we are all part of something,” she says. We can’t wait to see how Saddie Baddies continues to make space for those of us who have felt overlooked and destigmatize mental health for our communities.