Episode 36: A Conversation On Self Care for Black Women - Author Oludara Adeeyo Talks Writing Her First Book And Making The Pivot From Magazine Editor To Social Worker

Oludara Adeeyo, ASW

Social Worker & Author, Self-Care for Black Women: 150 Ways to Radically Accept and Prioritize Your Mind, Body and Soul

This week’s episode features Oludara Adeeyo, former editor at Cosmopolitan and XXL, current psychiatric social worker and author of the new book, Self-Care for Black Women: 150 Ways to Radically Accept and Prioritize Your Mind, Body and Soul.

Oludara made the decision to embark on her own radical self-care journey after walking away from the media industry due to burnout and workplace racial trauma. After embracing a new career path that better aligned with the life path that she wanted, she found her way back to writing to author this self-described "love letter to Black women everywhere.”

Listen as we discuss Oludara’s personal experience and learnings while writing her debut book, generational shifts in self-care for Black women and how that is reflected in how we are showing up (or choosing not to show up) in the workplace, and how putting her happiness first led her to the beautiful next phase of her career journey.

Conversation Highlights

Myriha (Host): How personally fulfilling and therapeutic was it for you to write this book?

Oludara Adeeyo (Guest): I had to recognize that I was made for this moment, between working in the media industry and also being a social worker now. Writing the book felt like I was kind of creating a new path for the generation that comes behind me, because my mother was definitely a woman who didn't embrace self-care. I feel like many Black women, our mothers, grandmothers or aunties were women who didn't really embrace self-care because historically it just was not a thing Black woman could do. So for me, it felt like I was kind of fulfilling some higher prophecy or some higher purpose because I was writing this book.

Myriha (Host): After leaving the world of media, you pivoted into a career as a psychiatric social worker focused on working with individuals experiencing homelessness, as well as severe and persistent mental illnesses. Why did this feel like the right next stage of your career? What were you concerns about making this shift?

Oludara Adeeyo (Guest): I was scared shitless. I quit double XXL in 2016 and I didn't know what I wanted to do next. I didn't have a job lined up, but I just knew I had to get out of that job because it was killing me, mentally and physically, I was so drained. At the time I also had friends who were going to grad school, who were trying to figure out their lives and just not afraid to step into different spaces. And so it also encouraged me.

My first thought after leaving my job was what was the last job you had where you were very, very happy? Where you literally felt like it was the best job in the world?

The job that I could think of was being a babysitter. And I absolutely loved children. I think they're so wonderful. And so I was like, maybe I'll become a teacher because I actually really love working with children. So I became a preschool teacher but quickly realized, I did not want to be a teacher. These people are doing God's work and the pay was nothing.

So I got a babysitting job with a family that lives in my town in New Jersey and it was the best experience ever. It was absolutely wonderful and while I was working that job, one of my girlfriends was about to start her master's in social work was like, “hey, I feel like you might like social work,” because I was beginning to think about the mental health field.

I reflected on what were the things I wanted to do before I wanted to become an editor and being a therapist was one of them. So I began to research. And the more I researched social work, what I could do and where I could go to school, I realized this is much more me than being an editor.

Connect with Oludara Adeeyo

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Myriha Burce