Girlies, let’s have a chat, shall we?
Every story we read or tell affects our brains.
Not in a scary, science-lab kind of way, but in a real way.
Our brains remember how a story made us feel. They hold on to what hurt, what healed, and what we had to survive to keep going.
When I say “the Black girl brain,” I’m talking about the way our minds have had to grow, bend, and rebuild under pressure. We’ve had to be alert since childhood — learning early when to speak, when to shrink, when to smile so people feel safe around us. That kind of constant calculation? It’s neurological. It wires the brain to look for danger even in peace.
The weight we carry
Science calls it a stress response. We call it “trying to make it through the day without snapping.”
Chronic stress changes how the brain handles memory and emotion. It’s not weakness, it’s adaptation.
When the world keeps demanding that you stay strong, your brain learns to stay ready.
And still, somehow, we create beauty.
We tell stories, we laugh, we dance, we build community.
Every poem, lyric, and “girl, let me tell you what happened” moment we share is medicine. It’s cognitive repair, even if nobody calls it that.
The flip side: joy as brainwork
Culture and creativity keep our neurons alive.
Reading, music, prayer, journaling, art, all of it.
When you read Toni Morrison or sing along to Beyoncé, your brain lights up the same regions that process love and memory. That’s neuro-resilience. That’s joy as a scientific act.
And listen, rest counts too.
Sleep, food, boundaries, silence, all of it feeds the brain.
Science backs that up, but our grandmothers knew it before any journal ever printed it.
What I hope you take away
The Black girl brain is not broken. It’s brilliant. It’s flexible. It’s proof that we’ve been surviving and innovating simultaneously. If trauma can leave a mark, then joy can, too.
And every time we tell our stories, we’re rewriting our wiring, turning pain into pattern, memory into meaning.
Before You Go
I want to hear from you.
What stories shaped your brain?
What book, song, or memory do you keep returning to when you need to remind yourself who you are?
Drop it in the comments or share it with a friend who gets it.
Because our brains remember what we feed them, and I want us all to start feeding them joy on purpose.
Let Me REMIND You:
Han, S., Fleischman, D., Yu, L., Poole, V., Lamar, M., Kim, N., … & Barnes, L. (2022). Cognitive decline and hippocampal functional connectivity within older Black adults. Human Brain Mapping, 43(16), 5044–5052. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26070
Kamara, D., Gangishetti, U., Gearing, M., Willis‐Parker, M., Zhao, L., Hu, W., … & Walker, L. (2018). Cerebral amyloid angiopathy: Similarity in African-Americans and Caucasians with Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 62(4), 1815–1826. https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-170954
McDougall, M., Choi, J., Magnusson, K., Truong, L., Tanguay, R., & Traber, M. (2017). Chronic vitamin E deficiency impairs cognitive function in adult zebrafish via dysregulation of brain lipids and energy metabolism. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 112, 308–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.08.002
Chen, C., Yang, K., Nan, H., Unverzagt, F., McClure, L., Irvin, M., … & Kahe, K. (2023). Associations of telomere length and change with cognitive decline were modified by sex and race: The REGARDS Study. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, 38. https://doi.org/10.1177/15333175231175797
Esquivel, N., García, Y., Lores, B., Gutiérrez, M., & Martínez, C. (2020). Characterization of aged male BALB/ccenp mice as a model of dementia. Laboratory Animal Research, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42826-020-00038-0
Taylor, C., Pritschet, L., Yu, S., & Jacobs, E. (2019). Applying a women’s health lens to the study of the aging brain. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00224
