We Never Volunteered for This Sh*t
We NEVER needed them. And now our existence is NON-Negotiable.
My Reminders,
I want to share something deeply personal with you. Many of you are familiar with my work, which focuses on the health of Black women, primarily their mental well-being and the neuropsychology of it all. I've fallen madly in love with Pilates and its benefits for mental clarity, addressing maternal trauma, and how this movement can serve as a practical, non-pharmaceutical medicine for us. What you may not know is how much of that comes from my own experiences. You have absolutely no idea how much work I have done on my own before I even bring it to paper.
I, very much like you, am a product of this system.
When I look back at the history of Black women in this country, I see a thread that runs through generations: our bodies being used, studied, controlled, and dismissed without our consent. From the forced sterilizations of our grandmothers to the way Black women's pain is still minimized in hospitals today, to the lack of research on how pregnancy and birth impact our brains, we've been treated as experiments instead of as whole human beings. And no one cares. Even our CDC numbers. They don't include our homicide, suicide, or murder rates. That doesn't include the number of times that doctors have made up the lies that it was our "blood pressure" when it really was their malpractice.
The data is staggering:
Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
Black mothers are more likely to experience postpartum depression but less likely to receive treatment.
Only a fraction of neuroscience research includes Black women, leaving our unique health experiences invisible.
This is not just history. It's happening now. And it is unacceptable.
That's why I created Never Voluntary; not just a store, but a movement.
The Neurological Collection is the core collection of the store. They are bold, unapologetic pieces that declare what we know to be true: our bodies are not experiments. Our minds are not disposable. Our existence is not up for debate. There are seven lines total. Seven is my favorite number. It is the number of perfection and completion. You will see new collections emerge, and as we get closer to seven, you will know that we are one step closer to the truth.
Every single purchase directly funds REMIND Lab, my research initiative devoted to uncovering how pregnancy, racism, and trauma impact the neurological health of Black women. Half of every dollar you spend goes straight into building the research that has too often been denied to us.
When you wear these words on your chest and the satin scarf on your head, you're not just making a fashion choice; you're making a statement: We never chose to board those ships, to pick cotton, to be maids in their homes, wet nurses for their children, bed wenches for their husbands, or test subjects for their experiments so that their versions of medicines could be pushed forward and seen as miraculous.
We demand a future where our health is not a footnote, where our pain is not dismissed, and where our lives are not negotiable. We require sanctuaries that protect us, not systems that dissect us. We demand that every medical textbook confess the truth that pain is not "stronger" or "weaker" by race; it is the same. And we will not stop until every hospital in this nation, the nation we built with our blood, our wombs, and our labor, is forced to see us, hear us, and protect us.
✨ Shop the collection today → www.nevervoluntary.com
✨ Share this with your sisters, daughters, aunties, and friends.
✨ Stand with us in building REMIND Lab.
USE CODE RELF TO SAVE 30% ON YOUR PURCHASES!!
We carry the weight of generations, but we also have their power. Thank you for being part of this fight.
With love + fire,
Zsanine