Jayne Allen’s Black Girls Must Die Exhausted is part of a trilogy. She covers conversations that help to educate, as well as brings awareness on what it means to be Black woman and a Woman of Color. Jayne takes on very real and often looked over topics. Some topics includes infertility, what it means to find joy on your own terms, and how it relates to creating a sisterhood and other relationships.
Background of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
Tabitha is a woman in her 30s who believes her life is headed into the right direction. One doctor’s appointment she finds out that she may be infertile. She has to freeze her eggs if she wants to have biological children of her own. The freezing of her eggs spins her into will she have to use her life savings to cover it. Also her relationship with her boyfriend, Mark, may not be able to sustain if he’s not ready to start a family. The book follows Tabitha and includes her family and friends and what her career looks like as she navigates this time of her life.
Personal Fulfillment
We find that Tabitha is asking herself what she really wants in life. She is up for a promotion. The thought that she may not get it while dealing with the conversation of egg freezing is overwhelming. How does she simply show up in all of her spaces and yet expected to be “on!” Speak up but don’t be too aggressive. Black women and women of color have a different set of rules to abide by. What is acceptable as the rules change constantly? If she is deemed aggressive than what? These are just some of the questions Tabitha is looking to answer.
Talking about Race on Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
We are in a climate that one either doesn’t accept that race exists or that it’s something that we can look over. Jayne does an amazing job bringing it into focus as we overlook the relationship between Tabitha’s paternal Grandmother who is White. “How is it for you to be Black?” “How is it for you to be White?” Tabitha and her grandmother ask each other from a place of love and wanting understanding. We don’t have enough of that. The relationship between Tabitha and her Grandmother is absolutely beautiful.
Friendships and Sisterhood
Are we having true and real conversations with our friends? Tabitha finds that Laila and Sexy Lexi are some of her best friends. Yet at the end of the day, Tabby learns that she doesn’t know them like she thinks she does. The concept of being able to contact your friends in times of good and bad are sometimes the glue that keeps her afloat. Think about that in terms of a Sisterhood or set of friends you may have. When times gets hard, you call on them to be in your corner. Tabitha learns how to foster the conversations to truly be there for her friends and vice-versa.
Jayne Allen
This book will bring up so much and pull on your heart strings, educate, and tell an entertaining story of Tabitha as she figures her life out. Jayne captivates the story of what means to be a Woman of Color as if she has listened to the very conversations that I and many have had with their girlfriends, colleagues, etc. The take away is that there will be moments of challenge but forging ahead to define your pathways is necessary for survival. Taking care of your mental health and exhaling is a daily occurrence.
We will have Jayne on the podcast, Conversations with Toi, tomorrow Friday November 19. We have a very frank conversation while talking about the book and breaking down some of the themes. Also make sure that you not only purchase the book, Black Girls Must Due Exhausted as we prepare for her much anticipated Black Girls Must be Magical in February 2022. It’s available on preorder at Target as well as Amazon.
Get on Jayne Allen’s mailing list so you don’t miss an event or when the book(s) drop. Thanks Jayne for the interview as well as being on the podcast.
Pro tip not only purchase the book, get it on Audible too. The narration performed by Marcella Cox sets the book on fire and its a must you do both.
Thank you Jayne and continued success to you and your endeavors!
