Body Literacy and Body Sovereignty for Black Girls

Love Letters to Our Bodies Podcast | Episode 41

The healthiest African American women begin as informed Black girls.

That belief is the foundation of everything Lisa Monroe, PA-C has built. A physician assistant with 18 years in healthcare — from emergency medicine to gynecology oncology — Lisa spent nearly two decades watching the same patterns unfold in Black women's bodies. Then she asked a different question: What if we got there first?

In Episode 41, Gwendolyn sits down with Lisa, Founder of Aflo Health Foundation, for a conversation about body sovereignty, culturally responsive health education, and the profound shift that happens when African American girls grow up knowing and trusting their own bodies.

Together, they explore what it means to teach girls that their bodies are not problems to solve, but gifts to understand — and what becomes possible for African American women when that seed is planted early.

"We can't change what we weren't taught, but we can choose what we reclaim and what we pass on from this moment forward." — Lisa Monroe

In this episode:

• What inspired Lisa to create Aflo Health Foundation — and what the name means

• The concept of body sovereignty and why it must begin in girlhood

• How ancestral and generational trauma shapes the way Black girls see themselves

• The Empower, Learn, Share model and the programs bringing it to life

• What Lisa would say to an African American woman healing now, who wishes she'd had this

• Lisa's own love letter to her body

This one is medicine. Press play.

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🎙️ Listen to Episode 41 or wherever you stream podcasts. 🌿 Learn more about Aflo Health Foundation at aflofoundation.org 💙 Visit Moyo Institute at moyoinstitute.org