Hey guys, welcome back to Thicken Thin with me, Katie Bellatti, and today's story is

going to make you feel something.

For sure, this story is incredible, it is shaking me to my core, and I'm certain that it

will make all of you guys out there feel similarly, because all of us have had a childhood.

I'm sure, I mean, all of us have gotten to adulthood, so we made it through childhood.

We made it through our teens, a lot of us, and so we know what it feels like to be at that

young age and feel so confused about the world.

And yet, the story I'll be sharing today about Joanne Bland, a lot of her story takes place

when she was under the age of 13, and she did so many things before she even reached

teenage her doom, and was able to accomplish so much and fight fear and be so brave, all

of these things that I could not imagine for myself under the age of 13.

So I'm so excited to share her story today.

I worked on it alongside my friend, Kayla Stokes, who you guys met last week.

She's her own podcast called Bias Bender, where she shares stories of black women from

history, past, present, and relates it to the future.

She does an incredible job weaving together her stories, and so I'm honored to work with

her again today on this one.

So be sure to stay tuned until the very end to hear from her, because she will give us

a little reflection of what Joanne's story means to her, as well as some other parting

remarks.

So definitely stay tuned till the end, but in the meantime, I'm going to share with you guys

the story of Joanne Bland.

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