Hello, and welcome to Soft Black Woman, presented by The Betcha Sup.

I'm your host, Dr. Akila Kadeh, and excited to have you here.

Now, we're going to do things a little bit differently this week where we're not going to go

into the current events, and that's because I'm booked and busy all.

I know I'm a soft black woman, but I'm currently in Ireland doing a keynote

for the Ellers Danlow Society, and some of you may know that is the rare disease that I have.

And I'm honored to do that. So, because we're doing things a little bit differently this week,

we're going to focus on someone who knows exactly what the soft life is about.

This week's guest is Dominique Fluker, she's a contributing lifestyle editor at Essence,

and the author of the recent article, and might I add viral article,

living the Hashtag Soft Life, here's why black women are rejecting the harmful, strong black

woman trope. Please welcome Dominique Fluker.

Hello, thank you so much for having me.

It's great to have you here with newly laid edges. We are living that braid life.

Looks fantastic. It looks fantastic. I would love for you to tell the listeners about yourself.

Share your background as a writer and editor.

Yes, so I'm from Oakland, California. I recently relocated to Los Angeles, where I am

contributing lifestyle editor over at Essence Magazine. I have to add that it's the iconic

Essence Magazine. Absolutely.

For people who don't know, for black people, getting into anything Essence is incredible.

So we need to upload that. And also for black people, particularly those of us who live in Oakland

like myself, even extra special with Dominique. Yes, definitely. I come from East Oakland,

...