Attia Taylor Redefines What a Health Magazine Could and Should Be
In Womanly Magazine, Attia brings marginalized voices to the front and prioritizes honesty and realness above all.
Illustration of Attia by Ally Hart
Attia Taylor is a multi-hyphenate musician, writer, health advocate, and editor in chief and founder of Womanly Magazine, a print and digital publication that provides accessible health information through art. Attia wanted to make learning about your body and health more approachable — even fun — and the publication uses an assortment of mediums to appeal to its readership. She also just released a new solo album, “Space Ghost.” She spoke to us about her projects — each infused with a passion to educate and create — and carving out time for herself.
On founding Womanly:
Womanly started because I initially was working in print, and really wanted to work in art and design. I was interning at Paper Magazine and I just didn’t feel good about that work. Fashion is great but it wasn’t my calling, so I started working at Planned Parenthood not long after. I’ve been super interested in health and women’s health and just knowing the numbers and stats — I learned a lot while I was at Planned Parenthood.
I started working with a friend on what Womanly could possibly be. Initially, it was going to be just like a Facebook page, we were just kind of brainstorming. But then it dawned on me: Of course it should be a magazine, because that’s my world. In terms of health magazines that currently exist, I didn’t see enough Black and brown people, I didn’t see enough honest stories and real information that didn’t exist just for advertising, having people lose weight or go on a diet, so I really wanted to create something that was real and honest and covered a lot more than the typical health magazine, specifically women’s health, in a way that was fun.
People learn in different ways, so we experiment with digital arts and audio and film and we just have fun. I really want people to experience health in a fun way.
On what she hopes readers take away from each Womanly issue:
To see themselves and feel inspired. To feel inspired in their own life, but also to get themselves health care that is right for them. To advocate for themselves and to understand what roadblocks there are in our current health care system in the US. Really just giving people another way to consume information around their health and their bodies.
On Womanly’s next steps:
We mostly worked on the magazine for the past two and a half years and then recently, we launched two new initiatives under Womanly. We have our membership program that’s coming out early this fall that is to help sustain our work but also connect with our community a little bit more.
We also are launching our first digital residency program for an artist to come in and create a curriculum to help people. For this first one, it’ll be around food and nutrition, so we’re in the process of choosing the person or group of people to come on for the residency. An artist [will] come in and help to visualize a few workshops that will help people get closer to understanding their own health.
We’re working on new initiatives all the time — partnerships, we love working with organizations. We work with Planned Parenthood Greater New York quite a bit. We've placed the magazines in the Brooklyn Museum, and we just love to kind of bend whatever we can and make this as broad as possible, because there really are no limits to where we can exist in terms of inspiring people to take control of their health.
On managing her time as a creator and a professional:
I probably work more than I should, just in terms of energy and rest. I think mostly I blend it all in together. I don’t go by project to project every day; it’s just my tasks. I get what I need to do for the day or for the week or for the month. I’m not strict with myself. Unless it’s a really strict deadline for one of the projects I’m working on with a contractor or for Planned Parenthood, then I’m like, “Okay I’ll focus on that.” But in terms of my personal stuff, like working on Womanly and working on my music, I’m not hard on myself with deadlines.
So the music, the album has been pushed a lot. It’s been such a process; this is a long time coming. I mean, years in the making. So it does kind of seem like, yeah it’s like “right now”, but it took forever.
And then Womanly, we have so many volunteers. It’s about fifty volunteers, almost. So, I have a lot of help with that. All of it’s not me. So it is busy, I do a lot of work on it, but I definitely have help.We’re not under the gun ever with the work we do. And it’s for our own sake, our own mental health, our own peace of mind. We’re creating things to help people be good to themselves, we have to be good to ourselves too. It’s a labor of love. I’ve really loved this work, so it’s not hard to get up and do it. I’m driven and I want to do it really badly, so that’s what keeps me going.
On what she’s reading:
I just read “Pleasure Activism” by Adrienne Maree Brown. That book was wonderful. I got through it so quickly because it was so inspiring. It’s a book about how we access pleasure and how people from different backgrounds, challenges in life, and cultures experience pleasure. I really just didn’t understand what joy meant until I read that book and understood it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Ever since I read it, I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on being really happy and living life in a joyous way for my own pleasure. That was a really inspiring book.
On what she’s listening to:
The song that’s been with me right now is this song called “Dusty Eyes” by this artist Bedouin. It’s just so beautiful. That’s been really inspiring to me. Listening to all her music is great.
On her self-care routine:
I am listening to a lot of music and going for walks. A lot of walking, if I can. Hanging out with my friends as best as I can with social distancing in mind. Nothing out of the ordinary, it’s really just been like we’re so busy that it's been hard to make time, but I do try to spend the weekends getting myself back to normal.
On how writers can submit to Womanly:
This has changed a lot. We have a much tighter process for taking submissions. We take them on our website. When we have something open for writers or artists it’ll be there. We’re on a rolling basis for Womanly news, we have different topics. For the issue, we just closed Issue 6 submissions, so we’re working on Issue 6 that’ll come out in October. (Editor’s note: The issue is out now, which you can buy here!) If you have an idea and you think it’s great, you can always email submissions@womanlymag.com.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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