Tenicka Boyd was 21 years old and a new mother when she took a job working for President Obama. Nineteen years later, her daughter is a college junior living in Japan, Tenicka is a fashion voice, former ACLU staffer, and one of the most self-possessed women I've had on the couch. She is also refreshingly honest about the parts of her story most women tuck away.

In this episode, we get into the conversation Tenicka is best known for online—the honest one about money and motherhood. What it means to enter motherhood with resources, and what it costs when you don't. Why "living for your kids" is not the compliment we've been told it is. Why she believes we're not owed motherhood, and what it looks like to choose it with your eyes wide open.

From there we get into her reflection on early motherhood and the loneliness of being out of sync with the girlfriends who are now having their first child, the leap from a full-time career in politics to content creation—when she eclipsed her ACLU salary in one quarter—and why she refuses to work a sixty-hour week for herself. We talk about the uniformity that's crept into creator culture, the political history of fashion, and why she wants us to expand the definition of luxury beyond European heritage houses. She names the African, Caribbean, and diaspora designers currently defining her closet—from Hertunba to FeNoel to Tongoro to Desiree Iyama.

And then we get into decadence as refusal. Refusal of shrinking, of quiet luxury culture, of the mad dash to 40. Refusal of the small life the world has convinced women to accept.

This is a conversation about what it looks like to give yourself permission to live a life your ancestors couldn't have imagined for you.

Her affirmation this week: "I am my great, great-grandmother's wildest dream." Cheers to that.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

How do you build the career you actually want—inside an industry that was not exactly built for you—without softening who you are to fit inside it? Chee Smalls has spent fifteen years answering that question. She is Senior Director of Product Development at Coach, a style voice, and a content creator. She is also a Harlem girl who has never—not once, not in a single meeting, not in a single boardroom—code-switched a day of her career.

That refusal is the whole conversation.

In this episode, we get into how she got into fashion without the resume the industry usually demands, and how curiosity became her actual professional currency. We talk about the moments when she could have softened her voice to fit a room and didn't, and what that cost her at first, and what it eventually earned her. Her personal philosophy on luxury and why she refuses to follow trends—including the very sharp question she asks about whether the algorithm is quietly killing our individuality. The features she was insecure about for years and what changed when she stopped shrinking from them. Her marriage as a real partnership—the "we take turns climbing" model she and her husband built, where one goes head-down while the other holds it together, then they switch. And how she is thinking about ambition, identity, and the life she is building on her own terms.

She closes the episode with an "I am" affirmation you'll want to write down: "I am beauty. I am woman. I am ambition. I am God's favored and blessed. I am me."

This is also the first episode with our new behind-the-scenes intro. We shot Chee arriving at the door, the two of us mixing a rosé lemonade in my kitchen, and the moment before we settled onto the couch. The full recipe is below, make it while you listen:

Meanwhile, She Rosé Lemonade

Makes 4 cocktails (about 5 oz each)

Ingredients

1 bottle (750 mL) chilled rosé (The Beach Ros√©)

1/2 cup (4 oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 oz Grand Marnier

1 1/2 oz simple syrup

1 oz agave nectar

Ice

Optional Garnishes

Lemon wheels

Fresh mint

Edible rose petals (if you're feeling fancy)

Frozen raspberries or strawberries

Instructions

• In a pitcher, combine the lemon juice, Grand Marnier, simple syrup, and agave. Stir until fully combined
• Pour in the chilled rose and stir gently so you don't lose too much of its freshness.
• Taste.

Want it brighter? Add another splash of lemon.

Want it softer? Add another ½ oz simple syrup.

• Fill glasses with ice and pour over.
• Garnish with a lemon wheel and mint.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

We don’t talk enough about what happens to a woman when she has to fight for her child to be heard. Asia Cabello is here to put it on the record.

This week, Aisha sits down with content creator Asia Cabello — mom of three, longtime partner to Dwayne Cabello (whom she met at 13), and one of the most honest autism advocacy voices on the internet—for a conversation about the years that nearly broke her and the ones that rebuilt her.

Asia walks us through what it took to get her daughter diagnosed with autism: the pediatrician who told her to wait, the bias she ran into as a Black mom in the medical system, and the decision to uproot her family and move states so her children could get the care they deserved. She talks about parenting two children on the spectrum 13 months apart in years she barely remembers being present for. And then she talks about how she found her way back—through the gym, a book club, friendships she made in her 30s, and a marriage she’s intentional about choosing every single day.

They get into the racial bias Black mothers face in healthcare, why her husband had to push her to make new friends in her 30s, the morning routine that changed her marriage, the Cabello Couture mommy-and-me line, why “put your spouse first” is the controversial advice she stands by, and the affirmation she’s carrying into the next chapter.

If you’ve ever been told by a professional that what you knew was true wasn’t true—this conversation is for you.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

We’ve been taught that adulthood doesn’t really begin for women until we’ve found a husband and had a baby. Jessica Cruel is here to push back on that — and she has the research to back it up.

This week, Aisha sits down with Jessica Cruel, Editor-in-Chief of Allure magazine and the author of the forthcoming book Single Happy Female, for an honest, layered conversation about what it actually looks like to build a full life without waiting on partnership to start living it.

Jessica is clear: she still wants partnership. So do 48 of the 50 women she interviewed for her book. But the difference is that she’s no longer treating singleness as a holding pattern. She’s traveling, throwing herself promotion parties, picking out the white dress for her 40th in Greece — and writing the book she wishes she’d had ten years ago.

They get into the loneliness of being the boss (and what nobody tells you about reaching the top of your industry), Jessica’s openness about therapy and Lexapro after years of watching her mother navigate bipolar disorder, the “twirlers vs. toilers” framework Jessica uses to describe how women rise in their careers, the unspoken hardship hierarchy among friend groups, and the radical act of throwing the damn party for yourself even when there’s no wedding or baby shower to attend.

If you’ve been quietly waiting on a milestone to start living the life you want, this conversation is for you.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

We're taught that if we put in the work and the talent is there, the opportunities will come. Ashley is here to tell us about the other half of that equation — the one most people aren't honest enough to name.

This week, Aisha sits down with her dear friend, sorority sister, and Howard alum Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins—actress (Dear White People), former host of OWN's Trials to Triumphs, and soon-to-be author—for an honest conversation about access, the doors that opened her career, and why she's so committed to opening those same doors for the women coming behind her.

Ashley is clear: the work matters. Her talent is what's allowed her to play the long game and sustain a career that lasts. But she also names something most successful people won't: that there's a locked door between most talented people and the careers they're capable of building—and that door doesn't open without someone on the other side knowing your name.

They get into the friendship that landed her the Dear White People role, the Instagram Live moment that turned into her OWN podcast, the intensity of mothering her 20-month-old daughter Aspen, her IVF journey and why visibility matters for Black women navigating the same path, and the 365-devotional book she's quietly writing for the woman who wants to spot her blessings and become her best self.

If you've been doing the work and wondering why the opportunities haven't come yet, this is the conversation for you.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What does it actually take to stay yourself in an industry that rewards sameness?

This week, Aisha sits down with Tiffany Battle — fashion creator, creative director, storyteller, and one of the original voices in fashion blogging — for a conversation about what it really takes to build a creative life on your own terms.

Before she launched The Werk! Place in 2012, Tiffany was a chemical engineer at a major semiconductor company. Six years in, she made the decision to leave stability behind, book a course at the London College of Fashion, and bet on herself fully. That leap is what shaped the distinct voice so many of us know her for today.

In this episode, they get into the rise of the algorithm and the death of individuality, the lost regional style cultures of the 90s, the quiet luxury aesthetic creators are adopting to access luxury brands, why she's building her own show Sunday Stroll instead of chasing brand deals forever, the real talk on managers and money in the creator economy, and what it means to choose joy as resistance.

Honest, sharp, and refreshingly direct — this one will have you rethinking how you show up online.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

Fashion used to be built behind the scenes. Before influencers, before front row became content, there were editors pulling all-nighters, sleeping under desks, forecasting trends, and shaping culture long before social media existed.

This week, I’m joined by Tiffany Reid — fashion executive, stylist, former SVP of Fashion at Bustle Digital Group, and one of the most respected voices in fashion media.

We talk about what it was really like coming up in the magazine era as Black women, the hazing culture of fashion, how the industry has changed since the rise of influencers, why editors were originally the tastemakers, and what gets lost when everything becomes fast content.

We also discuss ambition, leadership, survival, motherhood, identity, and the kind of work ethic that builds lasting careers.

And somehow through all of it… we laugh a lot too.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.

What does it actually take to be seen, selected, and supported in your industry?

In this episode of Meanwhile, She, Aisha Beau sits down with Brianna Wright, Head of PR & Influencer Marketing at SheaMoisture, for an honest and insightful conversation on identity, access, self-investment, and what it really takes to stand out.

Having worked her way through Unilever with intention and clarity, Brianna now leads one of the most influential and culturally relevant brand ecosystems for creators—shaping not just who gets chosen, but how they’re seen.

Together, they discuss the mindset and habits required to step into a bigger life, why visibility and proximity matter just as much as talent, and how creators can position themselves for long-term opportunities.

Brianna also shares insider perspective on what brands are actually looking for, how she evaluates creators beyond numbers, and what it takes to get on SheaMoisture’s radar.

This episode is a powerful reminder that success isn’t just about being good—it’s about becoming someone who is seen, valued, and aligned with the opportunities you want.

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

🎧 New guest episodes every Tuesday

🎧 New solo episodes every other Thursday

Website: aishabeau.com

Instagram: instagram.com/aishabeau

TikTok: tiktok.com/@aisha.beau

YouTube: youtube.com/@aishabeau

Subscribe to the newsletter: aishabeau.substack.com

For inquiries: aisha@aishabeau.com

Multimedia Producer: Starr Callahan (https://www.instagram.com/starr_callahan/)

Video Editor: Abiola Aina

Original Music by Krisblak + Boo

Follow them on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/9.5.4

https://www.instagram.com/stezus

—

Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.