Welcome to Queenivism!!

 Hey everyone!

My name is Nkechi (pronounced like in-kay-she) Michel (me-shell), and I appreciate you visiting by my page! I'm sure the first question you are asking yourself is..what the heck is Queenivism and what does it mean? Queenivism of course is a made up word that combines being a Queen with Activism. Activism in the realm of social activism, as well as activism in regards to health and wellness. Queenivism will be the umbrella that houses all of the topics I blog about, and on this site you can expect to see blog posts about health, wellness, fashion and social issues affecting women! Below I will share with you why I'm so passionate about the aforementioned topics.

Health and Wellness: Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to help people, and I was also interested in the health field. I wanted to be an OBGYN at one point, then I changed my major to Nursing, but then I fell in love with Public Health after taking a class in college. I loved the idea that someone working in the (public) health field could educate people about their health and help communities prevent illnesses and diseases. I was intrigued by the idea of prevention, and stopping someone from becoming ill so that they will less likely need to seek medical treatment, which is way more costly.

As a Health Educator in an Obesity Prevention Program I work with community based organizations that serve low income SNAP (food stamp) eligible populations and help them access healthier food options. Nutrition is just one segment of Public Health so with this blog I will explore nutrition as well as a multitude of other health related topics! 

Social Issues: Growing up in San Diego, CA as a little Black girl was tough, I'm not gonna lie. Although the city is beautiful, it lacked diversity. San Diego at the time was about 7% black and I'm sure its even less now. I was always the only black girl in my classes from elementary through high school. I'll never forget the little white and Hispanic girls poking fun at my braids with beads cascading down them. "Is that horse hair?" a white classmate asked as she groped my braid, still rings so loud in my ears.

Thank God for my activist mom surrounding me with positive Black role models, we attended a Black church and ensured that I learned Black history at home. She filled our home with books featuring Black characters, books written by Black authors, encouraged me to write book reports about Black American historical figures and bought me black dolls. This was so important allowed me to have a strong Black identity. With that came a strong passion for bringing awareness to issues effecting Black people and Black women specifically. In this blog I will explore topic areas that highlight and center Black women. I will also highlight health issues affecting Black women.  

The Fruganista: Fruganista means frugal fashionista and this is the fashion part of my blog. Honestly, I was never super into fashion until I moved to LA for grad school in 2012. I slowly learned how to put different types of looks together and I started to enjoy it. I would get a few complements from coworkers about how "fashionable" I was so that helped me figure out what worked and what didn't as well. I would always pride myself on how inexpensive;y I was able to shop for cute clothes. Someone would be like "cute outfit", and my response would be "thank you, got it for $15 bucks at Ross. LOL. Ladies, you don't have to break the bank to look cute. To be honest its all about how confident you are rockin your clothes too,  because to be honest, you can spend $10 on a shirt from Target and wear it better than a $100 shirt from Bloomingdales. I feel like a lot of times we spend money solely for the name brand/designer, but that never was a big deal to me. Not knocking anyone that enjoys high fashion, but for me it's not a priority. I hope that with this blog you will find some tips on where to shop on a budget and how to put together outfits that are affordable and cute!