Brown Sista

Every brown girl needs a place she can go to see a positive reflection of herself and one of those places for us is Brown Sista. As we embark on this new year, now is as good a time as any to focus on the positive and avoid as much drama and negativity as possible. With that in mind, we wanted to recognize Brown Sista because it celebrates us; our beauty, our style and our accomplishments.

Shawna: www.brownsista.com

Q: Why did you start “Brown Sista”?
I came online about five years ago and was immediately drawn to all things website related. With the help of a friend, my first website was a Janet Jackson fan forum. About a year later however, I decided I wanted to do something specifically aimed at Black women and created a forum where sistas could congregate to talk about whatever was on their mind. Wanting to branch out even further, I created the blog, and the rest as they say is history.

Q: Why did you name your blog “Brown Sista”?
It was pretty simple actually. Brown for the beautiful skin tones that sistas possess. I dropped the “s” and Brown Sista was born.

Q: When did Brown Sista launch?
Brown Sista debuted March 25, 2006, but it wasn’t until late June that I started updating the site regularly. Originally, the site was just for testing purposes and I would throw up a few articles here and there a few times a month. Little did I know people had found the site via search engines and were enjoying it. I then started getting emails asking when I was going to update again. So, I threw myself into the website full time and now my little test site gets over 100,000 visitors a month.

Q: Describe the style and attitude of the site.
Brown Sista is the ultimate celebration of the beauty, style and accomplishments of sistas famous and not so famous.

Q: Tell us more about the woman behind the blog?
I am a 35-year-old mother of three children. Southern raised but have been living the big city life in New York since 1986.

Q: Brown Sista does an amazing job on covering our culture and beautiful brown sistas in entertainment, while offering a great intellectual voice. Did you always intend for the site to be this way?
Yes, and Brown Sista is very much a work in progress. As I change the site changes. It wasn’t originally meant to be an entertainment site or blog but kind of just went that way. However, as much as I love news about my celebrity sistas, I also care about the world around me and the plight of black people and black women in general. Because of that, Brown Sista will also tackle serious news as much as we do entertainment.

Q: What are some of your favorite blogs/sites??
I love Afrobella and of course Clutch, which I believe is one of the best written and designed websites online.

Q: How do you decide what and who to cover on your blog?
Any sista who is in the spotlight doing positive things and uplifting the image of Black women will be covered on our site. I tend to stay away from negative and stereotypical depictions of Black women because I believe often those images are often meant to tear down the self esteem of us as women and make us appear less valuable and desirable to the world at large.

Q: What are some features or topics that you would like to start covering on Brown Sista?
Eventually, I want to branch out and bring in other writers who will cover beauty, fashion and health topics for the site.

Q: Is there anything the site will not cover? And why?
I tend to stay away from vicious gossip. I would rather simply print the facts and let readers make up their minds about what they have heard.

Q: What is the future of Brown Sista?
I see Brown Sista eventually becoming either an e-zine, magazine, or both. Brown Sista is only as limited as my imagination and I assure you, my imagination has no limits.

Q: In five words describe “Brown Sista”?
A celebration of Black women.

Q: Why should someone add “Brown Sista” to his or her daily blog reading list?
Brown Sista should be bookmarked because it loves you. It is the type of site you come to, and it leaves you feeling good about yourself and Black women in general. Brown Sista celebrates all things beautiful about Black women, and that alone is worth coming over and over again.