New Year, Same Yi-Yi

2025. This year will mark 5 years since I held my niece for the first time, changing my world forever. She was only 6 pounds and so small, but has held the biggest piece of my heart since the day she arrived.

It's so easy to say that she made me an auntie, but my first experience with the title happened way back in 2014. The week I graduated from college, my sister-in-law gave birth to my nephew a day before my birthday. His arrival meant they couldn't watch me walk, but I assured her that there were bigger things to celebrate (and he is still JUST as amazing now).

It was Bunny, though, who kicked off the expansion of my auntie-ness and brought in new ideas and people. Since her arrival:

• I connected with an older sister that I never met who has three kids of her own and 3 grandkids.

• My brother and my SIL welcomed a daughter who will be 3 this year.

• My younger cousins have been reaching out more for both guidance and comfort, and a place to crash when the world is crashing around them.

The reason I started this blog was because I needed an outlet while navigating a baby in a pandemic, a time where almost all community was being birthed online. I also wanted to create a community where millenial Black women like me could connect and share in the burden and blessing of being anchors in the family, while learning to remember themselves. So many of my fondest memories are of women who, whether by blood or by bond, poured into me in ways that showed me all I could be. To this day, these same incredible and colorful women who "knew my mother when" take part in caring for my grandmother and ask after me like I was still in grade school.

Just like the impending arrival of kindergarten for my Bunny, so are other changes on the horizon for me. I switched apartments (again), traveled an INSANE amount in 2024, and am working on new ideas and new content for this budding community of Dope Aunties. The women I mentioned above were everything: artists, muses, corporate bosses, pilots, teachers, dancers, architects, activists, farmers, bakers, and spiritualists. These identities weren't tabled either when they had kids or pursued dreams, and it instilled the belief in me that being an auntie is not just a title but a lifestyle. I'm excited to grow with you and create more opportunities for us to connect in this new year. Here's to all the Dope Aunties:

May we know them.

May we be them.

May we raise them.

Signed,

A Dope Auntie