Layla’s Letters
Weekly letters on Leadership & Liberation
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(Re)claiming my space
It took me until I was 32 years old to claim that I was a writer. Today I know it's what I'm here to do.
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How to avoid apathy and saviourism in social change work
While honouring yourself, and those you are here to serve.
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DEI leaders of colour deserve better
And that starts with organizations putting their money where their mouth is.
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This what changemakers need from their allies
This incident left me livid. But it also taught me an important lesson about the pitfalls of performative allyship.
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The untold truth about imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome holds so many of us back but we all have the power to grow beyond it, here’s how.
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How my healing and change-making journey was transformed
This is the story of how I discovered and navigated one of the biggest internal conflicts I was struggling with — internalized racism.
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This is NOT imposter syndrome
What if it’s not imposter syndrome? What if it’s leadership?
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This is how I became a changemaker
Ten years ago, I had my first and only out of body experience. And it forever changed the course of my life.
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How to overcome perfectionism and start making change happen
One of the primary questions I’ve been reflecting on is ‘How do I want to measure success in my next decade of life?’.
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This is my mission for 2023
On the night before my 39th birthday, I shared 8 personal commitments…
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This is why community is so important for sustainable change-making
We need each other. But we act like we don’t.
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This is necessary for sustainable change-making
Because as inspirational as it is to become a good ancestor, we all know the path is marked by peaks and potholes.
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How to Become A Good Ancestor
One night, completely at my wit’s end with lack of clarity, I grabbed a notebook. I had spent the last three years focused on what I did not want. I hadn’t taken a moment to tune in, listen, and dream of what I did want.
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Boundaries for change-making
Being a changemaker is hard. Being a changemaker while trying to balance all of the other areas of our lives can feel almost impossible.
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Science-fiction shows us how to build a new world
In order to build a whole new world, we have to imagine whole new ways of thinking and being.
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What would a post-racist planet look like?
This is my framework for Becoming A Good Ancestor.
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This is what we forget about doing the work
A couple of years ago, while preparing to teach antiracism classes, I sent out a survey to my audience with the following question: What are your 3 biggest questions on practicing anti-racism?
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What does sustainable change-making look like?
I was in the early days of my work as an antiracist writer and educator, and I had come to the most depressing conclusion: In order for a single person with white privilege to ‘get it’, scores of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Colour (BIPOC) had to be harmed (sometimes unintentionally, some intentionally) in the process.
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