Why I’m changing my niche and what’s to come
Before I get started I’d like to reintroduce myself. Hello, my name is Bih and although my time here on Medium has been short, the community I’ve grown has been amazing. I started off last August wanting to lend a voice to the ways in which black women are shoved to the corner, both by black and white society. My entry into Medium saw my first piece “What You’re Really Saying When You Call Black Women Undesirable” go viral with up to 2,000 claps and 60 something comments. This was thrilling of course and I was so grateful for the exposure that I landed on the platform. Doing this has allowed me to articulate the experiences of black women and how to best navigate a society that seems determined to keep us ‘in our place.’ I think my writing allowed black women a safe space and allowed them to take solace in our similar experiences which was my goal and I’m glad that there is evidence that I’ve accomplished that.
But it didn’t take me long to realize that although my work was making an impact, it wasn’t reaching as many people as I’d like it to. Engagement steadily decreased despite my growing follower count, which made me realize that Medium wasn’t a platform that was hospitable to the message I was trying to spread. I felt like as a person writing in this niche, I was swimming against the current and my earnings suffered as a result. Now I know that writers are encouraged to write for the love of it and I do. But the fact of the matter is that I’m a college student. I need funds and compensation for my work. It’s how I pay for books, groceries, and save up for medical school. So despite the amazing network of people I’ve met on Medium, I’m in no position at this point of my life to be comfortable working for free.
But my earnings aren’t the only reason for my rebrand. I slowly began to fall into a writers rut. As my knowledge about the black community and black women’s role in it grew, I knew that I couldn’t continue writing about this. At least not on Medium. The algorithm would fail to push it out and if my work did get out, it would cause more controversy than I would like and I just wasn’t comfortable with that.
My old writing isn’t gone forever. You can and will continue to find more and more of my pieces on Sorella, a magazine dedicated to uplifting black women and discussing black women’s issues. I’m so proud to be a contributor to something as revolutionary as Sorella and there couldn’t be a better a platform to house the work I’ve spent the past year publishing on Medium.
I hope to fill the vacuum left by my previous works by helping other students like myself learn about things like money, life, and self improvement. I decided to embark on this path because of Clubhouse. When was first introduced to the app, I was really excited to learn from the best of the best. But being young and inexperienced, I felt like I didn’t have the knowledge that I needed to understand the conversations taking place there. But I also felt like the conversations were geared towards older audiences who had some career experience under their belts. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that but this made me realize the lack of conversation that was geared towards Gen Z on important topics like finance and self improvement. So with I decided that it was time for that void to be filled.
I’m so excited to talk about these topics and explore my passions and opinions with you all. For those of you who aren’t interested in that feel free to unfollow, I won’t be offended. But for those of you who choose to stay with me on this journey I greatly appreciate your support.
Again I’m so excited to get started on this new journey with you. So with that said see you next Saturday.
Update: Since I wrote this article, it’s come to my attention that Sorella magazine is now closing for good. This news breaks my heart because of what Sorella represented and it’s revolutionary standing on black women and our issues. As for my work, I will keep my new plans for it under wraps as I figure out a new home for them. Thank you for your support during this time.
