The new York writer reclaiming humanity with her words
What is Brainwash ?
Brainwash has evolved now. I like to describe it as a creative digital platform that promotes deep thought, self expression, and human interaction. So basically, it's just a platform for cool content to exist on.
How did the idea of Brainwash come about ?
I’ve always toyed around with the idea of doing a blog from freshman year of college. It’s kind of the running joke between my friends and I. They were always like “Ayanna shut up, just do it or we don’t want to hear about it anymore.” At the time, there were a lot of fashion bloggers and I do go to school for fashion and fashion blogs are alright but there isn’t much to fashion writing. It’s like “5 ways to wear a scarf” like i don't know, put the fucking scarf on. Around November 2015, I was like I’m going to create something where it’s not just about me, where other people can contribute to it and I’m going to shut up and just do the work and make it happen. If it doesn't happen by New Year’s then it’s never going to happen and I’m never going to talk about it again. So that’s when I started it on New Year’s day and been doing it since. I worked on the site New Year’s eve and posted my first article at 2AM.
What are some of your favorite pieces to write?
I love a good think piece but my favorite piece to write for sure is profiles. The whole section of profiles on brainwash, I write. With the exception of Kane, they’re all on creatives of color who work in different industries so just getting to hear their story is really interesting.
Continued on page 16