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When Victoria Reese Brathwaite was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2012, she found herself alone. Though highly educated and insured, her symptoms were dismissed, her questions unanswered, and no image of anyone who looked like her appeared in brochures or online searches.
Frustrated by the absence of representation and community, Victoria began documenting her story publicly, sparking a movement in 2017 under the banner #WeAreILLmatic . What started as a hashtag grew into a national patient advocacy nonprofit in 2020. Today, We Are ILL offers education, sisterhood, and strength to thousands of Black women living with MS and other chronic illnesses, and is reshaping how the world sees them.
We Are ILL is a national nonprofit organization committed to radically transforming the experience for Black women with multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Through education, sisterhood, leadership development, and advocacy, we help women navigate the complexities of chronic illnesses while reclaiming joy, identity, and power.
We serve women who are often misrepresented or missing entirely from the traditional healthcare narrative, those whose symptoms were dismissed, whose pain was minimized, and whose lives were disrupted without support. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or decades into the journey, We Are ILL offers a soft place to land and a launchpad to rise.

Love in Action Support Partner Series

Protecting Your Future: Kidney Health, Long-Term Wellness & Thriving with Lupus

Inflammation & Energy

Living Beyond the Diagnosis: Managing Lupus with Confidence

Volunteer with We Are ILL

Give

This Is Lupus: The Reality for Black Women

#WeAreILLmatic

Empowering Black Women with MS & Lupus

Sisterly Submitted

Victoria Reese brathwaitE

Ashley Ratcliff lundy

Nicole jones

The holidays are coming, and if you’re already dreading the conversations, the obligations, and the pressure to show up like nothing is wrong, this one’s for you. Setting boundaries when you have a chronic illness isn’t selfish, it’s survival. It’s knowing that saying yes to everything means your body will eventually say no for you, and usually at the worst possible time. It’s understanding that the dinner you pushed through last year cost you three days in bed, and deciding that this year you’re going to do it differently. That might mean leaving early without apologizing for it. It might mean skipping the event altogether and not letting guilt eat you alive about it. It might mean telling your family that you love them, but you’re not traveling this year because the recovery isn’t worth it. It might mean sitting down while everyone else is standing in the kitchen, and letting that be okay without explaining yourself for the hundredth time. And then there are the boundaries that aren’t about your body at all. The ones where you have to tell people to stop asking if you’ve tried this supplement their neighbor swears by, to stop commenting on what you’re eating or not eating, and to stop looking at you like something is wrong every time you’re quiet. Those boundaries matter just as much, and they’re usually the hardest ones to set because they involve the people closest to you. You’re allowed to protect your energy the same way you protect your health, because they’re the same thing. The people who love you will understand, and the ones who don’t were never really respecting your limits in the first place. #WeAreILLMatic #BoundariesAreHealthcare #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness #ProtectYourEnergy

National Stress Awareness Day hits different when your body is already fighting a battle most people can’t see. When you’re living with a chronic illness, stress isn’t just mental, it’s physical. It can trigger flares, mess with your sleep, make your symptoms worse, and leave you running on a level of exhaustion that no amount of “just relax” is going to fix. And let’s be honest, the stress doesn’t just come from the illness itself. It comes from explaining your condition to people who still don’t get it, from fighting with insurance companies over medications you need to survive, from wondering if today is going to be a good day or one where your body makes every decision for you. It comes from smiling through it because you don’t want to be “that person” who’s always talking about being sick. If you’re carrying all of that right now, we want you to hear this: you don’t have to manage it all by yourself, and you definitely don’t have to pretend it isn’t heavy. Talk to someone you trust, lean on your community, ask for help without guilt, and give yourself permission to not be okay for a minute. Stress awareness isn’t just about knowing it exists, it’s about being honest with yourself about how much of it you’re actually holding. You’re doing more than most people will ever understand, and that deserves to be acknowledged, especially by you. #WeAreILLMatic #NationalStressAwarenessDay #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness #MentalHealthMatters

November is Caregiver Appreciation Month, and we’re not about to let it pass without saying something to the people who show up for us in ways that don’t always get acknowledged. To the partners who learned what a flare looks like and stopped asking “are you sure you can’t just push through.” To the mothers who drove to every appointment and sat in every waiting room without being asked. To the friends who checked in with a text that didn’t need a response, just so you’d know they were thinking about you. To the siblings, the children, the cousins, the chosen family who rearranged their own lives to make room for yours. Caregiving for someone with a chronic illness isn’t something that comes with a manual. There’s no training for watching someone you love hurt and not being able to fix it, no guide for knowing when to step in and when to step back, and nobody really talks about how heavy it gets when you’re carrying someone else’s weight on top of your own. We see you. We don’t say it enough, and we know that. You pour into us on days when you’re running on empty yourselves, and you do it without keeping score. That matters more than you’ll probably ever let us tell you. This month is for you, and honestly, so is every month after it. #WeAreILLMatic #CaregiverAppreciationMonth #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

November 3 is Election Day, and no matter where you stand politically, what we all have in common is that the people who get elected make decisions that directly affect our lives, our healthcare, and our access to the things we need to stay alive and well. When you live with a chronic illness, voting isn’t abstract. The people sitting in those seats determine whether your medications stay covered, whether your insurance protections remain in place, whether funding goes toward the research that could change the trajectory of your condition, and whether the providers who treat you have the resources to keep doing it. Every policy decision about healthcare, disability protections, and medical research starts with someone who was voted into a position to make that call. This isn’t about who you vote for. That’s your business and your right. This is about making sure your voice is part of the conversation, because when we sit it out, the decisions still get made, they just get made without us. And historically, the communities that stay home on Election Day are the same ones who feel the impact the hardest when policies change. If you haven’t voted yet, make a plan to get to the polls today. If you’re not sure who’s on your ballot or what they stand for, take a few minutes to look it up before you go, because an informed vote is a powerful one. Your health is on the ballot whether your name is or not. #WeAreILLMatic #ElectionDay #UseYourVoice #ChronicIllnessCommunity #YourVoteMatters

And just like that, Wellness Week(end) 2026 has come to a close, and we’re not okay about it (in the best way possible). Day three was shorter but it hit just as hard. We started the morning with a comedy set from Ayanna Dookie (@adookie) that set the whole tone and reminded us that healing doesn’t just happen in doctor’s offices and therapy sessions, it happens through laughter, through expression, through giving yourself permission to feel everything. Then Connie O’Neal-Bates (@cloneal52), who has lived with MS for over 50 years, brought the Patient In You Podcast to the Wellness Week(end) stage, and the conversation was everything this community needed to hear. Real stories, real experiences, and a reminder that your voice as a patient carries more power than you think. We closed it all out with our founder, Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic), delivering closing remarks, and if you were in that room, you felt it. The gratitude, the tears, the laughter, the love. Three days of Black women living with MS, NMOSD, and lupus being poured into, celebrated, educated, and reminded that they are so much more than a diagnosis. To every single person who attended, spoke, sponsored, volunteered, and showed up in any way, thank you. This wasn’t just a week(end). It was proof that when you build something with love and intention for a community that deserves it, magic happens. See you next year! #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #WeAreILLWeek #BlackWomenHealth

@11Alive’s Aisha Howard (@AishaHoward) brought Wellness Week(end) 2026 to her news segment, and hearing her recap what this week(end) meant to our community on a major platform is the kind of visibility Black women living with chronic illness deserve. Aisha has hosted Wellness Week(end) two years in a row now, and she doesn’t just show up to do a job. She shows up because she genuinely cares about this community, and it shows every single time. Having someone with her platform amplify what we’re doing, not just for us but for the people who haven’t found us yet, means more than we can say. If you were there, you already know how special those three days were. And if you weren’t, let Aisha tell you about it. Watch the full segment and see why Wellness Week(end) keeps growing year after year, and why this community isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Thank you, Aisha. We’ll see you next year.

We’re bringing something new to the table this Caregivers Appreciation Month, and this one isn’t just for the women living with chronic illness. It’s for the people who love them. Introducing Love in Action, a two-part virtual series designed specifically for support partners, caregivers, family members, and anyone who wants to better understand what it means to love someone living with MS or lupus. Because showing up for someone with a chronic illness is one of the most important things you can do, and most people are doing it without any guidance at all. Session 1, Loving with Understanding, takes place on November 10 at 6 PM ET and focuses on building real knowledge about MS and lupus, understanding what invisible symptoms actually look like, learning about the disparities affecting Black women, and hearing directly from patients and support partners about what meaningful support truly looks like. Session 2, Loving Without Losing Yourself, follows on November 12 at 6 PM ET and shifts the focus to you, the caregiver. We’re talking about burnout, boundaries, communication, and how to take care of yourself without feeling guilty about it, because the truth is that you can’t pour into someone else if you’re running on empty. Both sessions are moderated by a licensed therapist and feature a clinical expert alongside a caregiver with lived experience, so you’re getting professional insight and real life perspective in the same room. If you love someone with MS or lupus and you’ve ever felt helpless, overwhelmed, or unsure of how to support them without overstepping or burning out, these sessions were made for you. Tag someone who needs to be in this room. Comment ACTION below and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #LoveInAction #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness #CaregiverSupport

Day two of Wellness Week(end) 2026 was everything and then some. If yesterday set the tone, today took it to a whole other level. We started the morning moving our bodies with an adaptive fitness session led by Sheree Love (@theshereelove @theshadesofms) and Paris Jackson, proving once again that movement looks different for everybody and every version of it counts. Then our support groups opened up, and the conversations facilitated by Nwandi Williams (@imani_says), Charmaine Turner (@the_diagnosis_coach), and Tiana Sherrod (@thehealingcornerpllc) reminded us why safe spaces matter so much. There’s something powerful about sitting in a room full of women who don’t need you to explain why you cancelled plans last week or why you’re exhausted after doing “nothing.” The Shop Chats session brought lupus and the crown conversation to the table with Naomi Rose (@nayrosee), Rachel Swire (@Rachel_Olivia_Hair), and Dr. Patricia Oyetakin, because yes, hair loss and changes are part of this journey and we deserve to talk about it openly. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown (@restfulsleepmd) came through with a session on rest as resistance, and honestly that message alone was worth the trip: rest isn’t laziness, it’s survival and it’s power. Then Dr. Mitzi Williams (@thenerdyneurologist), Dr. Sharon Dowell, and Ashley Ratcliff Lundy (@Ashleyadores) gave us something we didn’t know we needed with “Dear Patients: A Letter from Your Providers.” Hearing directly from providers who see us, believe us, and fight for us hit different. And Dr. Shoshanna Robinson (@Dr.Shash_) closed out the sessions exploring the therapeutic role of medical cannabis in MS, a conversation that’s long overdue. We capped the night off with our VIP dinner, and the love in that room was something you had to feel to understand. One more day to go and we’re not ready for it to end. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #WeAreILLWeek #BlackWomenHealth

We made history. Our founder, Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic), and the We Are ILL team, officially received the resolution recognizing We Are ILL Week from October 25-31, 2026. This moment right here is bigger than a piece of paper or a ceremony. This is the state of Georgia saying that Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD deserve to be seen, supported, and celebrated, not just once, but always. This is nine years of showing up for our community being recognized at the highest level. Victoria started We Are ILL because she saw a gap and refused to accept it. She knew that Black women were being overlooked, underserved, and left out of the conversation when it came to chronic illness, and she built something that changed that. This resolution is confirmation of what we’ve known all along, that this community is doing something that matters and the world is starting to catch up. To every single person who’s ever shared their story, attended a session, joined a chat, bought a ticket, or simply said “me too” when they felt alone, this is yours. You are the reason we’re standing here today. And we’re just getting started. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #MakingHistory #ChronicIllnessAdvocacy #BlackWomenWellness

Day one of Wellness Week(end) 2026 is in the books and we are stILL buzzing. If you were there, you already know. If you weren’t, let us paint the picture for you. We kicked things off with our incredible host Aisha Howard (@AishaHoward) setting the tone, opening remarks from Representative Kim Schofield, and a keynote from the one and only Montel Williams (@montel_williams) that had the entire room on their feet. The energy from the very first moment was unmatched. Then we got into it. Dr. Deliqua Isom (@dr.deliqua_isom) walked us through strategies for regulating our nervous systems, because managing a chronic illness starts with understanding what’s happening inside your body and learning how to bring yourself back to center. Our caregivers got their own dedicated space with the Love in Action session with lupus warrior Dr. Charisma Atkins (@simplycharisma) and one of her best friends, Jen Price (@craftedforaction), and moderated by our Director of Communications, Ashley Ratcliff Lundy, because the people who hold us up deserve to be held up too. After lunch, Dr. Evelyn Hunter (@luvevlyn) had us in our feelings with a real conversation about the diagnosis dilemma, and how avoidance, acceptance, and identity all show up when you’re living with something that changes the way you see yourself. Calee Carter broke down the differences between NMOSD and MS in a way that finally made sense. Our founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic) closed out the afternoon sessions reminding every woman in that room to unleash her impact. And then? We slipped into our pajamas for an After Dark party that had us laughing, learning, and letting loose with Goody Howard (@askgoody) and Dr. Mia Cowan (@drmiacowanmd). This is what happens when Black women living with chronic illness are given a space that was built just for them. Day two, we’re coming for you. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #WeAreILLWeek #BlackWomenHealth

None of this happens without the partners who believe in this mission just as much as we do, and we want to take a moment to show some serious love to the sponsors who helped make Wellness Week(end) 2026 possible. To our Platinum Sponsors Amgen and Genentech, our Gold Sponsors Biogen, Novartis, and Alexion, our Silver Sponsor EMD Serono, and our Friends Sponsors Zenas BioPharma, GSK, Immunic Therapeutics, and Black Girl Vitamins, thank you doesn’t even begin to cover it. Your support means that Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD get access to a space that was built specifically for them. A space where they can connect with providers who understand their experiences, learn from experts who look like them, and be surrounded by a community that truly gets it. Every session, every conversation, every moment of rest and joy that happens this week(end) is possible because you chose to invest in a community that is too often overlooked and underfunded. We don’t take that lightly, and neither does our community. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being part of something bigger than a sponsorship. You’re part of the movement. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #SponsorAppreciation #BlackWomenHealth

For Timiro: “We Are ILL gave me something I didn’t know I needed: a community where I didn’t have to navigate life with MS alone.” Timiro Elizabeth, one of our WAI Community Moderators, said something that so many of us have felt but couldn’t always put into words. After a diagnosis, the loneliness can hit just as hard as the symptoms. You’re processing, adjusting, grieving parts of the life you thought you’d have, and most of the time you’re doing it surrounded by people who love you but don’t fully understand what you’re going through. That’s why finding other Black women who get it, who don’t need the backstory or the explanation, who just know, changes everything. It’s not just support, it’s a lifeline. It’s the difference between feeling like you’re carrying this alone and knowing that somebody in this community is nodding along because they’ve been exactly where you are. This is what We Are ILL Week is about. It’s about honoring the spaces that remind us we’re never as alone as this journey can sometimes make us feel, and celebrating the women who show up for each other every single day. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #MSCommunity #ChronicIllness #BlackWomenHealth

“We Are ILL gave me something I didn’t know I needed: a room where I didn’t have to explain myself, a sisterhood with women who just get it, proof that I’m more than my diagnosis and stILL that girl, and permission to make joy a priority, not an afterthought.” If that doesn’t say it all, we don’t know what does. Jasmine Jones (@4theluvofjay), one of our Beyond ILL Premier Members, put into words what so many of us have felt since finding this community. That feeling of walking into a space and not having to over-explain your fatigue, justify your boundaries, or pretend you’re fine when you’re not. That’s what We Are ILL was built for. Not just awareness, not just advocacy, but a real sisterhood where Black women living with chronic illness can show up exactly as they are and be met with understanding instead of blank stares. And that line? “StILL that girl.” That’s the whole mission in three words. Because chronic illness doesn’t get to define your worth, dim your light, or take away who you’ve always been. You’re stILL her, and this community will never let you forget it. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #StILLThatGirl #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenHealth

“We Are ILL deserves its own week because it has created something so many Black women living with chronic illness have been missing: a space where our experiences are seen, our voices are heard, and our stories matter.” These words from Tiana Sherrod (@flowtious_soul_yoga), one of our ILLfluencers and a holistic trauma therapist, capture exactly why We Are ILL Week matters. Because for too long, Black women living with chronic illness have had to fight to be believed, fight to be seen, and fight to find community that truly gets it. Tiana reminds us of something so important: Living with a chronic illness doesn’t mean you stop being ambitious, stop dreaming big, or stop building the life you want. It means you do all of that while carrying something most people will never understand, and you deserve a community that sees the whole picture, not just the diagnosis. That’s what this week is about. It’s recognition that we are so much more than our conditions, and it’s a reminder that representation, advocacy, and real community aren’t extras. They’re essentials. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenHealth #BlackWomenWithMS

ATL, WE SEE YOU! 👀🔥❤️ We’re officially ONE DAY AWAY from Wellness Week(end) 2026, and the excitement is taking over Atlanta! 🍑✨ Our Beyond Limits promo is making moves outside the Atlanta Falcons game, and we’re bringing that same BIG energy into an unforgettable weekend of sisterhood, empowerment, education, and celebration! 🙌🏾 The countdown is almost over, and we can’t wait to welcome our ILL community to Atlanta for three days of connection, inspiration, and memories that will last long after the weekend ends. 🫶🏾 ATLANTA, WE’RE READY FOR YOU! ARE YOU READY FOR US?! 🔥 📍 JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead 📅 October 30 – November 1, 2026 #WeAreILLmatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity

It’s We Are ILL Week, and Advisory Board Member Dr. Adrienne Hunter Reeves (@amhunter1980) is sharing what this community gave her. Sometimes you don’t realize what you’ve been missing until you find it. For Dr. Adrienne, We Are ILL gave her something she didn’t even know she needed, a community where she could show up exactly as she is and still feel seen, heard, understood, and supported. No pretending, no performing, no explaining herself to people who don’t get it. That’s what this community does. It meets you where you are and reminds you that you don’t have to carry this alone. And having women like Dr. Adrienne on our Advisory Board means that the decisions being made about the future of this organization are being guided by someone who understands firsthand what this space means to the women in it. This is why We Are ILL Week matters. It’s not just a celebration of the organization, it’s a celebration of every woman who found her people here and decided to stay. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

It’s We Are ILL Week, and our Director of Communications, Ashley Ratcliff Lundy (@ashleyadores), is sharing what this community means to her. After her MS diagnosis, Ashley found something in We Are ILL that she didn’t even know she was looking for, the reassurance that life after a diagnosis could still be beautiful, fulfilling, and full of possibility. She found community, sisterhood, and a place where she could show up as her whole self and know she wasn’t alone. And since joining the team, she’s made it her mission to pour that same love and support into every Black woman navigating chronic illness who walks through these doors. That’s what makes this organization different. The women behind the work aren’t doing it from the outside looking in. They’re living it, they understand it, and every program, conversation, and experience we create is rooted in that care. Knowing that the work helps another woman feel seen, supported, and hopeful about her future? That’s why we do this. This week is a celebration of everything this community has built, and it’s because of women like Ashley who show up every day with their whole hearts that it keeps growing. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

It’s We Are ILL Week, October 25-31, and our founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic) said it best. What started as a personal need for connection after her MS diagnosis has grown into something bigger than any of us could have imagined. She wanted Black women living with chronic illness to feel seen, heard, understood, and supported, and she didn’t wait for someone else to build that space, she created it herself. And look at us now. Seven years of Wellness Week(end), a community of women who show up for each other every single day, a state designation recognizing this week as ours, and a sisterhood that keeps growing because the women in it refuse to let each other do this alone. We Are ILL deserves its own week because this community changed lives, and it started because one woman decided that Black women with MS, NMOSD, and lupus deserved more than what was available to them. What began with her story became our story, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve built together. This week is for every woman who found her people here. You’re the reason it exists. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

It’s OUR Week! Let’s Celebrate! A milestone this meaningful deserves a little celebration, and we’d love for you to join in! Here are five simple ways to show your We Are ILL pride this week: Share your ILL story. Post a photo, video, or a few heartfelt words about what We Are ILL means to you. Use #WeAreILLWeek so we can celebrate alongside you! Grow the sisterhood. Know a Black woman living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD who could use some community? Invite her to join We Are ILL. Sometimes the greatest gift is knowing you’re not alone. Give a little love. Make a donation of any amount to help us continue creating spaces, resources, and experiences where Black women with chronic illnesses can thrive. Spread the good news. Share our We Are ILL Week announcement on social media, send it to your group chat, or tell someone about this historic recognition. Help us make some noise! Celebrate someone in your corner. Give a shoutout to a fellow ILLITE, care partner, or loved one who has supported you along your journey. Sisterhood and gratitude go hand in hand. However you choose to celebrate, know that YOU are part of the reason this week exists.

The state of Georgia just made it official. October 25-31, 2026, is officially recognized as We Are ILL Week in the state of Georgia, and we’re not going to pretend like this is a small thing, because it’s not. House Resolution 6 was introduced by Representative Kim Schofield (@state_rep_kim) and passed with bipartisan support, and it formally recognizes the work this community has been doing for nine years. Nine years of showing up for Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD. Nine years of building something that didn’t exist before we built it. And now the state of Georgia is saying, on the record, that what we’re doing matters. We’re beyond grateful for Rep. Schofield, alongside Representatives Viola Davis, Sandra Scott, Marvin Lim, and Park Cannon for their support in making this milestone a moment. This resolution isn’t just a piece of paper. It’s visibility. It’s validation. It’s a formal acknowledgment that the chronic illness experience for Black women deserves public recognition, that our caregivers deserve to be seen, and that conditions you can’t always see on the outside still deserve to be taken seriously. We went from a hashtag to the NASDAQ bell to the Georgia State Legislature. And we did that because of you. Every woman who shared her story, every member who showed up for a Beyond ILL session, every person who donated, volunteered, or told a friend about us. This is yours. We’re just getting started. #WeAreILLMatic #WeAreILLWeek #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

⏰ LIVE TODAY! Join us at Patient Community Day today, October 23 from 15:00-18:00 EDT, where MS experts simplify the latest updates in MS, NMOSD and MOGAD research. Hear from experts as they share the latest research and what it means for your care and treatment. 📅 October 23, 2026 ⏰ 15:00–18:00 EDT, plus a bonus hour of Q&A for online participants 🌍 Online + Toronto, Canada ➡️ Sign up: https://www.ectrimspatientcommunity.eu/registration Patient Community Day is an opportunity to learn about the latest research advancements directly impacting your ongoing care and treatment options. If you can’t join live, you can still register to get access the sessions once on-demand. #PatientCommunityDay #PCD2026 #MSCommunity #MultipleSclerosis #NMOSD MOGAD MSAwareness ECTRIMS

It’s Health Literacy Month, and ILLfluencer Zenovia Wright (@zenoviawright) is saying what a lot of us need to hear. Knowing about your health isn’t enough if you’re not willing to use your voice. That means asking questions when something is being recommended, reading the paperwork, paying attention to what your body is telling you, and speaking up when something doesn’t feel right. It means understanding that the person with the title may have expertise, but so do you, because you’re the one living in your body every single day. Being an active participant in decisions about your body, your health, and your life isn’t optional, it’s critical. And neither you nor your provider knows everything, which is exactly why it has to be a conversation and not a lecture. If you’re navigating chronic illness, let this be your reminder: Learn as much as you can, ask the questions, and don’t ever be afraid to use your voice. Nobody is going to advocate for you the way you can advocate for yourself. #WeAreILLMatic #HealthLiteracyMonth #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness #KnowYourHealth

Self-care doesn’t have to be a production. When you’re living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, the internet version of self-care can feel like another thing you don’t have the energy for. The spa day, the weekend trip, the two-hour morning routine with the matching set and the smoothie. That’s lovely for somebody, but it’s not most of us, and pretending it is just makes you feel like you’re failing at the one thing that’s supposed to help. So let’s talk about what self-care actually looks like when your body sets the terms. It’s sitting outside with your coffee for ten minutes before anybody needs you. It’s the garden, not because you’re trying to grow something perfect, but because putting your hands in dirt and watching something come back every week reminds you that slow growth still counts. It’s reading your Bible or your devotional in bed before you decide what kind of day your body is going to give you. It’s journaling, even when it’s just three sentences about how you’re really doing, because getting it out of your head and onto paper means you’re not carrying it in your chest all day. It’s the playlist you put on when you’re folding laundry because the music turns a chore into something that feels like yours. It’s saying no to the phone call you don’t have the bandwidth for and not feeling guilty about it. It’s the long shower on a good day when you actually have time to enjoy it instead of rushing through it. It’s coloring, puzzles, a face mask on the couch, a show you’ve seen four times because the familiarity is the comfort. None of that costs much. None of it requires leaving the house. And all of it is you choosing yourself in whatever way your body allows that day. Tell us in the comments what your version of self-care looks like. The real one, not the aesthetic one. #WeAreILLMatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

Shoutout to @legendaryrootz for this one because some of you need to read it more than once. You’ve spent so much time being frustrated with your body that you forgot it’s still yours. It’s the one that gets you through the bad days and the good ones, the one that showed up to every appointment and every infusion and every morning you didn’t think you could do, and it did all of that while fighting something most people will never have to understand. It’s easy to feel betrayed by a body that has MS or lupus or NMOSD. You had plans for it, and it changed the terms without asking, and some days the anger about that is louder than anything else. But hating your body doesn’t make it work better, and waiting until it cooperates to treat it with kindness means you’ll be waiting forever. Sis, you only have one body. It is worthy exactly as it is. Not the version from before your diagnosis. Not the version you’re hoping shows up next month. This one, today, with everything it’s carrying. Say something kind about your body in the comments. We don’t do that enough. #WeAreILLMatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #BodyAcceptance

October’s blog content is live on the site, and these are the conversations we need to be having. In “To the Ones I Never Have to Explain Myself To,” Raynetta (@thehauteprgirl) got honest about what happens when someone in your circle tries to weaponize your illness against you, and why chronic illness has a way of showing you exactly who deserves access to your life. It’s personal, it’s real, and if you’ve ever had to defend your limitations to someone who should already understand, this one’s going to hit home. And Zenovia Wright (@zenoviawright) is challenging us to stop asking “Can I still?” and start asking “How can I?” because there’s a real difference between something needing to look different and something being impossible, and too many of us are treating those like they mean the same thing. Tiana’s (@flowtious_soul_yoga) “What This Season Is Asking of Us” is the one that’ll make you pause, because she’s asking the question a lot of us have been avoiding: what are you holding onto simply because it once worked for you? Living with chronic illness means change isn’t always something you get to choose, and this piece is a reminder that meeting yourself where you are isn’t giving up, it’s growing. These are the kind of stories and perspectives that remind us why this community exists, real women talking about real life with chronic illness in a way that makes you feel less alone. Head to weareillms.com to read both pieces in full. Link in bio. #WeAreILLMatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS

“You never know who’s behind that screen, who’s behind that keyboard, who may have just been crying last night or doesn’t have family to lean on, who doesn’t have a chronic illness sister to have that conversation with.” That’s Naomi Rose (@nayrosee) from last year’s Wellness Week(end), and she put into words something that a lot of you have felt but maybe never said out loud. She talked about what community and online presence actually mean when you’re living with a chronic illness. How it might look like “just content” from the outside, but for the woman who’s scrolling at midnight feeling like she’s the only one going through this, it’s so much more than that. It’s a safe space. It’s an eye-opener. It’s that moment where someone mentions something you’ve been dealing with and you finally feel seen and not alone. Naomi is intentional about how she shows up. She brings her full self, dark humor and all, because she knows that showing up in her authenticity is going to reach whoever it’s meant to reach. And people have told her directly, “I’ve been in that space with you.” That’s what keeps her sharing, and nothing’s going to stop her. She’s coming back to Wellness Week(end) this year, and honestly, being in the room with women like Naomi is the difference between reading about community and actually feeling it. The conversations that happen in person, the ones where you can just say, “Hey girl, I’m not feeling it today,” and somebody actually understands, that’s what this weekend is built for. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. We still have tickets. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

If you’ve ever wished your doctor would talk to you about all of your options, not just the ones that come with a list of side effects you’re already struggling with, you need to hear what Dr. Shoshana Robinson (@Dr. Shash_) has to say. Dr. Robinson is a pharmacist and the clinical director of Truly Georgia, and she’s joining us at Wellness Week(end) 2026 to talk about something a lot of women in our community have been asking about: medical cannabis as a tool for managing chronic illness. Because here’s what a lot of people don’t realize. When you’re living with lupus, MS, or NMOSD, the conventional medications can come with side effects that sometimes feel just as disruptive as the condition itself. And for a long time, patients in Georgia had very limited options when it came to medical cannabis, both in how you could take it and which conditions qualified. That’s changing. SB 220 is expanding access in Georgia, adding new qualifying conditions, removing previous caps and limitations, and opening up new ways to use it, including inhalation for patients who need faster relief instead of waiting for a pill to metabolize. Dr. Robinson is going to break all of this down at Wellness Week(end) so you can walk away understanding what’s available to you, how it works alongside your current treatment, and how to have that conversation with your care team. This is the kind of session you won’t find anywhere else. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead, and we still have tickets available. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #MedicalCannabis #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS

“How many of you were told by your neurologist, ‘Your MRI is stable,’ but you’re like, ‘I’m feeling worse’?” Dr. Jakai Nolan McEwen (@jakthedoc) asked that question at last year’s Wellness Week(end), and almost every hand in the room went up. Because if you’re living with MS, you’ve probably had that exact moment where your body is telling you something is wrong and your scans are saying everything’s fine. She also said something that gave a lot of women in the room hope: “If there was a time to get diagnosed with MS, now’s the time, because our medications are so good.” The research is catching up. The awareness is catching up. And the conversations happening in rooms like this are part of how we make sure you’re not left behind while it does. And then Dr. Mima Akinsanya broke down why that disconnect between your MRI and your body happens in a way that finally made it make sense. She explained that about 30% to 40% of the progression we see in MS isn’t coming from relapses at all. It’s coming from something called PIRA, progression independent of relapse activity, also known as smoldering MS. She compared it to fire. A relapse is like lighting a match and watching a big flame cause damage quickly. Smoldering MS is a low, slow burn. It takes longer to see the damage, but the damage is still being done. Both are inflammation, but one shows up loud on an MRI and the other doesn’t, which is why your doctor says everything looks stable while you’re sitting there knowing something is different. This is what happens at Wellness Week(end). You don’t just learn about your condition, you finally get the language to explain what you’ve been feeling to the people who need to hear it. We still have tickets left for Wellness Week(end) 2026, October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Don’t wait on this one. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #MultipleSclerosis #SmolderingMS #BlackWomenWithMS

“I got sick of me. I got sick of seeing myself because they would be like, ‘We need an African American patient. Who can we call? Victoria?’ I’m like, stop calling me. Because it should be more.” That’s our founder Victoria (@picturethisvic) talking at last year’s Wellness Week(end) about why she started We Are ILL, and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how this organization was built, nothing will. She talked about sitting in rooms full of pharmaceutical reps and medical directors who were all asking each other what patients need and what patients want, and she’s looking around like, “Where are the patients? Why don’t y’all just ask them?” She talked about volunteering and realizing there weren’t enough patients in the room, not enough African Americans, not enough millennials, not enough girls with braids or tattoos. She said, “I just needed to see more of me.” So she became the patient advocate who’s out here in these streets. Sitting on panels, going on talk shows, telling her story alongside healthcare professionals, and making sure the patient voice wasn’t just represented but actually heard. And then she got to the point where she realized it couldn’t just be her story. She didn’t want to be a mascot. She wanted to hear from other Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD, because she doesn’t know all the things and neither does any one person. That’s when We Are ILL was born. This is the woman behind everything we do. And Wellness Week(end) is the room she built so you’d never have to wonder where the patients are, because you’re surrounded by them. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #PatientAdvocacy #BlackWomenWithMS #ChronicIllnessCommunity

The official Wellness Week(end) 2026 schedule is here, and we weren’t playing when we said this year’s theme is Beyond Limits. Three days. Mind, Body, and Soul. Every single session was built with you in mind. Friday is all about the Mind. We’re kicking things off with a keynote from Montel Williams, diving into strategies for regulating your nervous system, holding space for caregivers in our Love in Action session, and getting real about diagnosis, avoidance, acceptance, and identity. And when the sun goes down, we’re not done, the After Dark Pajamas + Pleasure Party is closing out the night. Saturday is Body. We’re moving with adaptive fitness, breaking into support group sessions for both those living with chronic illness and care partners, exploring the connection between lupus and hair loss in our Shop Chats session, talking about sleep as resistance, hearing directly from providers in Dear Patients, and getting into the therapeutic role of medical cannabis in MS. VIP ticket holders, your exclusive dinner is Saturday evening. Sunday is Soul. We’re ending the weekend with laughter courtesy of Ayanna Dookie, closing remarks from our founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic), and honoring our Healthcare Provider of the Year, Patient of the Year, and Member of the Year before we come together for the Shades of Melanin group photo. This is three days you don’t want to miss. October 30th through November 1st at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Swipe through to see the full schedule, and if you don’t have your ticket yet, October 16th is the last day to get one. Comment TICKET below and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

This is it. October 16 is the last day to grab your ticket to Wellness Week(end) 2026, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. We’re not doing extensions, we’re not doing “maybe next time,” we’re doing this October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead, and we want you there. This year’s theme is Beyond Limits, and we mean that in every way. Three days of sessions, conversations, and connections built specifically for Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD, the kind of weekend where you walk in carrying everything and walk out feeling seen, heard, and reminded that you’re not doing this alone. General Admission is $200 and VIP is $375, and whether you’ve been before or this is your first time, you’re walking into a room full of women who get it without you having to explain a single thing. That’s not something you can put a price on, but we tried to keep it accessible because that’s how we move. Don’t let October 16 pass you by and then wish you’d made the move. Your future self will thank you for saying yes to this one. Comment TICKET below and we’ll send you the link to secure your spot. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWellness

“It gives us that authentic communication to see what our common factors are, but also what the differences are all over the world—and figure out how we can connect with each other and help each other.” For Roxy Murray of @multiplesclerosisfashionista, one of the most powerful aspects of Patient Community Day was the chance to connect with people living with MS from across the globe. Beyond the expert presentations and latest research updates, Patient Community Day creates space for meaningful conversations, shared experiences, and a stronger sense of community. It’s a reminder that while every MS journey is different, no one has to navigate it alone. 🌍 Connect with people from around the world 🎓Learn from leading MS, NMOSD and MOGAD experts ❓Hear answers to real questions from the community 🗣️Access the event in 50+ languages Join thousands of people worldwide on 23 October for Patient Community Day 2026. 🔗 Register today: www.ectrimspatientcommunity.eu/registration #PatientCommunityDay #PCD2026 #MSCommunity #MultipleSclerosis #NMOSD MOGAD MSAwareness ECTRIMS

This is a moment for the history books, and our entire community should be celebrating! The Georgia House of Representatives has officially adopted a resolution recognizing October 25–31, 2026, as WE ARE ALL ILL WEEK! This historic recognition honors our legacy of connecting, educating, and inspiring Black women living with MS, lupus, endometriosis, and other chronic illnesses. Even more meaningful, We Are ILL’s contributions are now part of Georgia’s official legislative record, cementing this milestone in our history. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Rep. Kim Schofield, the resolution’s lead sponsor, alongside Reps. Viola Davis, Sandra Scott, Marvin Lim, and Park Cannon, for championing our mission and helping elevate the voices of our community. To every woman who has shared her story, advocated for herself, or found sisterhood through We Are ILL, this moment belongs to YOU! We’re incredibly proud of how far we’ve come, and we hope you are, too. Our voices matter. Our impact is undeniable. And our legacy is still being written! #WeAreILLmatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #WeAreILLWeek #GAResolution

“I group chat with my NMO peeps all day. I’m like, girl, I am exhausted. She’s like, girl, I’m exhausted too. She’s like, girl, I just ordered some magnesium rub. I’m like, girl, send me the link.” That’s Marion Jones (@_theothermj) at last year’s Wellness Week(end), and honestly that moment had the whole room laughing because every single person in there knew exactly what she was talking about. But before the laughter, Marion shared something deeper. She talked about the friend who became her first caregiver by default, the one who told her to go to the ER after she’d been nursing a headache for weeks. She talked about being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, spending time in the ICU, going through plasma pheresis, and being released from rehab unable to prepare a meal for herself. For a year, most of her days were spent bedridden. And what got her through wasn’t just treatment. It was people. The ones who showed up without being asked and loved on her through the hardest season of her life. That’s what she came to Wellness Week(end) to talk about: the power of chosen family. She said, “Nothing against my biological family, who I love, but there’s something about the chosen family in the autoimmune disease space because they’re people who speak your language.” That’s what this event is. It’s a room full of women who don’t need you to over-explain, who already know why today was hard, and who will send you the magnesium rub link without you having to ask twice. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Be in the room. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #ChronicIllnessCommunity #MSCommunity #NMOSDAwareness

We were on the news today! Our founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic) sat down with @AishaHoward on @11Alive to talk about Wellness Week(end) 2026, and if you’ve been wondering what all the excitement is about, this conversation will tell you everything you need to know. Aisha isn’t just one of Atlanta’s most trusted news anchors, she’s also returning for her second year as our Wellness Week(end) host, and hearing her and Victoria talk about what’s coming October 30th through November 1st at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead will give you chills in the best way. This year’s theme is Beyond Limits, and that’s exactly what this weekend is built to help you do. Three days of expert-led sessions, real conversations, and a room full of Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD who don’t need you to explain what your day-to-day looks like because they already know. If you’ve been on the fence about getting your ticket, let this be the sign you’ve been waiting for. General Admission is $200, VIP is $375, and October 16th is the last day to grab yours. Thank you @AishaHoward for helping us spread the word and for being part of this incredible weekend again. And thank you @11Alive for giving our community this platform, it means more than you know. Comment TICKET below and we’ll send you the link to get yours before they’re gone. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #BeyondLimits #11Alive #ChronicIllnessCommunity

These are the numbers, but behind every single one is a real woman who walked away from this series knowing more about her own body than she did before. 209 of you showed up live across two sessions of our Understanding and Managing Relapses in Multiple Sclerosis series, from 24 different states, and the conversations in those rooms were the kind you don’t get in a 15-minute neurology appointment. Before this series, 51% of you said you weren’t confident you could tell the difference between a true relapse and a pseudo-relapse. After? 95.8% of you said you could. That matters, because knowing the difference is what gets you on the phone with your neurologist at the right time instead of second-guessing yourself for three weeks. 85% of you had never heard of smoldering MS. By the end, nearly 98% understood what disease progression looks like. And every single one of you left saying you felt confident tracking your symptoms, knowing when to act, and having real conversations with your care team about your options. One of you said something that stuck with us: “I plan to advocate for myself better. Prior to this program, I never spoke up, whether it was asking about a medication change or not agreeing with a certain form of treatment.” This is why our organization matters, and why your support matters. Every program we build is free, culturally relevant, and made specifically for Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD. None of it is free to produce, and none of it happens without the people who believe in this community enough to fund it. When you donate, this is exactly what you’re making possible. Give at weareillms.com/donate 97.1% overall satisfaction. 95.6% said it reflected your lived experience. This is what community-centered education looks like. Sponsored by ANI Pharmaceuticals and Novartis, in partnership with Shepherd Center. #WeAreILLMatic #MSRelapse #MultipleSclerosis #BlackWomenWithMS #ChronicIllnessCommunity

📺 ATLANTA, SET YOUR ALARMS! 📺 Tomorrow morning, Thursday, October 8, at 8:45 a.m., our Founder & CEO, Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic), joins 11Alive anchor @AishaHoward to talk all things Wellness Week(end) 2026! 🧡💜🎉 We’re especially excited because Aisha is also our Wellness Week(end) 2026 host, so you’ll get a first look at what’s coming and why this gathering matters for our chronic illness community. If you’re in Atlanta or the greater metro area, tune in to 11Alive (WXIA, NBC Channel 11) at 8:45 a.m. Not local? Keep an eye on our page, we’ll share the segment once it’s available. Grab your coffee, turn on the TV, and cheer her on with us! 🙌🏾 👉🏾 Tag a friend in the ATL who needs to see this! #WeAreILLmatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #11Alive #ATL #AtlantaEvents

When your doctor says “demyelination” and keeps talking like you’re supposed to already know what that means, that’s not a you problem. That’s a system that wasn’t built to make sure you actually understood what’s happening inside your own body. October is Health Literacy Month, and for Black women living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, health literacy isn’t just about reading a pamphlet. It’s about being able to sit in an appointment and fully understand what your doctor is telling you, why they’re recommending a certain treatment, and what your options actually are, so you can make decisions that feel like yours. Because here’s the thing: you can’t advocate for yourself if the language being used to describe your own condition feels like a foreign language. And too many of us have nodded along in a doctor’s office, gone home, and Googled everything they just said because nobody took the time to break it down. You deserve to understand your diagnosis in plain language. You deserve to know what your medications are doing, what your lab results mean, and what questions to ask before you agree to a treatment plan. That’s not extra, that’s the bare minimum. That’s also why we built a health literacy glossary on our website, so you can look up the terms you’re hearing in your appointments and actually understand them on your own time, in language that makes sense. Your health is yours, and the language around it should be too. Check out the glossary at weareillms.com #WeAreILLMatic #HealthLiteracyMonth #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

You’re invited to Patient Community Day 2026, a free global event designed for people living with multiple sclerosis and related neurological conditions. Hosted by ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis) and supported by We Are ILL, this unique event brings the latest research out of the scientific world and into real life, helping you better understand what new discoveries mean for your care, treatment, and daily living. EVENT DETAILS 📅 Friday, October 23 🕒 3:00 to 6:00 PM EDT, plus a bonus hour of Q&A for online participants 📍 Online and in Toronto, Canada It’s free to attend, but registration is required. WHY JOIN? - MS-focused content: sessions tailored to the needs and questions of people living with MS - Live Q&A with experts: ask your questions directly to leading MS specialists - Global access: available in 50+ languages We hope to see you there! If you can’t make it, replays will be available, so register anyway and you’ll be the first to know when they’re available on demand. Register via the link in bio or at ectrimspatientcommunity.eu/registration

October is Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month, and honestly, for a lot of us, it feels like a concept that was written about us but never really built for us. You’ve sat in appointments where you explained your symptoms three times and still left feeling like you weren’t heard. You’ve had doctors look at your labs instead of looking at you. You’ve been told everything is normal when you know in your body that it’s not, and you’ve had to fight to be taken seriously in rooms that were supposed to be safe. When you’re a Black woman living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, patient-centered care isn’t just a nice idea. It’s the difference between getting the right treatment and getting dismissed. It’s the difference between a doctor who listens to what you’re telling them and one who sends you home with a pamphlet and a follow-up in six months. You deserve a care team that sees the whole picture, not just what shows up on a scan. One that factors in your stress, your sleep, your mental health, how you’re really doing, and what your life actually looks like day to day. You deserve to walk into an appointment and not have to over-explain, over-prove, or brace yourself just to be believed. This month is a reminder that the standard of care should start with you. Not around you, not in spite of you, but with you at the center of every conversation, every decision, and every plan. You’re not asking for too much. You’re asking for what should’ve been there all along. #WeAreILLMatic #PatientCenteredCare #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenDeserveBetter #MSLupusNMOSD

This is the last one, and if you’ve been with us for the first two sessions, you already know this series hits different. If you’re just finding out about it, you’re right on time. Wednesday, October 7, at 6 p.m. ET is the final session of This Is Lupus: The Reality for Black Women, and we’re closing it out with the conversation nobody has early enough. Kidney health, long-term wellness, and what it actually looks like to thrive with lupus, not just manage it. Lupus nephritis affects up to 50% of people with lupus, and Black women are significantly more likely to develop it. But most of us don’t hear about that until something is already wrong, and by then you’re playing catch-up with your own health because nobody told you what to watch for. This session is about getting ahead of that. Dr. Sharica Brookins, nephrologist, is breaking down what’s happening in your body, what your labs are actually telling you, and what questions you should be asking your care team right now, not later. Dr. Charisma Atkins is bringing the patient perspective, because clinical knowledge means more when it comes from someone who lives it too. And Zenovia Wright is moderating the whole thing. This series was built for you. The last session is free, it’s virtual, and it’s the one you don’t want to miss. Comment LEARN to get the regisration link sent to your DMs or RSVP at bit.ly/thisislupus. In partnership with EMD Serono, GSK, and Biogen. #WeAreILLMatic #ThisIsLupus #LupusAwareness #BlackWomenWithLupus #ChronicIllnessCommunity

If you’ve been blaming your MS or lupus for every new symptom and your doctor hasn’t once mentioned the word perimenopause, this clip is for you. This is Dr. Mia Cowan (@drmiacowanmd) from last year’s Wellness Week(end), and what she shared in this session honestly changed how a lot of women in that room understood what was happening in their own bodies. She talked about how even in her OB/GYN residency, she wasn’t taught how to properly manage perimenopause and menopause. So she went and figured it out on her own, because the textbook answers weren’t working for her patients. Women in their 30s and 40s who still had plenty of estrogen but were dealing with symptoms nobody could explain. What was missing? Testosterone. And here’s the part that matters most if you’re living with a chronic illness: your testosterone starts declining around age 25 to 30. When it drops, you lose muscle mass, your energy shifts, and symptoms start showing up that look and feel a lot like a flare or disease progression. So instead of exploring whether it’s hormonal, you and your doctor both chalk it up to your MS, your lupus, or your NMOSD, and the real issue never gets addressed. That’s not a small thing. That’s years of unnecessary suffering because nobody thought to check. This is the kind of conversation that happens at Wellness Week(end). In fact, Dr. Cowan will be dropping gems at the “After Dark: Pajamas + Pleasure Party” session at this year’s event. The kind your doctor doesn’t have time for, and the kind that changes how you advocate for yourself from that point forward. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Be in the room this year. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

This is your friendly reminder that the hotel booking deadline for Wellness Week(end) is Tuesday, October 13, and once that rate is gone, it’s gone. We secured a discounted group rate of $189 a night at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead so you can be right where everything is happening, October 30 through November 1. No Uber back and forth, no trying to figure out logistics when your body is tired, no missing out on the after-hours conversations that honestly end up being some of the best parts of the whole weekend. And if you’re someone who needs to pace yourself throughout the day, having your room right there makes all the difference. You can step away when you need to, rest between sessions, and come back when you’re ready without feeling like you’re missing the entire experience. The JW Marriott is beautiful, the rooms are comfortable, and being in the same building as hundreds of other Black women who actually understand your life is something you can’t put a price on. But the $189 rate? That has a deadline. October 13. After that, you’re paying full price and availability isn’t guaranteed. Book your room now at wearewellnessweekend.com. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link to grab your Wellness Week(end) ticket too. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness

This is what a mother sounds like when she’s watching her daughter fight something she can’t fix. This clip is from last year’s Wellness Week(end), and it’s a mom, Lynnette Odd, talking about the moment she realized her daughter Lyndsey (@godsturtlelove) had MS. How she saw the signs and filed them under “autoimmune something” because she never imagined it could be MS, especially when her son-in-law already had it. How she quietly mentioned it to him at the pool one day, not knowing her daughter was already using him as a resource behind the scenes. But the part that gets you is what she says at the end. That she’s proud. Proud of how her daughter hasn’t gone into a shell, how she’s reached out, how she knows her boundaries. Proud that if her daughter doesn’t pick up the phone, she doesn’t panic, because she knows she’ll talk to her the next day. And then she said something about We Are ILL that we’ll never forget: “When I came last year, it was life-changing for us. It blew my mind, and I paid for my slot right then.” That’s a mother who showed up to support her daughter and realized this community was holding both of them. She’s coming back this year and bringing the guys, because that’s what happens when you see something real. Wellness Week(end) 2026 is October 30 through November 1 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. If this clip made you feel something, imagine what being in the room feels like. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend2026 #ChronicIllnessCommunity #MSCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS

ou know that feeling when your body’s fighting you from the inside out, your energy is completely gone, and everybody’s advice is just “rest more” or “try a smoothie”? Yeah, we’re done with that. This month inside the Beyond ILL Membership Community, we’re getting into the real conversation about inflammation and energy with someone who actually understands the science and knows how to make it make sense for your life. Vanessa Rissetto is a registered dietitian and the CEO and Co-founder of Culina Health, a clinical nutrition company she built from the ground up that’s raised $20 million and is changing the way people access nutrition care. She’s been featured on the Today Show, in The New York Times, Vogue, and Essence, and Goldman Sachs named her one of their “Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs.” But what matters most to us is that she’s passionate about making nutrition inclusive, culturally competent, and actually accessible, which is exactly the kind of expert our community deserves. If you’re living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, you already know inflammation isn’t just a buzzword, it’s your everyday reality. And when it’s draining your energy on top of everything else, you need more than generic advice. You need someone who gets it and can give you real tools to work with. oin us Thursday, October 1, at 6:30 p.m. ET inside the Beyond ILL Membership Community for this live session. This is the kind of access that makes membership worth it, expert-led conversations designed specifically for you, every single month — for FREE! #WeAreILLMatic #BeyondILL #InflammationAwareness #ChronicIllnessWellness #NutritionMatters

MS gets the awareness walks, the celebrity diagnoses, and the medication commercials during primetime. Lupus at least gets recognized by name. You say NMOSD and the room goes quiet, and then somebody asks “so is that like MS?” and you have to decide in about two seconds how much of yourself you’re willing to spend on the explanation. Most of the time you shorten it. You say it’s similar to MS, or you say it’s an autoimmune thing, or you just say it’s a neurological condition and change the subject, because the full answer takes fifteen minutes and you can already see their eyes starting to drift. And every time you do that, you erase a little bit of your own experience to make it easier for somebody else to digest. That’s the particular loneliness of living with something nobody’s heard of. It’s not just that people don’t understand it. It’s that the world hasn’t given them any reason to try. There’s no ice bucket challenge for NMOSD. There’s no ribbon most people would recognize. There’s no character on a TV show who has it. You Google it and half the results are medical journals written for other doctors, not for the woman who just got the diagnosis and is trying to figure out what her life looks like now. You end up becoming your own awareness campaign, which is exhausting when you’re also trying to be a patient. If you’re living with NMOSD and you’re tired of being the only person in every room who knows what it is, you’re not the only one. You’ve just been made to feel like it. Tell us in the comments what you wish people understood about NMOSD, and tag somebody who needs to see this. #WeAreILLMatic #NMOSD #NMOSDAwareness #BlackWomenWithNMOSD #ChronicIllnessCommunity

If you’ve been living with lupus long enough, you know the diagnosis was just the beginning. It’s everything after that nobody prepares you for. How to explain it to people who don’t get it. How to push through a workday when your body is screaming at you to stop. How to grieve the version of yourself you were before and still figure out who you are now. How to manage a condition that changes the rules on you constantly and still feel like you’re the one in control. That’s what this session is about. Wednesday, September 30, at 6 p.m. ET is the second session of This Is Lupus: The Reality for Black Women, and it’s called Living Beyond the Diagnosis for a reason. Because there’s a difference between surviving with lupus and actually living with it, and most of the resources out there stop at the survival part. Dr. Patricia A. Oyetakin, dermatologist, is talking about the things that show up on your skin that nobody warned you about. Dr. Charisma Atkins is bringing the patient advocate perspective, because she’s not just studying this, she’s living it. And Zenovia Wright is keeping the conversation grounded in what actually matters to you. This isn’t a lecture. It’s a room full of women who get it, having the conversation you wish you could have with your doctor but never have enough time for. It’s free, it’s virtual, and it was built for us. Comment LEARN to get the regisration link sent to your DMs or RSVP at bit.ly/thisislupus. Presented in partnership with EMD Serono, GSK, and Biogen. #WeAreILLMatic #ThisIsLupus #LupusAwareness #BlackWomenWithLupus #ChronicIllnessCommunity

You apologize before you’ve even finished the sentence. You’ve learned to. Somewhere along the way you figured out that people have a limit for how much of this they want to hear, so now you deliver the update in the shortest possible version, add a joke at the end so it doesn’t sit heavy, and say sorry for bringing it up at all. And then you go home and think about all the parts you left out. You shouldn’t have to ration yourself with people who love you. There’s a particular kind of relief in talking to a woman who doesn’t need the backstory. No explaining what a flare is. No watching her face to see if she believes you. No apologizing for the fifth cancellation, because she’s canceled six times herself this year. You just say the thing, and she says girl, I know, and something in your chest lets go. That’s the whole reason we do Wellness Week(end). Three days in Atlanta with a room full of women who have all been the one apologizing. October 30 through November 1, and nobody there is going to need the short version. Tag the woman who lets you unload without making you feel like a burden. And if you don’t have her yet, comment TICKET and let’s get you in the room where she is. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

You know that feeling when you’re trying to learn about your own lupus and everything you find sounds like it was written for somebody else? Different stats, different symptoms, different skin tone in every photo. That’s exactly why this series exists. This Is Lupus: The Reality for Black Women is a free virtual series we built with EMD Serono, GSK, and Biogen, and it’s centered on what lupus actually looks like for us. We’re already one session in, and two more are coming. September 30 at 6pm ET, we’re talking about what life really looks like after the diagnosis. Not the pamphlet version, the real one. How you manage it, how you advocate for yourself, and how you stop just surviving and start feeling like you again. October 7 at 6pm ET, we’re getting into kidney health, long-term wellness, and what thriving with lupus can actually look like. Because that conversation needs to happen way before it becomes a crisis. You’ll hear from Dr. Patricia A. Oyetakin, Dr. Sharica Brookins, Dr. Joy-Ann Tabanor-Gayle, Dr. Charisma Atkins, and our own Zenovia Wright is moderating. These are women who understand what you’re going through, not just clinically, but personally. As a thank-you for your time, participants will also have the option to enter a drawing to receive a $40 Amazon gift card upon completing the survey. It’s free, it’s virtual, and it was made with you in mind. Comment LEARN to get the registration link sent to your DMs or RSVP at bit.ly/thisislupus. #WeAreILLMatic #ThisIsLupus #LupusAwareness #BlackWomenWithLupus #ChronicIllnessCommunity

She said it like it was nothing. “I looked up NMOSD last night.” You had to sit down. Because here’s what you’re used to. People nod while you explain it and you can see them not retaining a word. They call it MS when it isn’t. They ask if you’re better yet. They say their aunt had something like that and she’s fine now. Six months in, you’re still starting from zero every time it comes up, and after a while you stop bringing it up at all because the explaining is its own exhaustion. Then somebody goes home and reads about it. On her own. Without being asked. What she’s actually telling you is that she thought about you when you weren’t in the room. That she wanted to understand instead of just sympathize. That the next time you say you’re having a bad day she’ll have some idea what that means, and you won’t have to build the whole picture from scratch before she can meet you in it. It’s such a small thing. Twenty minutes and a search bar. And it lands like being handed something you didn’t know you were allowed to ask for. So if you love somebody with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, that’s the move. Go read about it tonight and then tell her you did. Watch what it does to her. And if somebody’s ever done that for you, put her in the comments. Let’s give those women their credit today. #WeAreILLMatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #NMOSD

Listen to Zenovia, because she’s saying something we can’t say for ourselves. She went to her first Wellness Week(end) last year, went all in with VIP, and the thing that got her wasn’t the swag or the party, it was being in a room full of Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD for the first time in her life. No explanations, no judgment, everybody just got it. That’s the part that’s hard to put into a caption. You can list the sessions and the speakers and the topics all day, and we do, but the thing that actually changes people is walking into a room where your whole experience is already understood before you open your mouth. Most of you have never had that. Some of you didn’t know it existed. She’s telling you it does. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375, and if you want the full experience she’s talking about, VIP is worth it. Hotel rate is $189/night and closes October 13. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. Come find out what she’s talking about. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

We don’t just say our programs work. We can show you. 306 women registered for the Empowering Black Women with MS and Lupus series, and 201 of them showed up and stayed. 97% Black and African American, 98% women, 87% living with a chronic illness or autoimmune condition. Nationwide. Ages 25 to 80 and beyond. This wasn’t a room full of people watching from a distance. It was you. Here’s what happened in that room. 100% of women in the Group Therapy, Ask the Nurse, and Ask the Case Manager sessions reported improvement in emotional processing and resource awareness. Not most. All of them. 94 to 96% left the Ask the Doctor sessions feeling more prepared to talk to their providers. Every single participant in the Ask the Nurse session walked away with tools they could actually use to manage their day to day health. And the number that matters most to us: 93% said they now feel more confident advocating for themselves in healthcare settings. That’s women who went into their next appointment and pushed back instead of nodding along, who asked the question they’d been holding, who said this isn’t working and expected to be heard. 96.6% rated the entire program valuable or very valuable. One participant said it this way: She was able to feel comfortable talking about MS when she usually isn’t comfortable telling her own doctors or family how she’s feeling. That’s what free, culturally specific programming does. And it’s what your support makes possible. These are the numbers. If you’ve been wondering whether what we do actually reaches the women it’s meant for, now you know. Help us keep going. The link to donate is in our bio. #WeAreILLMatic #EmpoweringBlackWomen #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Three ILLfluencers wrote three different things this month, and somehow they’re all saying the same thing from a different angle. Zenovia Wright (@zenoviawright) wrote about how your diagnosis gets a seat at the table but doesn’t get the final vote. She’s talking about the way a lot of us started shrinking our lives the moment we got diagnosed, saying no to things before we even asked what it would take to make them work. She’s not saying ignore your body. She’s saying stop letting fear answer for you before you’ve even asked the question. Tiana Sherrod (@flowtious_soul_yoga) wrote about being the expert on your own body, and how walking into a doctor’s office doesn’t mean leaving everything you know about yourself at the door. You don’t need the medical terminology to know something has changed. You don’t need credentials to say that’s not normal for me. Your lived experience is its own expertise, and it belongs in the room right next to theirs. Raynetta Smith (@thehauteprgirl) wrote about choosing yourself without guilt, and how surgery, MS, and going back to a high-stress job taught her that self-care isn’t a facial and brunch anymore. It’s monitoring her blood pressure, choosing the workout that supports her body instead of depleting it, and not letting somebody else’s urgency become stress she carries home. Three women, three lessons, one truth: You get to take up space in your own life, even with a chronic illness, especially with one. All three blogs are up now. Click the link in our bio to read them. #WeAreILLMatic #ILLfluencers #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Every doctor you’ve seen has told you to exercise. Not one of them told you how to do that in a body that changes its mind halfway through. You’ve tried the YouTube workouts and had to stop 10 minutes in. You’ve walked into a gym and left before you started because nothing in there was designed for what you’re working with. You’ve pushed through a class because you didn’t want to be the one who sat down, and then spent the next two days paying for it. Sheree Love (@theshereelove @theshadesofms) gets it because she’s living it. She’s leading the Adaptive Fitness session at Wellness Week(end), and adaptive means exactly what it sounds like. The movement meets you where your body actually is that day, not where somebody’s program assumes it should be. If you need to sit, you sit. If you need to modify, the modification isn’t the backup plan, it’s the design. If today’s version of your body can do half of what last week’s could, you’re still fully participating. This isn’t about getting back to who you were before your diagnosis. It’s about moving in a way that works for who you are now, without apology and without paying for it tomorrow. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #AdaptiveFitness

Your nervous system has been running on high alert since your diagnosis, and most of you have gotten so used to it that you don’t even recognize it as a problem anymore. You just call it your normal. The hypervigilance before every MRI. The way your heart rate picks up when you feel a new symptom and your brain immediately starts running worst-case scenarios. The tension you carry in your body that doesn’t leave even on the days when nothing is wrong, because your nervous system stopped trusting that nothing is wrong a long time ago. That’s survival mode, and it’s exhausting in a way that has nothing to do with your MS, lupus, or NMOSD and everything to do with what living in a body you can’t predict does to the system that’s supposed to keep you regulated. Dr. Deliqua Isom is a Mindset Architect, Nervous System Strategist, and Best-Selling Author with a Ph.D. in Business Administration, and her session at Wellness Week(end) is about what’s actually happening inside your body when you’re stuck in that cycle and what it takes to shift out of it. Not with platitudes, not with “just relax,” but with real neuroscience-backed strategies you can use when your body won’t stop bracing for the next thing. This is one session in a weekend full of them. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Nobody talks about this part, so we made a whole night out of it. After Dark: Pajamas and Pleasure Party is exactly what it sounds like. Put on your pajamas, grab your girls, and get ready for a conversation about intimacy, pleasure, and everything your body is still capable of that nobody in a doctor’s office has ever bothered to bring up. Dr. Mia Cowan is a board-certified gynecologist, and Goody Howard is a sexologist, educator, and consultant who had last year’s room so loud the hallway could hear us. Together they’re covering the things you’ve been wondering about but didn’t have anyone safe enough to ask. What happens to intimacy when your body is unpredictable. What pleasure actually means when fatigue and pain are part of the equation. How to stay connected to yourself and your partner when chronic illness keeps rewriting the rules. And here’s the part Goody will remind you of before anything else: the definition of pleasure is experiencing great joy and excitement, and it has nothing to do with sex. This session is about reclaiming all of it, not just what happens in the bedroom but the joy and connection that make everything else worth fighting for. This is a pajama party, not a lecture. Come comfortable, come curious, and come ready to laugh, because you will. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

We wanted someone to open Wellness Week(end) 2026 who understands that what happens in a legislative chamber affects what happens in your doctor’s office, and Rep. Kim Schofield is exactly that person. She represents Georgia House District 63 in Fulton County, and she’s kicking things off because the policies that determine your coverage, your access to specialists, your medication approvals, and whether clinical trials include women who look like you don’t write themselves. They get fought for in rooms most of us will never sit in, and she sits in those rooms every day. Opening remarks set the tone for everything that follows, and having a legislator who sees the connection between policy and patient experience tells you exactly what kind of weekend this is. It’s not just about wellness in the personal sense. It’s about the systems that make wellness possible or impossible depending on who you are and what you look like. This is how we’re starting. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Dr. Charisma Atkins (@simplycharisma) has lupus, and she went to aesthetic school because she wanted to understand her own skin before the butterfly rash could take over the conversation. That’s the kind of woman she is. She doesn’t sit in the diagnosis, she studies it and then comes back and teaches the rest of us what she learned. In this clip she breaks down exactly what a skincare routine should look like when you’re a lupus warrior, and it’s not complicated. A gel-based cleanser, an exfoliant a couple times a week without scrubbing, a moisturizer, and SPF every single day, no exceptions. If you want to go further she gets into serums, collagen, and what to use for the hyperpigmentation and discoloration that nobody talks about but most of you are dealing with. But here’s why we’re really posting this. Dr. Atkins is speaking at Wellness Week(end) 2026 and her session is called Lupus: Wellness Can’t Be Invisible. Because when you’re living with lupus, so much of your wellness gets dismissed because people can’t see it, and the parts they can see, like what’s happening to your skin, don’t get the attention they deserve either. She’s going to get into all of it, the visible and the invisible, and she’s going to do it as someone who lives this every day, not just someone who studied it. Watch the clip, take the skincare tips, and then get your ticket because you want to be in the room when she goes deeper. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #LupusAwareness #BlackWomenWithLupus #ChronicIllnessCommunity

If you were in the room last year when Goody Howard (@askgoody) started talking, you already know exactly why we brought her back. She’s a sexologist, educator, and consultant, and she walked into a room full of Black women with MS, lupus, and NMOSD and started a conversation most of us have never had out loud. Not just about sex, but about intimacy, which she’ll be the first to tell you is a completely different thing. Intimacy is what happens when you’re not having sex. It’s the culture of your relationship, how you show up when things are hard, how you stay connected when your body is unpredictable, and what sustains you in the spaces between everything else. That conversation matters for this community in a way it doesn’t get to matter anywhere else, because nobody at your doctor’s appointment is asking how your diagnosis is affecting your relationship. Nobody’s talking about what happens to desire when you’re exhausted and medicated and trying to feel like yourself in a body that keeps changing the rules. And most of us just quietly figure it out alone or stop bringing it up altogether. Goody doesn’t let you do that. She’s direct, she’s funny, she’s practical, and she makes a room full of women who came in nervous about the topic leave wanting to keep talking about it. She’s bringing all of that to Wellness Week(end) 2026. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. This session alone is worth being in the room. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

🚨 Ummm… y’all know VIP is almost SOLD OUT, right?! 👀 Because we would hate for you to pull up to Wellness Week(end) and realize you could’ve been VIP. 😩😂 The girls have been securing their spots, and we are officially getting down to the LAST VIP TICKETS for our seventh annual Wellness Week(end)! 💅🏾✨ Three days of connection, community, wellness, joy, and being surrounded by people who understand the chronic illness life without a whole explanation? Yeah, you’re gonna want to be there. 🫶🏾 📍 Atlanta, GA 📅 October 30–November 1 🎟️ VIP: Almost. Gone. Consider this your friendly warning before we have to make the SOLD OUT post. 👀 💬 Comment “TICKET” below and we’ll slide the link straight into your DMs! Tag your chronically ill bestie and get those plans OUT of the group chat. 💕🔥 #WeAreILLmatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #BlackWomenWithLupus #BlackWomenWithNMOSD

What if understanding lupus could change the way you understand your own body? This Is Lupus: The Reality for Black Women is a virtual education series created by We Are ILL to help Black women better understand lupus, recognize changes in their health, and feel more confident navigating their healthcare journey. Lupus can look different from person to person — and for Black women, the journey can include delayed diagnosis, more severe disease, and complications that aren’t always easy to recognize. We’re bringing together rheumatologists, dermatologists, nephrologists, and Black women with lived experience to have honest, practical conversations about what lupus really looks like. You’ll hear from medical experts and women who have lived through the realities of lupus, with opportunities to ask questions and access practical resources you can use beyond the sessions. As a thank-you for your time, participants will also have the option to enter a drawing to receive a $40 Amazon gift card upon completing the survey. Come for the information. Stay for the community, validation, and support you deserve. Comment LEARN to get the registration link sent to your DMs. #WeAreIllMatic #Lupus #BlackWomenWithLupus #LupusAwareness #LupusEducation

We let a lot of things speak for us. The flyers, the website, the newsletter, the posts. But some invitations need to come from the person who built the thing, so we’re letting Victoria (@picturethisvic) say it herself. She’s been working on our in-person Wellness Week(end) for five years, and something about this year feels different to her. Not bigger, just settled. Like the event finally matches what she always saw it becoming, and she wants you in the room when it happens. Watch the video, because there’s a moment where she says “we made this just for you” and she means it in a way that doesn’t land the same way in a caption. She’s talking about over 365 days of planning, a team that’s been refining every detail to make sure the room feels safe and the sessions feel intentional, and a founder who wanted you to hear the invitation from her voice instead of from a graphic. She also wants your people there. Your caregiver, your partner, your best friend, your mom, your sister, the person who drives you to your appointments and sits in the waiting room. This isn’t just for women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD. It’s for the people who love them too. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Register at wearewellnessweekend.com or comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

September is Self-Improvement Month, and the most important thing you’ve improved since your diagnosis isn’t a habit or a routine. It’s the way you talk to yourself about who you are now. Because somewhere between the diagnosis and today, you had to rebuild your entire relationship with yourself. You had to learn that needing help doesn’t mean you’re weak, that slowing down doesn’t mean you’re failing, and that the woman you are now isn’t a lesser version of who you were before. She’s a different woman with different information, and she’s making it work in ways the old version of you never had to. That doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen by reading a book about mindset. It happens in the appointment where you finally push back. It happens the first time you use the wheelchair without shame. It happens when you stop measuring yourself against people whose bodies aren’t fighting them every morning. A lot of you are still in the middle of that, and that’s fine. It’s not a straight line and nobody finishes it. But if you’re further along now than you were a year ago, even by an inch, that’s the improvement that matters most, and nobody’s tracking it but you. Comment COMMUNITY if you want to be in a room full of women working on the same thing. #WeAreILLMatic #SelfImprovementMonth #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

We’re calling on healthcare providers serving the lupus community — rheumatologists, nephrologists, and dermatologists — to join us for upcoming educational programming. Our community is asking hard questions about flares, organ involvement, skin manifestations, and what it really means to live with lupus long-term. They need to hear from providers like you. Spots are limited and filling on a rolling basis. Comment SPEAKER and we’ll send the link directly to your DMs. #WeAreILLmatic #BlackRheumatologists #BlackNephrologists #BlackDermatologists #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Today is National Grateful Patient Day, and we want to be honest about how complicated that word is when you’re a Black woman with MS, lupus, or NMOSD. Because gratitude toward your healthcare providers is easy when you’ve got good ones. The neurologist who listened to you the first time instead of the fifth. The rheumatologist who didn’t chalk it up to stress. The nurse who looked you in the eye and said I believe you when three other people in that building hadn’t. If you’ve got that provider, you know exactly who they are, and you probably don’t tell them enough what it meant to finally land in the right office. But a lot of you went through years of being dismissed, misdiagnosed, and sent home with answers that didn’t match what your body was telling you before you found that person. Some of you are still looking. And it’s hard to feel grateful when the system made you fight for care that should have been standard. So today we’re holding both of those things at the same time. You can be grateful for the provider who finally got it right and still be angry about every one who didn’t. Those aren’t contradictions, that’s just what being a patient in this body looks like. If you’ve got a provider who changed everything for you, name them in the comments. Tag them if you can. Let’s make sure the good ones know we see them too. #WeAreILLMatic #GratefulPatientDay #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

We weren’t done. You already saw the first round of speakers for Wellness Week(end) 2026. We told you the lineup was stacked, but we also weren’t finished. Meet the newest additions to the stage this October. Ayanna Dookie (@adookie), comedian, because laughing through this is its own form of therapy. Dr. Mitzi J. Williams (@thenerdyneurologist), Medical Director of Joi Life Wellness Group and one of the most trusted voices in MS care for Black women. Rep. Kim Schofield, Georgia House District 63, because the policies that affect your care and coverage get decided in rooms like hers. Naomi Rose (@nayrosee), lupus patient advocate who knows what it’s like to fight for yourself when the system isn’t fighting for you. Connie O’Neal-Bates (@cloneal52), MS patient advocate who’s lived with MS for over 50 years, and been in this work and in this community from the beginning. Dr. Sharon Dowell, Medical Director of Rheumatology at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. Dr. Shoshanna Robinson (@Dr.Shash_), Clinical Pharmacist at Emory Winship Cancer Institute, Clinical Director at Trulieve Georgia, and Adjunct Professor at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown, triple-board-certified in pediatrics, pediatric pulmonology, and sleep medicine. Dr. Patricia A. Oyetakin (@droyetakin), board-certified dermatologist, because your skin is telling a story most doctors aren’t asking about. This is who we built the room for you with. October 30 - November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Tag her. You know the one — living her best life while managing MS like a boss. 🧡 Wellness Week(end) is back for year 7, and it’s not just for her. It’s for her whole squad. Partners, besties, family, caregivers — everyone who shows up for her deserves a seat too. Spots are filling up FAST. Comment “TICKET” and we’ll slide the link straight to your DMs. 📩 Tag her. Share this. Let her know somebody’s got her. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #MSAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

She’s been holding it down with NMOSD, and it’s time someone held her down for a change. 💚🩷 Wellness Week(end) — year 7 — is the space built for her, and for everyone in her corner: partners, besties, family, caregivers, all of it. 🎉 This isn’t a “someday” event. Spots go quick. Comment “TICKET” and the link lands straight in your DMs. Tag her. Share this post. Let her know she’s seen. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithNMOSD #NMOSDAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Real talk: Does she know Wellness Week(end) exists? Because if she’s out here living with lupus and doesn’t know about the most one-of-a-kind wellness experience built FOR her — that’s a problem we need to fix today. 💜 Year 7 is here, and we’re bringing her people too. Spouse, bestie, sister, caregiver — the whole support squad is invited. Comment “TICKET” below and we’ll send the link right to your inbox. This is the tag-a-friend moment of the year. Tag her in this. Share it to your story. This is the moment to put her on. 🫶🏾 #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithLupus #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

“My diagnosis was a gift to me.” Our founder Victoria Reese Brathwaite (@picturethisvic) sat down with Montel Williams, who will be our keynote speaker for Wellness Week(end) 2026, on his podcast, and he asked her what she’s learned about herself because of MS that she never would’ve known without it. Her answer was everything. She grieved the idea that life was going to be this straight path of complete upward mobility, all positive, no curves, no fight required. She grieved the version of life where things just came easy. But what she didn’t have to grieve? The person she became because of it. Her diagnosis led her to a life of servitude, and she means that in the most beautiful way. It gave her a community, an extended family she didn’t know she needed but wouldn’t have without it. It gave her a career, a creative outlet, a place to pour every talent she’d been building for years into something that serves and supports. It gave her stages all over the world. It sat her down across from Montel Williams, and even she said, “That’s insane, but it’s led me here.” It showed her she’s not just a fighter. She’s a thriver. She’s a survivor. And it’s been really beautiful, actually. This is the conversation you don’t want to miss. Full episode link in bio. #WeAreILLMatic #PatientInYou #MontelWilliams #MSCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS

We need to talk about who’s going to be in the room this October. Wellness Week(end) 2026 has the kind of speaker lineup that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we spent over a year finding the people who actually understand what it means to be a Black woman living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, and we didn’t settle until every seat on that stage was filled by someone who gets it. Our keynote is Montel Williams (@montel_williams), who has been living with MS publicly for over two decades and has spent that time making sure nobody else has to do it quietly, and he’s bringing that energy to our stage. Alongside him: Dr. Mia Cowan (@drmiacowanmd). Goody Howard (@askgoody). Dr. Deliqua Isom (@dr.deliqua_isom). Rachel Swire (@Rachel_Olivia_Hair). Dr. Charisma Atkins (@simplycharisma). Dr. Evelyn Hunter (@luvevlyn). Charmaine Turner (@the_well_woman_ceo). Tiana Sherrod (@thehealingcornerpllc). Nwandi Williams (@imani_says). Sheree Love (@theshereelove @theshadesofms). And your host, Aisha Howard (@aishahoward). The sessions go where your regular appointments never do. Lupus and skincare. Intimacy and pleasure. Nervous system regulation. Adaptive fitness that meets your body where it actually is. The grief and identity shift that come with a diagnosis. Finding strength and purpose in your MS journey. Laughing through lupus because sometimes that’s the only option. A Dear Patients session where doctors say what they wish they could in a fifteen minute visit, and a panel where you talk back. Support groups for care partners and loved ones, because the people who love you need a room too. And breakout sessions where it’s just you and other women living with chronic illness, no expert at the front of the room, just honesty. Every session was built from the ground up for Black women navigating MS, lupus, and NMOSD. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Hotel rate is $189/night and closes October 13. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. You don’t want to hear about this one after the fact. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

September is Self-Care Awareness Month, and we need to have a conversation about what that actually means when you’re living with MS, lupus, or NMOSD, because it’s not what the internet keeps selling you. Self-care when you’re chronically ill isn’t a bubble bath and a face mask. It’s canceling plans you wanted to keep because your body said no and not apologizing for it. It’s calling your insurance company for the third time about a medication they keep denying and not hanging up until somebody gives you a real answer. It’s choosing sleep over the dishes and letting the kitchen look the way it looks. It’s telling your neurologist you’re not okay when every instinct you have is telling you to say you’re fine. It’s also the stuff that doesn’t feel like self-care at all. Meal prepping on a good day because you know a bad one’s coming. Saying no to the family event that’s going to drain you for a week. Asking for help out loud from people you’ve trained to think you don’t need it. None of that fits on a candle label, but all of it is the reason you’re still standing. So this month we’re not posting spa aesthetics. We want to hear what self-care actually looks like in your house, on your worst day, with your body. Tell us in the comments. And if you’re tired of being the only person in your life who understands any of this, Beyond ILL is our membership community built specifically for you. Real Talk rooms, daily conversation with women who are living it too, chats that cover everything from motherhood to dating to spirituality to wellness, and monthly expert-led sessions with neurologists, rheumatologists, mental health professionals, and financial advisors who actually get what you’re navigating. Comment COMMUNITY and we’ll send you the link. #WeAreILLMatic #SelfCareAwarenessMonth #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

If you haven’t read this month’s ILLfluencer blogs yet, make today the day you do. Tiana Sherrod (@flowtious_soul_yoga) wrote about the art of being seen, and she draws a line that a lot of us need to hear. Being visible doesn’t mean you owe everybody access. You don’t owe people explanations about your symptoms, your treatment plan, or why your body can’t do what it used to. There’s a difference between letting yourself be seen and making yourself available for everyone’s opinions, and learning where that line is might be one of the most important things you do after a diagnosis. Zenovia Wright, MPH (@zenoviawright) wrote about wanting more than just managing your illness, and it hits a nerve because managing is the ceiling most of us were handed. Take your meds, go to your appointments, stay stable. But managing your health is important and it’s also not the purpose of your life, and that distinction changes everything when you actually sit with it. Click the link in our bio to read both. Then come tell us in the comments which one you felt more. #WeAreILLMatic #ILLfluencers #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Nobody tells you how angry you’re allowed to be. There’s a whole industry built around telling you to find the lesson in it, to be grateful for what you still have, to focus on the positive, and most of that lands like a hand over your mouth. Because some days you’re not grateful. Some days you’re furious, and you should be allowed to say so without somebody rushing in to fix your attitude. You’re angry about the career you were building before your body renegotiated the terms. You’re angry that you left your own child’s birthday party early and lay in the car with the seat back while everybody else sang. You’re angry about the friendships that quietly thinned out because you canceled one too many times, and about how you can’t even blame them, which somehow makes it worse. You’re angry at the version of yourself in photos from four years ago who had no idea what was coming and was worried about completely different things. You’re angry that rest isn’t restful anymore because it’s just a thing you’re doing so you can maybe function tomorrow. You’re angry about the money. The trips you didn’t take. The dating you stopped doing because explaining all this to a stranger felt like too much. The dancing. The way you used to be able to just say yes to something without running it through six calculations first. And underneath all of it, you’re grieving somebody you can’t have a funeral for, because she’s still walking around in your body. That anger is not a character flaw and it’s not a sign you’re handling this badly. It’s the appropriate response to losing things that mattered. You can be angry and still be doing the work. You can be angry and still love your life. Both of those things fit in the same person. So say it here if you need to. What are you angry about that you’ve never been able to say out loud? No fixing, no silver linings, no advice. Just say it. We’ll be in the comments with you. #WeAreILLMatic #ChronicIllnessCommunity #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessGrief

We asked Aisha Howard (@aishahoward) to tell us what Wellness Week(end) 2025 was like, and she told us about one woman. A woman who showed up convinced she didn’t need community. She was ready to navigate her MS journey completely alone, and then she walked into that room and something shifted. She left knowing she had a group of sisters behind her, that she didn’t have to carry all of it by herself, and that being strong didn’t have to mean being alone. Aisha said that woman is the reason she registered for 2026 before she left the building, and honestly that’s the reason most of us keep coming back. It’s watching somebody arrive guarded and leave connected. It’s being in a room where every single person understands your experience without you having to translate it. It’s seeing women in every phase and stage of this, some newly diagnosed and some twenty years in, and realizing that thriving with this actually looks like something real, not just a word people throw around. That’s what Wellness Week(end) is. Not a conference where you sit and listen and go home. A room that changes how you carry this for the rest of the year. Aisha’s hosting again this October, and she’s bringing the same energy. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. Come find out what she’s talking about. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

We are honored to announce that Montel Williams (@montel_williams), CEO of Montel Media, will join us as our keynote speaker at Wellness Week(end) 2026! For many in our community, Montel’s name carries weight beyond the screen. He’s someone who has walked a path so many of you know intimately — the uncertainty of a diagnosis, the work of rebuilding a sense of self around it, and the quiet, daily courage it takes to keep showing up. Having him with us at Wellness Week(end) feels less like booking a keynote speaker and more like welcoming home someone who already understands us. For more than 25 years, Montel has stood at the intersection of resilience and reinvention. An Emmy Award–winning television host and decorated military veteran, he built a career on connecting with people — really seeing them. Then in 1999, everything shifted: Montel was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Instead of letting the diagnosis define the limits of his life, he redefined what living boldly with MS could look like. For a quarter-century, he’s used his platform to advocate for patients, push for better quality of life, and prove — publicly, unflinchingly — that a diagnosis is not a life sentence. To our community, Montel isn’t just a celebrity guest. He is a mirror. A role model. Proof that someone living with MS can stand in front of thousands of people and command a room, run a company, and lead a movement. When we tell you this is a can’t-miss moment for our community, we mean it — because moments like this don’t come twice. ✨ Secure your seat now. Comment “TICKET” and we’ll DM you the link to get your tickets! We can’t wait to welcome you — and Montel — to Wellness Week(end) 2026!

Our sponsors looked at what our Beyond ILL Membership Community is building and said: this is worth investing in. 🙌🏾 They believe Black women living with MS, Lupus, and NMOSD deserve a space to connect, learn, and do life together — one that isn’t dictated by a price tag. So they stepped up, and because of that, we’re able to remove the financial barrier completely. Beyond ILL is now FREE, and that means full access to: ✨ Monthly support sessions ✨ Live virtual events ✨ Book club ✨ Local connections ✨ Private conversations ✨ Resources when you actually need them ✨ Volunteer opportunities ✨ First access to Wellness Week(end) This is what community-first, sponsor-backed care looks like. Come see what you’ve been missing. Comment COMMUNITY to get the registration link sent to your DM, or check out the link in bio. #WeAreILLmatic #BlackWomenWithMS #BlackWomenWithLupus #BlsckWomenWithNMOSD #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Every program, every session, every Wellness Week(end) that runs the way it does has volunteers behind it who don’t get nearly enough credit. If you’ve ever thought about getting involved with We Are ILL but weren’t sure where you’d fit or what you’d actually be doing, this is how you find out. We’re holding a volunteer meeting on Thursday, August 27 at 7:00 PM ET, and it’s open to anyone who wants to be part of what we’re building. You don’t need a medical background, you don’t need experience in nonprofits, and you don’t need to be able to commit 40 hours a month. What you need is to care about Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD having somewhere to land, and some time you’re willing to put behind that. Come hear what we need, ask your questions, and figure out where you fit. RSVP at bit.ly/wai-volunteer-meeting #WeAreILLMatic #VolunteerWithUs #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity

Somebody sees you at the grocery store on Tuesday moving fine. Then Saturday you’re in a wheelchair at the family cookout and you can feel them looking. That’s a dynamic disability, and it’s most of us. A dynamic disability means your ability to function changes, sometimes day to day, sometimes hour to hour. It’s not that you were faking Tuesday or exaggerating Saturday. It’s that MS and lupus don’t hold still. Heat, a flare, a bad night of sleep, an infection, stress, or nothing identifiable at all can move you from walking unassisted to needing help in the span of an afternoon. This is why the cane comes out some days and not others. Why you can drive yourself to one appointment and need a ride to the next. Why you cook dinner Monday and can’t lift the pan Thursday. The trouble is that people build their whole understanding of your disability around whichever version of you they happened to see first, and then treat every other version as suspicious. If they met you on a good day, the bad days look like drama. If they met you on a bad day, the good days look like you were never that sick. Neither one is a performance. Both are just your Tuesday and your Saturday. You don’t owe anybody a consistent disability to be believed. If this is your life, tell us in the comments what you wish people understood about your good days. And if you want to be around women who never need this explained to them, comment COMMUNITY and we’ll send you the link to Beyond ILL. #WeAreILLMatic #DynamicDisability #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #InvisibleIllness

Week 3. Still going. Still grateful. Still pushing. Because of this community, we have raised $3,880 toward our $10,000 goal for MS Awareness Month. Every dollar is someone saying Black women living with MS, lupus, and NMOSD deserve more. And we feel that deeply. But we are not done yet. MS does not slow down halfway through the month. Neither do we. The connection, the education, the advocacy, the safe spaces. That work happens every single day and your support is what makes it possible. We are in the final stretch of our Beyond Today, Powered by Possibility campaign. If you have already given, thank you. You are moving this mission forward in real time. If you have been waiting for the right moment, this is it. Tap the link in bio to donate. Let’s finish strong together. #WeAreILLMatic #MSAwarenessMonth #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #NMOSD

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