One year of The Black Sportswoman. Help us keep going.

We have been officially publishing for a year.

Thank you for joining this community, dedicated to celebrating Black women athletes and their contributions to sports.

Today, I want to reflect on the past year and look toward the future.

On August 1, 2020, we published our first story, The Dominant Lusia Harris. The next week, The Impact of Lusia Harris on Team USA. (Today, I published a new story about her on FiveThirtyEight, which has new information and I love it!)

She's the reason I started the publication – she gave me the final push to take it seriously, anyway – so it's so exciting that simply starting The Black Sportswoman has led to so many opportunities, like getting asked to write at publications specifically about Black sportswomen.

I've interviewed legends, written mini profiles and shared essays with paid members. We've published fully-captioned/subtitled videos speaking with historians, journalists and entrepreneurs about Panama, Brazil and Nigeria. My best story to-date is likely the one about Peruvian women's volleyball.

Since last August, I've also been asked to share what I know with students, interview legends, visit archives, and more. So many people have said they've learned from The Black Sportswoman.

Throughout all of this, sharing information and stories about Black sportswomen, and keeping it free to the public, has always been the goal.

I need your help to keep doing that work.

The Black Sportswoman is my only job at the moment, and has my total focus. (No more tea shop, the paid members know what I'm talking about.) We will continue publishing weekly, twice a week for paid members, sharing features, mini profiles and resources.

We, of course, want to continue doing what we've already done this year, but we have plans for more. That includes finishing our database, which we are working on. I'll admit, I thought I'd have that done much more quickly, but it's going to be so much better than I imagined.

Here's how you can help us keep going:

Become a paid member of The Black Sportswoman. Currently, our membership runs at $8/month and $96 for the year. This helps us operate, but also helps us remain a publication with values. With your financial support, we don't have to water down our content and can focus on our mission to share the stories of Black women athletes around the world – and educate others, so they can share those stories, too.

On August 10, we are changing our prices to $12/month or $144 for a yearly membership – so catch it at the discounted rate before it expires.

Donate to The Black Sportswoman, if you want to see the database but can't make a monthly/yearly contribution. Your money still helps us get toward our goal, and I will reiterate that I'm really excited about seeing the database come to life.

For the first time in a while, I am so excited about the future for us, for Black sportswomen.

Next month, after the bright lights from the Olympics fade, we'll still be here prioritizing Black women athletes, their contributions, and them as people.

With your help, we can keep it going beyond that.

The celebration continues Thursday.