About Afrodite

The Face Behind Afrodite

Who am I?

I am Shayla Robertson, 22 year old Baltimore native and before all else, a Black Woman. Giving back to others, cultivating safe spaces, teaching, and creating is what fuels me daily. If I am not researching or creating products, I am most likely somewhere outdoors. Due to my own past internal struggles, I was forced to find a sense of grounding. I've found peace and stability through returning to nature and taking the time to learn & understand it. The feeling & experience of this homecoming is what motivates me daily to continue Afrodite so everyone can experience the serenity of leaning on Nature (in big and small ways).

Prior Career Experiences

Before creating Afrodite, I spent my professional career working with children/toddlers. I worked primarily as a Preschool teacher in both a typical school setting & in a nature preschool setting. I took great pride in the ability to create safe, warm, nurturing spaces for children to explore, grow, and learn who they are and the abundant abilities that exist within them. I spent time working as a Registered Behavioral Technician in an ABA clinic as well where I worked with children with autism. Regardless of the setting, my focus was understanding each child & adapting to get into their worlds to better learn their needs & mode of communication. My favorite memories were watching my students release all of the doubts they held that were projected onto them by other adults.

Outside of work, I also studied academic content that propelled my drive to create Afrodite.

  • I took 6 years of Spanish where I was privileged to learn about the rich culture of latinx countries/communities. I was able to apply both the language and my prior knowledge of the culture to properly communicate with families in work & travel settings to continue learning, foster spaces of safety, & exchange cultural concepts.
  • After struggling with mental health myself for years, I took courses in Psychology & Abnormal Psychology to be able to better comprehend lives, feelings, and experiences outside of my own to be able to better cultivate safe spaces for myself, my students, and anyone I encounter. I was so grateful when I was able to utilize my learnings to ensure my students were seen in ways we as adults don't always consider.
Life Before Afrodite

Although the motto I live by currently & preach through Afrodite is embracing softness, stillness, and all that we are at our core; this was not always my reality.

  • I relinquished my childhood innocence by acting as a caregiver to adults and younger relatives, witnessed domestic altercations consistently, and criticised my body before I even knew all of my body parts. By the age of 8, I was diagnosed with chronic migraines due to the irreversible & ongoing stress my brain and body were subjected to.
  • The years following, I spent my adolescent years continuing to pour my resources into others and neglected myself. I was the emotional support animal, the scapegoat, the reliable adult, & the caregiver all before my 16th birthday. The stress & weight of this load manifested itself in many ways.
  • By the age of 12, my depression and social anxiety worsened to the point of isolation. By age 13, I began self harming and denying myself food or purging it because I was so disgusted by the reflection I saw in the mirror. By the age of 14, I found myself in an abusive romantic relationship, caught in toxic relationships with adults at home, and experiencing the worst of my migraines. By 14 I had already seen several therapists & psychiatrists who ruled me off as simply being "anxious" when I cried for help. I rarely went to school or left early either due to debilitating migraines, desire to isolate out of fear everyone was better off without me, or from crying spells that would last anywhere from 1-6 hours.
  • By the age of 15, I took 40 pills in a desperate attempt to end my life.
  • Following came a lot of rehabilitation in many ways; many doctor visits, countless medications, more hospitals, relapse, and unwavering hopelessness.
  • I was not getting better, only using external factors to distract myself from my sorrows as that was all i knew. I didn't know how to care for or about myself.
  • By 17, I got into teaching where I felt most at peace and fulfilled. I started as an aide with toddlers & quickly advanced to lead classroom positions. Through teaching I was able to use all I knew, caring for others, in new ways.
  • Overtime, my desire to give up faded as my desire to be the best support for my students increased. I poured my heart and soul into each day, each child, each opportunity to give them the support and care they deserve.
  • Although this is what fueled me and gave me purpose, the effects of pouring into others and neglecting myself began to catch up. Unfortunately, I began to burn out as many teachers and caregivers do.
  • I recently left teaching in October of this year as my migraines began to reach a point they haven't reached since the peak of my depression. My body was under so much stress from me giving everything in me to my students, to teaching, to my relationships around me, and none for myself. My migraines returned to a peak they haven't reached since I was 15.
  • I often find myself with my back against the wall when I rely on western medicine and modes of healing. As a black woman, I have been gaslit and given less than adequate care when I come to doctors for help. I realized I will only be able to survive and function if I heal holistically; my catalyst being having a seizure during my most recent hospital trip due to doctors/nurses rushing my treatment, improperly administering medication, and ignoring my concerns.
  • For the last 2 years i've slowly began healing myself through rediscovering nature, being more mindful, changing my diet, working through my traumas, listening to my body, finding beauty within myself, and surrendering things that made me hurt instead of heal. I realized that although I loved teaching, it was hurting me because it left no time for me to put myself first in the ways I needed.
  • When I left teaching, I began finding more and more ways to heal naturally than I was before. It changed my life. My glow & spark has returned to me. I realized many if not most women of color have similar stories to mine and have not had the chance to heal properly either.
  • I began researching, creating, and starting Afrodite because every woman deserves to heal naturally and get her spark back. I want to see more women of color releasing the need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders and start tending to ourselves like the magical beautiful beings that we are.

Afrodite's Mission

Afrodite was created for the sole purpose of the deep desire to see women of color letting go of the need to be everything to everyone except for themselves.

Afrodite was created to teach our communities of the benefits of natural self care, to bring these products to our communities, and to do so in ways that are accessible and affordable.

As women of color, we are subjected to unthinkable levels of stress, projection, and scruntity.

Life forces us to move so quickly to keep up that we neglect ourselves mentally, spiritually, and physically.

For those who try to take the steps to care for themselves, they are met with products that make us sick or undo any progress we've made. If we are able to find products that work for us, they are not accessible or they are made by people who know nothing about our cultures or the care we need.

Each product that is created has been researched intentionally and created based on our needs.

I create these products based on talking to women of different backgrounds and hearing what problems we face in our self care and I try finding ways to tend to it.

Yes, I create products of care but Afrodite is more than that. Afrodite is about creating a community of women of color who uplift each other and themselves, who find new ways to expand on the love for themselves, and begin treating and tending to themselves like the Goddesses we are.

You are a Goddess and your body is a temple.