Jeannell Anthony and Amber Finney are providing intergenerational healing, specifically mother-daughter healing, through their platform Black Girl Alchemy, where they hope to motivate, activate, revolutionize, inspire, uplift, and heal.

When Finney was in high school, she joined her mother in Harlem for a spiritual reading — one of the many mother-daughter rituals they had together. They were told that their professional paths would cross. Many years later, the prophecy came true.

In 2018, they launched Brown Girl Alchemy, an online platform delivering soul medicine to the Black community, with Black women as a major focus of their work.

Through their platform, they encourage others to acknowledge, understand and accept past and present trauma in order to heal, and by doing so, break the narrative that Black women should always be “strong” and don’t need to prioritize their mental wellness.

“Due to colonialism and slavery, a lot of us are lost, so we’re here to show what spirituality looks like,” Finney explained in a video. “We’re not asking anyone to adapt to our beliefs, but if we’re able to show you what our ancestors worked with, that at least gives you the tools to see if this is something that resonates with you.”

The preparation for this journey began when Anthony was a child. Having a traumatic relationship with her own mother, she knew she wanted to have a stronger bond with her daughter. 

“A lot of the healing that I did [in the relationship with my mother] came through our relationship,” Anthony said to her daughter in their first podcast episode of Brown Girl Alchemizing.

Anthony had Finney at the age 21. When Anthony returned to college, she was a single mother and had already established herself with a full-time job in finance. She changed her original major of accounting to humanities, where she took courses involving religion, mythology and mysticism.

These studies deepened her love for spirituality and provided, what Anthony claims to be, a period of enlightenment. Everything she learned, she would share with her then 8-year-old daughter Amber.

“Anything that I learned, I would immediately share with you,” Anthony said, addressing Finney in the conversation. “I wanted to share these lessons with you and these experiences, in hopes that you would find the peace that I’m still seeking much earlier.”

As Finney witnessed her mother become more engaged in mysticism and spirituality, she too became interested in the power her mother walked in.

When Finney, who at the time was pursuing a bachelor’s in fashion merchandising, was developing her own website, she knew she wanted the blog to include fashion and spirituality. Seeing this as an opportunity to include her mother, she asked Anthony what she should name the website and the rest is history.

Today at Black Girl Alchemy, the two are giving readings and providing personalized altars designed to amplify one’s intentions. As mother and daughter, their relationship is transparent, open, honest and loving. They carry this onto the relationships they create with others, sharing gifts, purpose, love and healing with everyone.

The power of starting young

When Amber was young, Jeannell would remind her daughter everyday how magical she was. 

Everyday, she would hear the same thing over and over again: “You are brilliant. You are beautiful. There is nothing that you can’t achieve.”

These words manifested in the young mind of Amber, who still recalls those memories to this day.

“That’s just a testimony to affirm that our thoughts really do align with our lives we create,” she said. “We literally create our lives. We’re an artist, and the world is our canvas.”