Sophia Roe Spills The "Discomfort Tea" On Diversity & Trauma

Growing up with an addict mother and then being in the foster care system, she overcame her trauma through talking about it and having a supportive community. Now as a well-being advocate, Roe is vocal about making sure diverse voices and stories have a place to be heard. When it could be disheartening ("I have been the only woman of color on more panels than not"), she channels her unbridled optimism into change and potential growth.

It's a big, important question. Do I think that women of color have completely different subsets of knowledge? Absolutely. And I don't just mean like women of color as in black women—I mean Asian women, Muslim women. Everyone. How can we start to implement change? We can talk to them. I think what women of color bring to the table is a different narrative told from a different perspective. I think that's very sexy and special. In terms of my own delivery, you know I use my voice a lot. If there's one thing I understand, it's words.

I feel like wellness really is storytelling, positioning, and understanding... Forgiveness and grace, most importantly. And that means grace with yourself, and that also means grace with people that piss you off. You know I tell people all the time, "true wellness" is loving people that you hate. And I feel like some of the best stories in the world, to give examples of those traumas, triumphs, sufferings, are going to come from the women-of-color demographic. Truly, you know, I think people need to get a little bit more comfortable with pain and repurposing pain. I had a horrible upbringing, and I'm the happiest person you've ever met.

Everything I post was leading with humans first. Under the guise of forgiveness and grace and effective important impactful communication. I always want to be direct because direct is effective. So that can get you in hot water sometimes because some people love drinking comfort tea, but I like serving discomfort tea because discomfort is how you grow.

But I think wellness is really the circumference of everything that makes you human. And that can't just mean food or just exercise or just self-care. It's got to be everything.

An actionable thing that people can do to honor diversity in food is to really talk about how diversity inspired a diet choice more. Like "I am so inspired by Thai cooking lately, and these are some foods that I'm making." You can do the exact same thing with African food, Spanish food, you name it. Storytelling is a really big part of how I make food.

I got a tumor on my ovaries removed when I was 24. So I came out of a surgery and that was it for me. I was like, "All right, Soph, you got to get yourself healthy right now." I did this crazy-ass silent retreat that changed it all, and it taught me to journal and how to have a really great honest relationship with words. Rather than "you are what you eat," think "you are what you communicate to yourself." If you communicate "well" to yourself and you communicate "life" to yourself, you're gonna want to eat better. I was so set free by how I communicated with myself.

My book is all small stories. I feel like my delivery is so much a part of it. You know, a big book on trauma is very intimidating. But short vignettes and moments is a really great way to handle trauma in small doses. I've got to get over my traumas to get past my traumas. Understanding what it is, finding out what the triggers are, and managing those triggers. So that is really what the book is about, and I believe if you want to talk wellness, that's the one place to start, before anything else. Starting from the inside out. All the green smoothies and kale in the world ain’t gonna make you happy if you're walking around with all that shit inside.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.