10 reasons why 2016 was the ultimate #blackgirlmagic year

Black girls have been slaying since the beginning of time, but in 2016 #BlackGirlMagic hit a new level. Our unapologetic achievements as entrepreneurs, activists, writers, and, more, were positive shining lights of space-taking resistance and inspiration.

1. Detroit-based high school student activist Taylor Amari Little. This year, Little founded The Temple Project, a homelessness awareness project and resource provider and the Queer Ummah: A Visibility Project, which creates visability to queer Muslim youths.

2. Amandla Stenberg becoming a powerful voice for equality and the empowerment of femmes and underrepresented identities.

3. Ariell R. Johnson opens Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse and becomes the first black woman to own a comicbook store on the East Coast.

4. Black queer sex educator, activist, writer, performer & cancer warrior Ericka Hart attends AFROPUNK Brooklyn topless, showing off double mastectomy scars, to provide the visibility for survivors.

Photo: Hart at AFROPUNK 2016, photo by Richard Stuart Perkins

5. Kye Nelson celebrates blackness in All Dem’ Shades with empowering womenswear line

6. Black Women of the 2016 Election

7. Issa Rae’s epic success with hit show ‘Insecure’

8. Gotlhe Kgosi by Botswana-based artist @vandeaarde

9. Entrepreneur, animator, eco-designer, and girls’ rights activist Maya Penn writes inspiration handbook, You Got It to help young girls become aware of and harness their creative potential.

10. All the Black women who stood up in the face of violence and kicked white supremacy’s ass
Pictured: Ieshia Evans – Seen in Baton Rouge. Captured by Jonathan Bachman/Reuters