The Wellness House experience on the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture saw Vanessa Craft, Head Of Content Partnerships at TikTok, lead an enlightening conversation with two creators whose social content encourages viewers to prioritize wellness, self-care and overall wellbeing. Joining her to dive into the subject were Host, Media Personality and Entrepreneur Morgan Lynzi and Licensed Counselor and Entrepreneur Shani Tran.

Opening the discussion while introducing the 2 panelists, Craft spoke briefly detail about her role at TikTok and her commitment to elevating Black content creators.

“In my role, my focus is on supporting the TikTok community, specifically, the Black community on the platform across fashion, beauty, lifestyle, entertainment and sports. I actually love helping Black creators construct their brand and develop their strategy. Black creators, as you already know, are the guts of the platform, and the Web…and just about every thing else, right? Let’s be real. I like how we drive culture in such imaginative ways.”

Crediting TikTok with providing a platform to grow as she pivoted the main target of her profession barely, Morgan shared how her work as an entertainment host quickly led her to the conclusion that probably the most impactful conversations she was an element of were people who happened off-camera and centered around things like mental health and private wellness journeys.

“I actually imagine —and I believe it’s obvious in every thing that I do, especially on TikTok—that having a very good time and feeling nourished and connected just isn’t mutually exclusive to moving culture forward, ” she said. “So, the pandemic happened, live events were a “no,” and TikTok became the platform where I used to be capable of bring every thing that I like together and present it to a totally latest audience and find an entire other community.”

For Shani, her journey to becoming a mental health counselor was two-fold. She spoke candidly about how her own disheartening experience connecting with a white therapist after having suicidal thoughts as a young college student is what led her to pursue a profession in the sphere and later create content around the subject of Black mental health on TikTok.

“Truthfully for me, my healing got here from doing the thing that I needed for myself,” she said. “And TikTok began in the course of the pandemic and the primary [song I came across] was “bored in the home and I’m in the home bored,” and I used to be like, ‘Okay, I could make somewhat fun clip to this,” ….and, it below up. From there, I went on to create content about mental health and it was really essential that I speak to my community.”

To listen to the conversation in full, try the video above. For more of every thing you missed on the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, visit our official video content hub HERE