Black Girls Are Pop Culture with Dr. Aria Halliday

What happens when Black girls become the archivists of their own stories?In this rich and joyful conversation, Ashley sits down with scholar, author, cultural critic, and longtime mentor Dr. Aria Halliday to explore the worlds Black girls create, inhabit, and transform through culture, community, and imagination.Together, they roll back the archives of Black girlhood—from dancing with sisters and watching Sister, Sister to finding themselves reflected in characters like Moesha, Lisa Turtle, and Cinderella. Through personal memories and critical analysis, Dr. Halliday reflects on the experiences that shaped her groundbreaking work in Black Girlhood Studies and her commitment to documenting the everyday lives, joys, complexities, and cultural contributions of Black girls.The conversation explores the creation of the landmark Black Girlhood Studies Collection, the challenges of carving out space for Black girlhood scholarship within academia, and the importance of treating Black girls’ lived experiences as worthy of study, theory, and celebration. Ashley and Aria also discuss pop culture, dance, embodiment, representation, mentorship, and Dr. Halliday’s powerful new book, Black Girls and How We Fail Them.At its heart, this episode is an invitation to remember that Black girlhood is not only defined by struggle—it is also a site of creativity, innovation, pleasure, friendship, movement, beauty, and possibility.Resources mentioned in the conversation: The Black Girlhood Studies Collection by Aria HallidayTwerk Sumn!: Theorizing Black Girl Epistemology in the Body by Aria Halliday Black Girls and How We Fail Them by Aria Halliday Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture