ATLANTA — For Kiana Dancie, empowering women comes naturally. Dancie wears many hats. She’s an Atlanta-based comedian, TV host, author, activist, and motivational speaker among many other roles.
Dancie told 11Alive her journey to empowering other women started with a personal journey during a medical procedure to remove the bags under her eyes.
“It started with me getting the bags under my eyes removed," Dancie said. "Although it was an external cosmetic surgery, it led me to take an internal look at the baggage I was carrying."
Following the release of her book “Bye Bye Bags," Dancie said the idea for Baggage Claim ATL was born. The event is a women’s empowerment celebration tea, focused on ways to release emotional baggage and stress.
“Baggage Claim ATL is a safe destination for women to claim, release and heal from the emotional baggage we carry," Dancie said. "We laugh, cry and celebrate about being happy, whole, and healed."
According to the Women at Work study by Deloitte in 2022, 53% of women surveyed said their stress levels were higher than a year ago. That number improved slightly in 2023 with 51% of women saying they had higher stress levels than the previous year.
To combat the stress, Dancie suggests that women should take more time to treat themselves, forgive themselves, laugh more, and learn to say no.
“If it’s eating your peace and your joy, it can’t have you,” Dancie said.
You can watch our full conversation here: