Hannah Bronfman

"Growing up in NYC from a prominent Jewish family, with a very strong black mother who grew up during segregation in the south side of Chicago from a middle-class family"

"from a young age, I was very aware of both of these sides of myself. It can be challenging being mixed, especially in the 90s and 2000s — obviously now as well — but as a young girl, trying to figure out your identity and it being a little more complicated than most"

"I won’t say it was hard, and I won’t say it was easy"

"I was always very proud of my Jewish heritage. I knew from a young age that I wanted to have a bat mitzvah, I also knew from a young age, that this was very different from how my mother grew up. She really wanted me to own both sides. My mom was a very confident woman herself, and so she definitely instilled a lot of that in me"

"Maybe it started out as trying to be a goody two-shoes but I always remember being the one kid at the table who just ate all of the gefilte fish, and everyone was always talking about how I would [always] eat all the gefilte fish"

"I grew up in a household that was very into the world of wellness; my mom loves reiki, very plant-based and conscientious about nutrition"

"However, it was really when my grandmother passed away from anorexia that I made health and wellness a priority in my life"