About Kenitra

I never planned to write a book about healthcare. In 2021, I was diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a chronic condition that raises the pressure around your brain and has no known cause. Most people have never heard of it, which made an already scary situation feel even more lonely. I felt lost and confused, and no one seemed to be listening.

Early on, something hit me that changed how I handled everything. No one was coming to rescue me. If I wanted to get better, I had to be my own hero.

The more I talked about it, the more women told me they knew exactly what I meant. They'd sat through the same kind of appointments and walked out feeling ignored. I wasn't alone. A lot of us, especially Black women and other women of color, don't get treated with the care and respect we deserve. That's not an accident, and it's not something we should have to live with.

So I figured it out as I went. How to get ready for an appointment. How to ask better questions. How to build a care team that's as invested in me as I am. How to ask for what I need at work. Because I Deserve It is everything I learned, written for the person who feels as lost as I did.

That's the work I do now. Through my writing and speaking, I help people walk into the room ready to be heard. I also work with the people on the other side of it, HR teams and managers, on how to support someone managing a health condition at work and get it right. Because no one should have to fight this hard for the care they deserve.