Tonya Lewis Lee Talks New Movie, Self Care & Building Her Wellness Brand, “Movita” (Exclusive)

Source: Keith Williams / Keith Williams

Tonya Lewis Lee Talks To BOSSIP

When it comes to self-care, Tonya Lewis Lee believes that it’s essential to be the best mother, working woman and overall capable adult.

Lee is vegan, works out four days a week, meditates and strives to keep good people and energy around her. It was that drive for balance, coupled with her work with the U.S. government around infant mortality among women of color, that spurred her to help other women get healthier.

“I love the (civil rights activist, feminist writer) Audrey Lorde’s quote, ‘self-care is not self-indulgent, it’ self-preservation and political warfare,’” Lee told BOSSIP. “I think about…how to be my best self so I can do what the world requires of me. For me, self-care is critical for me to do what I need to be doing.”

Enter Movita, Lee’s new wellness platform that aims to bridge the health gap among women of color. Movita’s line of vitamins (prenatal, multivitamin and a hair, skin and nails formula) are certified organic, and Lee said they are “the first of the tools that I’ve created to try to help women live their best lives.”

The activist, attorney, entrepreneur and wife of Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee said she decided to found Movita after spending 10 years working on infant mortality education with the US Department of Health and Human Services. America’s mortality rate among black babies is more than double that of their white counterparts, according to HHS’s Office of Minority Health.

“When you talk about the health of an infant, you talk about the health of a woman,” Lee explained.

Lee is also gearing up for season two of her Netflix series, “She’s Gotta Have It,” about the exploits of the self-assured Nola Darling. She gave us a sneak peek of what viewers to expect: “That’s been really fun to jump off of. The first season was more based on the movie, and now we’re jumping off into more of her life.”

And besides Movita, Lee’s other passion project is her new movie, “Monster,” a film about a kid caught up in a robbery gone wrong, starring Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson, Nas, ASAP Rocky.

“We all care about our black boys and our lead,” Lee said. “We wanted to tell this story and everybody came with an open heart to do good work.”