Finding More Freedom With Less: Christine Platt Takes Her Message of Liberation to the World


Readers all over the world have embraced The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less. “I love that it’s a movement,” says author Christine Platt. “I love to see people from all different cultures embracing it.” (Photo by Dayo Kosoko)

When Christine Platt decided to become a minimalist, she discovered a world of complicated, conflicting rules and sleek, expensive furniture, all neatly wrapped with the lure of simplicity. But when she attempted to incorporate the plain, neutral designs of minimalism into her home, she encountered a roadblock: She hated it. Instead, she chose a different path, incorporating color, texture, and cultural influences into her decor while maintaining her goal of living with less. 

Her ideas took off on social media, and she became known as the Afrominimalist, attracting thousands of followers and becoming part of a larger movement of Afrocentric design aesthetics. She stepped further into the public eye in 2021 with her book The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less. Her assertion that sustainable, conscious living doesn’t have to mean bare white walls resonated with fans around the world.

Simon & Schuster

For Platt, Afrominimalism is less about particular design influences and more about style that is authentic for each person. “For me, of course, that means incorporating aspects of my African heritage and identity, but it’s for anyone,” Platt says, adding that her book has found fans across a wide span of races, nationalities, and demographics. “It’s not about the aesthetic. It’s really about being a more intentional and mindful consumer,” she says.

Although Platt has become well-known as a lifestyle influencer, her résumé reveals an extraordinary professional career, including a law degree, time as a policy advisor for the Department of Energy, a stint heading up the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, and the publication of multiple books for children and adults. 

Platt uses her background in research and policy work to help her audience dive into the deeper implications behind the stuff in their lives; her method involves not only a how-to guide for decluttering but also a thoughtful look at the beliefs, habits, and cultural factors that contribute to modern overconsumption.


Platt’s next book, Less Is Liberation, was informed by her experience with burnout. “It became this whole journey of me exploring what it looks like to find freedom from overwhelm,” Platt says. “Essentially ‘overwhelm’ had become my baseline. I didn’t even know. We just say it. It’s like saying the word ‘stressed.’ It’s lost its meaning.” (Photo by Norman E. Jones)

Beliefs and habits

“What I start people with, instead of ‘Go get your donation bag,’ is ‘Let’s talk about the psychology of ownership. Let’s talk about why we are the way we are, why we’re motivated to buy certain things, why we have attachments,’” Platt says. She encourages readers to look at the unique motivations behind their consumption habits, like whether shopping behaviors are related to childhood traditions or societal expectations. “So many people want to live more intentionally and sustainably, but the aesthetic is not it,” she says. “We gotta tackle the psychology first. Then you can deal with the aesthetics.” 

Platt takes a warm and supportive approach as she walks her readers and followers through hard questions. She even jumps into the trenches herself, using stories about her own overconsumption and her journey to freedom as prompts to help others examine the roots of their habits and beliefs. 

“It all starts with us, and so I really wanted to share that in the book,” Platt says. “I think the best way to do that is to share some of our own experiences. It’s why I share my good, bad, and ugly stories.” Her candor reminds her audience they aren’t alone in their struggles.

And yes, this includes the curly girl product struggle, something Platt knows well. 

”When I first started my minimalist journey, that was the first indicator that I had a problem with my consumption, all these products that I had, so many products that they would expire before I could use them,” Platt shares. 

Now she cuts her own hair in a minimalist buzz cut, although she occasionally spices things up by having her hair dyed gray or blond at her favorite salon, Taylor & York. She uses travel-size products if she wants to try something new. She’s found that a low-maintenance hair routine saves her time and mental energy in a way that aligns well with her lifestyle.

Photo by Dayo Kosoko

Intentional living

Platt sees minimalism as a gateway to living intentionally in other areas; once someone simplifies their hair care, their closet, or their pantry, they may move toward minimalist living in other parts of their lives. 

A key moment in Platt’s own quest came after several hectic years of promoting The Afrominimalist’s Guide. The book was released during the pandemic, when virtual events and interviews became easy to schedule without worrying about travel. For Platt, it was a time of opportunity — and an over-full schedule.

“Because everyone was at home and online, I basically was talking about Afrominimalist for 2.5 years, back to back to back. And it became so overwhelming,” she says, reflecting on the numerous podcasts, book talks, and discussions that featured her during that period. While she savored each opportunity to share about her book, she eventually discovered the constant activity was too much.

As Platt prepared to start a follow-up book, she realized she desperately needed rest. She took a month to slow down mentally and physically. “It was the most leisurely, lovely experience listening to my body,” she says. But the result was not what she expected. “The month was up, and I was like, ‘All right, let’s go!’ And my body was like, ‘Oh no, girl. You let us stop, and we’re never doing that again.’”

Ultimately, she ended up seeing an integrative health doctor to figure out what was happening. Platt knew something was wrong; she couldn’t write, she had no energy, and her appetite had changed. “I was blaming everything on perimenopause,” she says. Her doctor introduced her to five foundations of wellness — physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual — and described how a deficit in any one of these areas can make someone unwell. For Platt, it was a revelation: “Not only am I unwell, 99% of not just my community but everyone I know, the world, is unwell,” she says. 

But the doctor also offered hope, and that hope shaped the focus of Platt’s book: “She said the beautiful thing is our bodies are always trying to be well. Always, always, always,” Platt shares. “She said we just have to learn to listen. And that became the framework for Less Is Liberation. Let’s explore what it looks like to stop doing the most, stop having the most, and do less, so that we can focus on being well.”

Photo by Norman E. Jones

Less is Liberation

Less Is Liberation book cover
Hachette Book Group

Now, Platt sees overconsumption and overwhelm going hand in hand as troubling symptoms for one’s state of health. Her book Less Is Liberation, which hits shelves in October, expands the idea of living with less into arenas beyond shopping and consumerism, focusing on the psychology of why someone may become a people-pleaser or an overperformer, and then helping readers discover which areas of their lives need healing. 

A key part of the book focuses on a philosophy Platt calls “fill the wells.” She encourages her readers to see the five foundations of wellness as figurative wells that need to be filled to maintain personal health.

“When we feel overwhelmed, one of those wells is either near depletion or it’s already been depleted,” says Platt. Less Is Liberation offers practical strategies for keeping the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual wells filled, as well as examples of behaviors and beliefs that drain the wells. 

“You know, sometimes one meetup with the right person fills all the wells. Maybe you go for a walk and then you talk about how you’re feeling emotionally, and then you share what’s going on at work. All of a sudden your physical, emotional, your mental well, and also your social well, just in that one little short walk, have been filled,” she explains. “But also we have had those moments with the wrong person, and you’re like, ‘Man, I was only there for 30 minutes, but I literally feel like I’m dying. I want to go home.’”

Platt hopes her new book will become a framework to help readers express when they need to decline something because they are overwhelmed. She also hopes it will offer support and acceptance at a time when many people are still grieving the pandemic or are troubled over current events; once again, she invites her audience to search for the deeper cultural, familial, and societal experiences behind their current habits and beliefs. “Dig down in those wells,” she says. “At the very, very bottom are our histories.”

“Of course, I can speak from the perspective of a Black woman, and so I do share that in the book as well,” she adds. “I have little love notes to Black women, because I’m just like, ‘Girl, I know why you’re here. This is what we experienced growing up. This is what we were told growing up.’”

Ultimately, this commitment to personal awareness and inner work has become the overriding theme in Platt’s professional life as she’s seen firsthand how individual behavior impacts global issues. “I’ve had a storied, lovely career,” she says. “How fun to have explored all these different aspects of society and work and the many intersections of social justice, environmental justice. It’s been a beautiful journey. But I think what all of those roles taught me was human behavior was always at the center of it.”

With years of experience working in tough spaces for the public good, Platt asserts that change will come as each person commits to their own transformation. “I think as a society we love to talk about dismantling systems of power and patriarchy,” she reflects. “We first have systems that we need to dismantle within ourselves so that we can go forth and actually do that work. And so it has to be personal liberation for collective liberation.”

Less Is Liberation book cover
Hachette Book Group

Fill the Wells

Christine Platt encourages us to examine our five foundations of wellness: physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual (that last one focuses on purpose more than religion, she explains). These areas are our personal wells which need to stay filled for us to maintain a healthy life. When we feel overwhelmed, one of those wells is either near depletion or already depleted. How can we refill it? The first step is to pause and assess which well needs to be filled. 

“When we pause and listen to ourselves, our bodies make it very clear what they need,” says Platt. “We often tend to fight it. There are things that we don’t fight. We’re thirsty, we’re like, let me drink some water. That’s a biological trigger, right?” But for many of us, it’s a struggle to listen when our bodies ask for rest; we are tempted to push through it or do just one more thing.

As we learn to listen to our bodies, we’ll learn how to fill our wells. For example, exercise may fill our physical well, meeting a friend for coffee may fill our social well, and time spent journaling may fill our spiritual well.

Learn more about filling your wells in Christine’s new book, Less Is Liberation. Published by Grand Central Balance, it is now available for preorder at iamchristineplatt.com.

How are you filling your wells today? Share your ideas on social media and hashtag your post with #fillthewells and #curlmagazine!

Ritual and Routine

Every Sunday morning, Platt cuts her hair and says goodbye to the worries of the previous week. “It feels like this shedding for me,” she says of her weekly ritual. “Whatever I went through last week, it’s in the past. I cut it off.”

She loves using natural oils on her hair and savors the knowledge that the products she uses on her head are nourishing for the rest of her skin. Rosehip and coconut oils are among her favorites.

One thing she’s learned about herself during her journey into minimalism? She loves to try new products. “I just love skin care and hair care products. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have any hair. I still love them!” she admits. “And so I have a lot of fun using different trial-size, travel-size products. I’ve probably used every product that is out there. That’s my fun way of still indulging but not committing to a full size of anything, knowing I have such little hair it’ll expire before I’m done with it.”

Follow Christine!

Christine Platt became well-known as the Afrominimalist on Instagram, but she’s now @iamchristineplatt on the platform. (“There was a minute there where I had to sort of reclaim my identity because I’d only become known only as the Afrominimalist,” she says.) Her new handle encompasses all her work, including her fiction and nonfiction books for adults and children, her speaking engagements, and her upcoming projects.

Christine guides others in living with less through afrominimalist.org, where she offers wellness workshops and corporate trainings.

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Subscriptions must be active at 11:59 ET on the 15th of the month prior to a release. To receive February’s issue, your subscription must be active on Jan. 15. To receive May’s issue, your subscription must be active on April 15. To receive August’s issue, your subscription must be active on July 15. To receive November’s issue, your subscription must be active on Oct. 15.
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