When You're The Only One Who Looks Like You In The Room

Breaking the Timeline by Shana Francis · Mar 17, 2026 · 18m

Have you ever walked into a room and just known you were different? That the space wasn't built for you, and that you'd have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously?

I came into teaching through PE, and the sports and education world in this country is predominantly male and predominantly white British. I walked in as a young Black woman, and from day one there was a quiet pressure: work harder, prove more, take up less space. Nobody tells you how exhausting that is. The code-switching, monitoring how you come across, wondering whether being passed over in a meeting was about your…