Ananda Lewis Made Room For Us To Be Seen & Built A Legacy We Stand On

We lost a giant this week with Ananda Lewis.

Lewis, known for her role as a host on Total Request Live, The Ananda Lewis Show and BET’s Teen Summit, had a voice that was as special as it was resonant. 

There were two definitive points in my life when I remember Lewis having a huge impact on how I navigate this world. The first was as a little Black girl, watching her break down pop culture moments, discuss serious societal issues and interview some of my favorite celebrities. It was mesmerizing. Seeing her report, inform and entertain opened doors for so many coming up behind her. Of course, we had icons like Oprah Winfrey and the late Gwen Ifill making strides on-screen at the same time, but Lewis felt more accessible and relatable for millennials. 

She commanded the camera naturally, infusing her own lived experiences into the questions she asked. Lewis connected with both her interviewees and her audience. In a male-dominated industry in the ‘90s and early 2000s, she challenged social norms and empowered women. 

It was clear to me why she was a fixture on my screen: She made journalism cool. And though I didn’t yet know I’d be walking in her footsteps—or even that what she was doing was journalism at that time—I looked up to her early on. Her legacy was part of the reason I chose to attend Howard University (HU), where she, too, was an alum. 

In 1999, Bob Kusbit, MTV senior vice president for production at the time, told The New York Times, "In the past our talent was sometimes just pretty people who could read cue cards. But when we brought Ananda to MTV, we decided we were going to do a lot more live television."

The second moment I vividly remember Lewis impacting me came in October 2020, when she shared her breast cancer diagnosis through an Instagram video. In the midst of a pandemic, when the value of public health became more urgent and evident than it ever felt like before, this woman I had grown up admiring revealed she had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

“I am sharing this with you because it’s the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for two years,” she said in her post. “For a really long time, I have refused mammograms and that was a mistake.”

From that point on, she made it her mission to educate and inform women about the importance of early detection through self-exams and mammograms. She shared Instagram posts and spoke openly with the press to raise awareness about regular screenings for early detection. “I need you to get your mammograms,” she emotionally declared. 

Lewis also shared the holistic lifestyle changes she implemented after her diagnosis. 

By the time her cancer advanced to stage 4, she was no longer able to get the double mastectomy she needed. Under COVID-19 guidelines, it was deemed a “non-emergency.” She told The Epoch Times that the disease had spread to her spine, hips and liver. 

Even then, she didn’t let her condition dim her light. She used her platform to spread life-saving information for other women without letting cancer define her. Lewis died Wednesday at age 52, her sister Lakshmi Emory confirmed in a Facebook post.  

Without a doubt, Lewis’ vulnerability and commitment to the truth made her such an impactful figure. If you look around at the current media landscape of Black women—names like Ivie Ani, Sylvia Obell, Taylor Crumpton, Danielle Young, Sidney Madden, myself and so many others— we all stand on her shoulders in some respect. The double whammy of losing Lewis and former MuchMusic VJ Juliette Powell in the same week is heavy.

In a 2024 interview with CNN, Lewis spoke candidly about how her diagnosis altered her life.

“The cancer diagnosis caused me to change things in my life I never would have changed otherwise, that I needed to change but would not change,” she said. “And those changes have allowed me access to more of my joy, more of the time.”

Lewis fought gracefully and with determination. We’re worse off without her physical presence, but better off because of how she chose to live her life. Her light and her legacy lives on.