Angelina Spicer, a stand-up comic, producer, writer, and self-described “accidental activist,” was honored March 22, 2025 with the Yale Department of Psychiatry Mental Health Advocacy Award.
The award was presented at the annual Yale-NAMI Conference on Neuroscience, Mental Health, and Society in New Haven. This year’s conference theme was postpartum depression.
Spicer is the founder of Spicey Moms, a global grassroots organization that provides immediate, comprehensive support to vulnerable mothers, particularly during the critical first 48 hours postpartum, when help is most needed.
Spicer did not set out to form a non-profit organization but instead was on a fast track to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live. “That was my goal. That’s what I wanted to do,” said Spicer, who lives in Los Angeles with her husband and 9-year-old daughter, Ava. “I embraced it because I am who I am. I’m loud and sometimes inappropriate.”
Her professional plans changed when the cum laude graduate of Howard University became pregnant with her daughter. She had a typical pregnancy until about 30 weeks, when she was diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction, in which the fetus fails to grow at a normal rate during pregnancy.
She was hospitalized and delivered Ava at 38 weeks and five days. “They laid her on me and I felt an overwhelming sense of fear,” Spicer said. Things got even worse when she got home, between the sleep deprivation and physical changes to her body after giving birth.
“No one tells you the truth about being a new mom,” she said. “No one gives you a blueprint or shares with you about what new motherhood looks like.”
She sought help from a therapist but her postpartum depression was severe. She checked into a psychiatric hospital eight months after Ava was delivered.
“It was an overwhelming sense of relief,” she said. Then, going back to her comic roots, she said, “I spent 10 glorious days at what I called the Waldorf Hysteria.”