An energetic, confident young woman with a master’s degree from the University of Alabama, Khadijah Torbert works as a producer at WVUA 23 in Tuscaloosa. She’s known for her cheery video introductions to online worship services at her church, Rock City Tuscaloosa. She loves to travel and calls herself a chocolate fanatic who gets a headache if she goes a day without it.
But when she was a child growing up in Opelika, she was bullied “a lot,” she says. And even though she was, and still is, extremely close to her family, she just couldn’t share with them what was happening in school. Instead, she poured her heart out in her diary. Being able to express herself was the key to survival.
Later, at Troy University, with encouragement from her best friend, she picked up the habit again. Just as writing had helped her when she was younger, she credits journaling, and prayer, for getting her through a painful breakup.
Khadijah, who describes herself as “very religious,” also used her journals as a place to record her dreams, in which God speaks to her. In 2016, she recalls having a dream in which the word “worthy” appeared. As soon as she woke up, she wrote it down even though, at the time, she thought it was “weird.”
Buying new journals was a ritual in itself. “I would go to TJ Maxx at the beginning of the year and buy three journals and fill them up,” she says.
Eventually, she realized God was trying to tell her to start her own line of journals. But what to call it? Looking back through all the journals she keeps in her nightstand, she came across the “worthy” entry and decided to include it in the name, Made Worthy Journal Notebooks. “I needed to be reminded that I’m still worthy,” she says – and that’s exactly what she wants to do for others.
The Made Worthy line includes nine different journal styles available at Amazon.com. (Photo courtesy Khadijah Torbert)
After spending several months choosing nine different designs, selecting just the right paper quality and fine-tuning other aspects of her journal notebooks, Khadijah officially launched Made Worthy in June, her birthday month. The response, she says, has been “overwhelming.” She had hoped to sell 50 journals in the first three months, but she sold 80 in the first week.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, she worried that this might not be the best time for prospective customers to spend money on something like a journal. But her mother reminded her that “this is a good time to document, to let it out,” and the journals would provide “a comfortable, safe outlet” for recording their memories of this unprecedented time in history. That thought kept her going, and she decided “the time is now.”
Khadijah is in the habit of writing faithfully twice a day. “Before my feet hit the ground and before I go to bed, I journal,” she says. She believes in the power of manifesting, or envisioning what you want in life to make it happen. So in the morning, she thinks about how she wants the day to go, and at night she writes about how the day actually went – while always “having gratitude, regardless.”
Recently, she finished her last store-bought journal and started writing in a pretty one she designed called “Purple Royal Rose Dreams.” Inside, it has 150 pages lined on the front and back, with a space at the top for the date. One of the nine journals she offers in her Made Worthy line, “Sermon,” includes space for people to take notes in church.
It’s the one Khadijah chose to buy for her grandmother. “She’s so excited and happy for me,” she says. “And I knew she wasn’t going to go online and order one.”
Khadijah Torbert writes in her journal every morning and every night. (Photo courtesy Khadijah Torbert)
In a few months, she hopes to add new designs to her line, including one with daily affirmations.
Meanwhile, she’s working on her bucket list. Recently, she crossed off hiking and canoeing; soon, she hopes to tackle a few things on her list that she’s been afraid to do alone.
At 26, Khadijah has come a long way from being a bullied girl, but she hasn’t forgotten what it was like. She volunteers as a big sister for a mentoring organization in Tuscaloosa called Mind Changer Inc., where she eats lunch with middle-school students to “pour life into them,” she says. “I want to be the person I wish I’d had when I was younger.”
Last year, Khadijah told one of the young students that she was beautiful. “She said she had never heard that,” she says. “I cried.”
Likewise, she wants her Made Worthy journals – with titles like “You’re Worthy,” “You Are Beautiful” and “It Is Well” – to be uplifting and inspiring to those who purchase them. “You already are worthy,” she says. “You were made worthy.”
To order a Made Worthy journal, click here.