About Anna
Anna Smith (she/her) is the founder of Strega Grassa Yoga. A yoga practitioner since she was a child, Anna rediscovered her love of yoga during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in 2020 and deeply reconnected to the power of moving the body while deepening the breath. In 2021 Anna pursued her 200 hour yoga teacher certification with The Tree Yoga Cooperative; a BIPOC-owned yoga school & wellness hub in Los Angeles.
During training Anna grappled vigorously with the ethics of yet another white woman teaching a movement practice indigenous to India. Ultimately her teachers and cohort-mates encouraged her to become a role model for fat-identifying and large-bodied/plus size yoga practitioners and that was the impetus for Strega Grassa.
In addition to teaching yoga, Anna is also a witch from Italian, Irish, and English ancestry. Her gifts are in divination (specifically tarot, tea leaves, and pendulum) and astrology. Anna identifies as fat and feels that it is important to de-stigmatize the word as it is merely a descriptor; the concepts of fatness being “good” or “bad” have been imposed by society.
STREGA is the Italian word for “witch” and GRASSA for “fat.” So if you saw Anna walking around town you might say “Ho visto una strega grassa l'altro giorno” or “I saw a fat witch the other day.”
