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If you're looking for a perfect YA poolside summer read, be sure to add @elshenwrites' 'Queens of New York' to your list. This new release is a coming-of-age tale that focuses on family history, self-discovery, and all of the things that make us the people we are, with a stunning book cover you won't be able to stop gawking at! Jia Lee, Ariel Kim, and Everett Hoang are the closest of best friends. But this summer, they won’t all be together. Everett wants to bring herself one step closer to her Broadway dreams by starring in an Ohio theatre production, but soon learns that talent and drive aren’t the only things she’ll need to succeed. Ariel is going to San Francisco for a prestigious STEM scholarship, but her heart is in South Korea, where her sister died last year. And Jia is home in Flushing, working at her parents’ Chinatown restaurant, getting to know a cute new neighbor, and dreaming of a future that can’t be guaranteed. The girls are in for a life-changing summer, full of endless possibilities and the promise of who they will become. We were lucky enough to publish an excerpt from the book on the blog today, head to the link in our bio to check it out! 👑🗽 . . . #queensofnewyork #YAfiction #AAPI #summer #reading #bookstagram #ELshen #story #comingofage #family #friends #love #career

If you haven’t yet tuned into the original content @watchoftv is creating, it’s fine to get familiar. The platform is fast-becoming a competitor to other emergent sources of digital content, and we are here for it! One of OFTV‘s most popular recent original series is the ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition‘. The series welcomed 10 up-and-coming comedians to pursue their comedy careers and compete to win £100,000 (approximately $124,000 USD), the biggest ever cash prize for a UK comedy competition. Series winner @marywiththegoldshoes is a name you’d better keep on your “one to watch” list, as you’ll see after watching her on the show. Her performance style is a mix of observational annoyance combined with a left-field view of the world that makes for hilarious and sometimes absurd material. This year Mary O’Connell will be bringing her show ‘Money Princess’ to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August – a hallowed ground and rite of passage for many global comedians. After winning ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition’, we had the chance to speak with the British babe about being a woman of color in an industry that has traditionally been dominated by white men. Here's what she told us: "Comedy as an industry is really hard to get into, especially when you don’t necessarily feel entitled to that world. I think women and women of color especially have been conditioned not to feel entitled, or to ask for less. Comedy is so empowering because you’re literally demanding people’s attention. When I see women of color owning a stage it makes me feel empowered too." Read the full interview via the link in our bio! 💕👠 . . . #OFTV #onlyfans #comedy #British #Blackwoman #womenofcolor #representation #MaryOConnell #funny #competition #content #instagood #WCW

If you aren’t already a major @thelondonhughes stan, we need to let you know that she is our latest obsession and once you get to know her work, you’ll be adding her to your faves list on Instagram! London is the first Black British woman to be nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy ‘Best Show’ Award for her show, ‘To Catch a Dick’, which was released on Netflix as her debut comedy special, executive produced by Kevin Hart. To date, she is the only British woman to have an original Netflix comedy special. London has a new book coming out in September called ‘Living My Best Life, Hun’, where she takes you on her wild and hilarious journey of self-discovery. London clearly knows what it takes to carve out a successful career in comedy on a global level, and as a celebrity judge on @watchoftv’s original series ‘Creative Fund: Comedy Edition‘, where 10 up-and-coming comedians competed to pursue their comedy careers and to win £100,000, she provided guidance and colorful commentary on the comedians’ performances. We had the chance to chat with her about moving to Hollywood, how she channelled Simon Cowell as a judge on OFTV, and her thoughts on writing controversial material without being an asshole: "I don’t think about being mindful, I like to push the boundaries. But I also have morals, it’s comics who don’t have morals who tell tasteless jokes simply for the sake of it who need to worry about that kind of thing." Want to know who inspired London to write her forthcoming book? Head to the link in our bio to read our interview! 💚🇬🇧 . . . #LondonHughes #Comedian #British #Blackwomen #funny #Hollywood #OFTV #onlyfans #KevinHart #bestlife #stan #instagood

You already know her work as the founder and CEO of @blavity. But now listeners will get to hear a whole new side of media mogul @morgandebaun, through her new podcast The Journey. Each week Morgan releases two episodes, one where opens up about her personal and professional life and the other will feature an interview with leaders across entertainment, beauty, and business highlighting the unique journeys they’ve taken to achieve success. Morgan dives into a range of topics that touch on both her personal and professional life, including her journey from St. Louis to Silicon Valley, her decision to move to Nashville to fully pursue her “soft life” era, and dating advice as a woman in power. In one of her recent episodes with Latham Thomas where the two talk about Black maternal health, Morgan makes a personal announcement- she is pregnant! We had the chance to speak with Morgan about the new podcast series, and why it was important for her to be more personal: "In sharing my story on The Journey, I knew that there would be difficult moments to confront and share. But I firmly believe that through vulnerability and authenticity, we can connect on a deeper level and inspire others to embrace their own journeys with resilience and authenticity." Read our full interview and listen to the first couple of episodes via the link in our bio! 🎧 . . . #TheJourney #Blavity #MorganDeBaun #podcast #storytelling #media #mogul #success #inspire #advice #resilience #authenticity #instagood #listen

Rachel Burns truly is a Wonder Woman, figuratively and literally. The cancer-surviving mother of two has been an outspoken activist both on the streets, where for years she dressed in a Wonder Woman costume protesting the Trump administration, and in her music. After 25 years working in business and playing music on the side, @rachelburnsmusic found her calling as a songwriter: 2022 saw the release of her debut EP ‘LIVING MY BREAST LIFE’, a five-track collection that employed a mix of humor and hope to tell her breast cancer story in a unique way. For Rachel, songwriting is her way of celebrating life and spreading joy. Her new EP is titled ‘WHAT A NASTY WOMAN,’ out July 7, 2023, a record of resilience and protesting the patriarchy while celebrating the power of feminism. She has just released the single 'Pollyanna's Lament' off the EP, which is a track written in homage to her grandmother and the many struggles she faced throughout her life. In a beautiful guest post for us, Rachel shares the story of the powerful women in her family, how she is healing generational trauma through her artistry, and the message she hopes to impart to her own daughters: "As a breast cancer survivor, I know deeply, as women, how we hold inside things we wish we would just speak out loud. We hold onto hidden truths and even sometimes deny they are there as a way of negotiating our world. Sometimes we go along to get along as a way of fitting in or accepting things we are scared to change. "Even though my grandmother never spoke about the things that were sad in her life, as a two-time breast cancer survivor, and with all the grief she experienced I believe she held some deep sadness and truths internally. As a songwriter, I hope I voiced her regrets in a healing way as well as hope I created a song that my children can listen to at a time in the future that serves as a warning, a guide, or a healing." Read more about 'Pollyanna's Lament' via the link in our bio! 🎶 . . . #music #artist #singer #songwriter #feminist #lyrics #pollyannaslament #rachelburns #whatanastywoman #activism #change #family #love #trauma #healing

With nearly two million people behind bars at any given time, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. The Sentencing Project reports that between 1980 and 2021, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 525%. There are approximately 976,000 women under the supervision of the criminal justice system. A new photo book titled ‘Done Doing Time: Portraits of Life After Prison’, by photojournalist and documentarian @hinda_schuman, we are offered a candid look into the lives of two of these women - Concetta and Linda - who Hinda has known for over a decade. Hinda met Concetta and Linda while volunteering at New Directions for Women, an alternative to incarceration residential program for women in the Philadelphia prison system. The images were all taken from 2018-2022 after the women were released from prison. The photographs show them in their homes and neighborhoods, and with the people in their family. We had the chance to speak with Hinda about what she hopes viewers and readers will take away from her photobook and the stories within: "My hope is that the powerful personalities of Concetta and Linda will show others that women get stuck, trapped, neglected, abused, traumatized, and are left to cope on their own. They end up without a support system or they override what system they had. These are real people with compelling stories, and I hope that the subtleties of their experiences will inform viewers that they are not all bad or all good or all any one thing." See Hinda's work via the link in our bio. 📷📒 . . . #photography #documentarian #story #women #prison #incarceration #philadelphia #system #book #photobook #donedoingtime #massincarceration #justice #family

Gen Z Americans report high rates of mental-health challenges, impediments to effective work, and worries about the future, according to McKinsey’s recent American Opportunity Survey. @temimashames — the 24 year-old CEO/Founder of a leading talent management company — is creating a safe space for mental health in the workplace with her under age 30 team of employees. Temima is the CEO & Founder of @nextsteptalent — a leading influencer and music artist talent management company in Los Angeles. Temima was surrounded by severe mental health issues in her family, and as a professional child actress, she experienced the pain of the entertainment industry. As we are heading to the end of Mental Health Awareness Month for another year, it’s a reminder that prioritizing mental health and wellness is a year-round action we can all take, especially company founders and employers. Temima opened up to us about her personal story and why prioritizing her staff mental health is vital to the company's productivity: "Empathy is everything. Empathy is tied to my definition of work life balance. To me it is about allowing employees to share their home life at work in order to create a more productive work environment. If we can celebrate their personal wins and support through the losses, employees are less likely to feel burnt out." Read more about Next Step Talent and Temima Shames via the link in our bio! 🌟🧘🏾‍♀️ . . . #mentalhealth #TemimaShames #CEO #founder #influencer #NextStepTalent #burnout #health #entertainment #worklifebalance #empathy #mindfulness #productivity #artist #family #instagood #WCW

ICYMI, our founder @ashadahya interviewed Black Lives Matter movement co-founder @chasinggarza for @the.storyofwoman podcast! Speaking with the woman who has been an organizer since she was in high school, Alicia spoke with Asha about the difference between racism and systemic racism, and why we need to care about this right now. Listen to the full conversation at thestoryofwomanpodcast.com, and get to know one of the foremost #changemakers in modern history. ✊🏾 . . . #blacklivesmatter #movement #change #racism #aliciagarza #activism #organizer #podcast #storyofwoman #history