15 Black Women Who Are Shaking Things Up In The UK Right Now

Black women have been successful innovators in many white and male dominated industries, and as the world evolves, Black women continue to create and contribute to sectors such as social change, education, volunteer, health, wellness and many others. This piece is to acknowledge and celebrate Black British women who are presently building empires and longstanding legacies.

By day Tumisha is a music marketing manager and by night she is the co-founder of youth culture agency The Advantage Gap, informally known as TAG. Originally, Tumisha co-founded TAG as a response to the limited opportunities offered to people entering work. Presently, TAG introduces global brands such as Google, Facebook, Shell UK, Nandos and others with new talent from underrepresented communities, and aims to transform young lives through community and storytelling. As an expert marketeer, Tumisha has led on rolling out important projects with Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Redbull and Atlantic Records, and through TAG wants to create a world that centres, amplifies and commissions diverse young voices.

Meet the woman behind Donate 1 Create 1, a Birmingham based organisation that aims to close the career gap for minority young professionals and creatives. Donate 1 Create 1 offers support and resources that young people need alongside professional career pathways so that they can reach their full potential. Having struggled with the scarcity of opportunities at the start of her career in Theatre, Film & TV, Samantha has broken barriers, earning herself a professional career in tv and on stage with credits on BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Through Donate 1 Create 1 Samantha aspires to inspire the next generation and since launching has worked with Birmingham Children's Trust to lead and deliver 4,500 places across holiday camps for young people and their parents/carers.

Tonia Wilson is passionate about social action and works to educate young people on social justice and systematic change. As a qualified social worker with over 30 years’ experience, Tonia has worked with families and young people, specialising in and focusing on gender inequality, diversity, GBV and inclusion. Inspired by the lack of provision for women within services such as health, education and the workplace, Tonia founded WHISPER (Women Who Inspire Support and Provide Empowerment Resources), which offers training, consultation and tailored programmes to organisations. After a successful career in social work, Tonia presently works as a project manager for the national charity Volunteering Matters where she leads on youth social action such as the WASSUP (Women Against Sexual Exploitation and Violence Speak Up) and similar campaigns.

Kike and Lamide are best friends turned co-founders of LIVE Mentoring. LIVE, an abbreviation for Learn, Inspire, Visualise, Elevate is a soft skilled specialist social enterprise helping young people create the lives they want to live. Kike and Lamide focus on helping young people strengthen their creativity, confidence, communication, leadership and networking, and aims to reduce youth unemployment and increase social mobility by teaching students in Years 8-13 the essential skills they need in the workplace and for life. As Lamide works as a Senior Project Officer and Kike as a Legal Assistant, the duo dedicate their spare time to help underrepresented students decide what is next in both their academic and professional careers.

Casual Readers Book Club is an inclusive book society founded by India Chambers. With earnest and honest connections in mind, India curates open spaces for avid and occasional readers to gather and discuss literary titles, particularly celebrating and exploring the work of authors from black and historically underrepresented backgrounds. India founded Casual Readers Book Club because she wanted to share her love for great books with readers who are often ignored. By thinking of reading as a communal practice, Casual Readers Book Club is a dedicated space to celebrate the power of reading and community. This year Casual Readers Book Club was chosen as one of the six book clubs responsible for rating and reviewing the prestigious Booker Prize 2022 shortlist.

Tendai and Ugo are the co-founders of Ruka Hair, a company dedicated to understanding and serving curly, coily and wavy hair and their unique properties both collectively and individually. Having felt left out of the decisions made about their own hair, South London born Ugo, and Zimbabwean born Tendai, founded Ruka Hair with the intention to put Black women at the centre and innovates around their needs. From hair products to ponytails and clip-ins, Ruka Hair carefully considers the many textures of Black women and their hair and aims to assist Black women in unlearning the damaging narratives they’ve been taught about their hair. 

Fisayo is a fashion and lifestyle blogger who founded the clothing brand Kai Collective. Born in London and raised between London and Nigeria, Fisayo’s beginning is like that of many Black Brits. However, with a burning passion for fashion, Fisayo traded a life of working in finance to pursue her dreams of owning a fashion brand. Kai Collective is inspired by Fisayo’s love for fabric shopping as well as travelling the world and blends attainable clothing with luxury aesthetics. Having worked long and hard to learn the ways of the fashion industry and growing her personal blog to 150K followers, Fisayo has simultaneously developed Kai Collective into a daring brand with over 114K IG followers, her clothing being worn by some of the most loved fashion influencers and stylists. 

Ama lost her job during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic however, this did not stop her mission to be a successful Black business owner. Ama is the founder of wellness brand Plant Made, a company that creates plant-powered wellness products using centuries-old secrets to heal and amplify the mind, body & soul. After losing her job, Ama set out to handmake plant-based hair and beard growth products in her family home with the help of her mother. Since the launch of Plant Made in 2020, Ama’s £50 investment has returned six figure profits, and presently in 2020 Plant Made goes from strength to strength, selling 1000s of units to a dedicated customer base who report lifechanging hair growth and skin replenishment results. 

Kemi Ola Joseph founded personal care brand KEM in 2017 in the hopes of offering premium yet affordable products to people in Black, Brown, Asian and ethnic minority communities. Her passion for makeup, skincare and beauty originating from her side hustle as a makeup artist, KEM was created to solve the many problems that underrepresented customers face when shopping for products. From problem-solving the issues of application, wear and use, Kemi has worked tirelessly to grow KEM from a one-man-band to a dynamic team of six employees. With the aspiration to further scale KEM, Kemi is working to expand the KEM product range from makeup (lip glosses, blushers, setting powders, lashes and more) and skincare (facemasks, cleansers, moisturisers and so forth) to include fragrances, custom skincare formulations as well as build better systems to help with skincare. KEM is a brand created with underrepresented people in mind and aims to better the experience of sourcing personal care products. 

The literary sphere for black women and the books that allows us escapism is changing, and British-Nigerian romcomoisseur Bolu Babalola is at the centre of contemporary romance featuring Black characters. After winning the 4th Estate B4ME Short Story prize in 2016 for her piece Netflix & Chill, Bolu went on to publish her first collection of short stories, Love in Colour, inspired by African folklore and mythology. This collection provided representation for a wealth of Black readers searching for themselves in nontraumatic narratives. Following the success of her short story collection, Bolu published her debut novel and the TikTok sensation, Honey & Spice, which is presently offering romantic escapism for Black, Brown, Asian and minority ethnic readers worldwide. However, Bolu’s efforts to diversify the literary sphere does not end there as she currently writes her third book. 

British-Nigerian Tessy Ojo is an inspirational community leader and chief executive of the Diana Award, a charity legacy to Diana, Princess of Wales. With the belief that young people have the power to change the world, Theresa works to foster and develop positive change in the lives of young people. As well as working to better the lives of those to come after her, Tessy is a trustee of Comic Relief and a BBC Appeals Advisory Committee member. In 2019, Tessy became the first British National to receive The Prestigious Martin Luther King Award, in 2022 Tessy went on to be appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to young people. Presently Tessy continues to be an innovative leader and humanitarian, building youth leadership and fighting systematic racism.

Ellisha Soanes is an award-winning equality, diversity and inclusion Specialist. With a passion for education and expertise in diversity and inclusion, Ellisha has worked in education, health and social care sectors for an impressive 17 years combined. Ellisha is presently a health and social care lecturer at West Suffolk College teaching the true width and depth of Black history all year round. Whilst a longstanding advocate for Black, Brown, Asian and ethnic minorities, especially within education, the bulk of Ellisha’s work began following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued worldwide in 2020. Ellisha started a conversation with her students about racism and encouraged them to explore what equality, diversity and inclusion looked like in relation to their lived experiences. This was the start of Ellisha’s career as an important host, campaigner and ambassador. In 2021, Ellisha was awarded the Association of Colleges’ President’s Award to celebrate and commemorate all her efforts in the education sector.

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