LILLY WORKNEH is an award-winning journalist who is passionate about impactful storytelling. She previously led HuffPost’s “Black Voices” and later served as the editor-in-chief at Blavity News, where she directed the platform’s mission to amplify, unpack, and celebrate the many aspects of the Black millennial community. Lilly has since joined Rebel Girls as head of digital content and is a Forbes “30 Under 30” 2018 honoree. She wholeheartedly believes powerful stories can shift perspectives, expand imagination, and deepen understanding, helping to build a better future for all of us.
CASHAWN THOMPSON is the brilliant mind behind Black Girls Are Magic and the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic. She believes in the phenomenal power and skill of Black women and girls. A passionate advocate of the work, will, and wonder of Black women, CaShawn champions their many causes online and in her everyday life. She lives right outside of her hometown of Washington, DC, in Mount Rainier, MD, with her husband, two cats, and the various children and grandchildren who visit daily.
JESTINE WARE is a QPOC grant writer at the human rights organization Heartland Alliance by day and stellar freelance editor, writer, and writing coach by night. She’s edited kidlit titles Madam C. J. Walker Builds a Business, Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code, Dr. Wangari Maathai Plants a Forest, and Junko Tabei Masters the Mountains. Her comics, poems, stories, and activities have been featured in Ladybug, Babybug, Spider, Cobblestone, Muse, Click, Cicada Magazine, and the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls podcast. In every project Jestine undertakes, she’s passionate about supporting those who don’t see themselves represented accurately—particularly communities of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, and people with disabilities. Originally from New York, Jestine traveled around the country searching for home before settling in Chicago with her two feathered children, Owl and Sunny. In her spare time, she’s a book aficionado, comic book enthusiast, gardener, avid puzzler, and dabbler in writing afrofuturist science fiction, fairy tales, and nonfiction short stories.
DIANA ODERO is a writer living in Nairobi, Kenya, with vast bylines in lifestyle, business, and travel publications. Curious to explore the world, she spent her time learning on different continents, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chapman University (California) and University of Westminster (London) respectively. She is passionate about seeing her fellow women succeed and has spent the majority of her career writing about great women doing amazing things! An aspiring cat lady, Diana enjoys travel, reading, pastries, and a long stretch of beach. She is currently working on designing notebooks that she can hoard and developing the perfect skincare routine.
SONJA THOMAS always wanted to be a writer, but she was afraid. So she became an accountant instead. One day she said, “Enough!” and finally pursued her dreams. Now she writes stories for children of all ages, often featuring brave, everyday girls doing extraordinary things. Her debut middle grade novel Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence is scheduled to publish in Spring 2022 from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. Originally from central Florida, she moved across the country and is now “keeping it weird” in the Pacific Northwest. Visit her at www.bysonjathomas.com or find her at @bysonjathomas on Instagram and Twitter.
LILLY WORKNEH is an award-winning journalist who is passionate about impactful storytelling. She previously led HuffPost’s “Black Voices” and later served as the editor-in-chief at Blavity News, where she directed the platform’s mission to amplify, unpack, and celebrate the many aspects of the Black millennial community. Lilly has since joined Rebel Girls as head of digital content and is a Forbes “30 Under 30” 2018 honoree. She wholeheartedly believes powerful stories can shift perspectives, expand imagination, and deepen understanding, helping to build a better future for all of us.
Rebel Girls is a global, multi-platform empowerment brand dedicated to helping raise the most inspired and confident global generation of girls through content, experiences, products, and community. Originating from an international best-selling children’s book, Rebel Girls amplifies stories of real-life, extraordinary women throughout history, geography, and field of excellence. With a growing community of nearly 20 million self-identified Rebel Girls spanning more than 100 countries, the brand engages with Generation Alpha through its book series, award-winning podcast, events and merchandise. In 2021, Rebel Girls launched the Dream On app to re-imagine sleep routines by sharing empowering stories with a screen-free audio experience; and inspired girls everywhere to Celebrate Black Girl Magic with a new book, merchandise and events. To date, they have sold 7 million books in 51 languages and reached 14 million podcast downloads.