Tobi Oredein
FOUNDER OF Black Ballad, A LIFESTYLE PLATFORM FOR BLACK WOMEN
“Tech won’t bring the world together men” if it’s just a group of white
‘White women’s media cares more about avocados than it does about black women.’ A video of Toni Oredein making this statement went viral in 2O16 and sums up the impetus behind her website Black Ballad, which seeks to ‘elevate the voices of black British women through content, community and commerce’.
‘I felt like all the magazines I loved to read didn’t represent women of colour,’ says Oredein. So I thought, “I’m going to create something and see what happens.”’ Initially she found it a struggle to be taken seriously in the tech scene. ‘People would often talk to my husband and co-founder Bola, not me, and I sometimes had to say, “This is my vision.” It gave me the confidence to speak my mind.’
While diversity in the media has improved, Oredein feels tech is behind. ‘Tech is supposed to bring the world together, but that won’t happen if it’s just a group of white men in a room,’ she says. ‘We need to have people that don’t look like us. I regularly check myself. I’m not here to be the second-best media destination for black women, I want to be the best.’