Today we’d like to introduce you to Laila Alawa.
Laila, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up being known as the person who’d bring attention to issues globally, no matter the personal cost. I am American: an immigrant, the daughter of Syrian and Danish parents, eldest of eight children, homeschooled, and a proud graduate of Wellesley College. Staying quiet in the face of injustice simply isn’t part of who I am.
In 2013, I noticed that media outlets were silencing minority women’s stories. So I pitched to Arianna Huffington – and my story went viral. Fueled by frustration, I pitched a counter-angle to Arianna Huffington, resulting in my narrative going viral, and an international debate with FEMEN’s founder.
I now write for publications like The Guardian and The Atlantic. I noticed a pervasive issue, regardless of who I wrote for: I was being asked to speak on behalf of a group of people, silencing my personal experiences. During an infamous advertising campaign dedicated to miseducating the American public around Muslim values run by right-wing personalities, I risked my safety to bring the issue to the attention of media outlets nationally – so much so that my father pleaded with me to be careful, and to reconsider my decision to do so.
It is with that energy, passion and incessant persistence that I launched The Tempest – a strategic move to shift the needle on conversations that affect international policy, human rights, and personal identity. It is a necessary global solution: a forward-thinking, sometimes-irreverent media platform, run by diverse women.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, if I sat and told you that it’s been a smooth road, I’d be doing the world a disservice. The truth is, entrepreneurship is never a smooth road – if it is, that means something’s wrong. Aside from the day to day challenges that come with running a global company through lean bootstrapped methods, there are a few out of the blue instances that I’ve had the opportunity to tackle and learn from.
In 2016, I proudly served on a Department of Homeland Security task force on countering violent extremism. The only Muslim millennial woman among 30 male experts, I fought for community-building initiatives to develop a more progressive future – work for which thousands in the alt-right attacked me for. The harassment proved the necessity of The Tempest in impact change through discourse led by those largely overlooked by media.
The Tempest – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am the founder of The Tempest, a global media company created and run by diverse millennial women. My decision to start The Tempest came from one key question: why were we only hearing about the world from predominantly men? Why is it so hard to set the agenda, apart from prevalent expectations, to what we truly want to discuss?
88% of newsrooms are men. While media outlets boast diverse figures, those figures still fluctuate between a whopping 8-27%. The landscape is broken. The Tempest is the solution everyone aches for: our content has mass appeal, but the creators are those regularly perceived by the world to be missing said appeal. Instead of discussing the lack of diverse women’s voices in the media, I decided The Tempest would be the go-to media outlet for diverse millennial women. Instead of speaking for diverse millennial women, we were giving them the platform to tell their own stories through writing, videos, audio and music, and the results have been inspiring – in growth and in reach.
It’s one thing for writers to cover how black fashion bloggers are changing the game for minority fashion – but few outlets actually consider them as part of the fashion landscape. The Tempest moves past the conversation of representation as an anomaly and instead emphasizes our differences as a reality. Our writers were producing their own stories – raw and unfettered – in a market that had not appreciated them as the rule. The Tempest doesn’t break stereotypes by featuring reactive commentary, it changes perceptions through agency, honest storytelling and multimedia content.
We empower women through powerful conversations & handing the mic to them. By inculcating a supportive culture & directly mentoring over 1,000 women annually, we are building a strong network of women globally. In disregarding traditional media setups across the globe, we are revolutionizing media through data-driven decisions and analytics. We’re trailblazing through accessibility in online media, and the impact is on 1.3 billion people with disabilities.
We are no lifestyle business – we’re a homegrown unicorn. While social media is now a trusted news source for 62% of people, traditional media struggles to engage millennials. That’s where we dominate, expanding voices to further community engagement. Our team is made of our market, which we use to build out a diverse contributor network and millions of users. Outlets like The Atlantic have requested access to our contributors, due to our diverse focus. We’re not disrupting media with conversations of representation as an anomaly: instead, we emphasize differences as reality. Because of our approach, we are growing at a rate more explosive than Buzzfeed.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
As a result of my work with The Tempest, I was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018.
However, the proudest moment of my career comes almost daily: receiving emails, notes, and in-person messages around how the work my company is doing has helped create a more incredible, vibrant world. I grew up vowing to make sure no woman or girl ever felt silenced, censored, or stereotyped.
Now, reaching more than 3 million people around the world every month, I know we’re making sure that silencing never happens – and it fills me with passion and excitement to continue growing, building, and innovating The Tempest alongside my incredible team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thetempest.co/
- Email: hey@thetempest.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearethetempest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTheTempest/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/wearethetempest
- Other: http://www.lailaalawa.com/
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
