More than 15 years ago, Mya and I met after peaking at each other across the curtains that divided her dad’s basketball camp, and the summer camp camp next door that I attended. I honestly don’t remember much from back then, I couldn’t even tell you what we bonded over, but that was the summer I met a friend i’d have for life. We spoke to each other all summer and by the next year had conviced Mya’s dad to let her switch camps, effectively ruining any dreams he might have had for her joining the WNBA. Luckily, his loss has been my gain.
A whole lot has changed since the first time we met, we’ve essentially become new people dozens of time over. We even had a stint of time in high school where we “grew apart”, yet somehow we have always found our way back. Mya and I are different in SO many ways (no really we’re so different). Though we aren’t much alike in personality, where you can find the most similarities are in our values and beliefs. The values and beliefs that we hold is what we’d like NobodyAsked. to stand for, not only to be seen in terms of brand identity, but also in action.
A couple of months ago, just before we’d know how drastically our lives and routines would change due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Mya approched me about starting a shared blog. Weirdly enough I had been thinking the same exact thing for weeks, so I of course agreed. I will admit that I was a bit naive to the level of work that actually goes into blogging before even publishing a post. Since our initial meetings our ideas have grown and become bigger than we originally intended. What started out as a casual shared creative venture between two friends has blossomed into a start up magazine tasked with the job of making media more diverse in every which way possible.
Popular/mainstream media in Montreal and mostly everywhere isn’t diverse, isn’t intersectional and only very recently (after all our brainstroming on the subject)has tried to start appealing to different audiences and presenting alternate point of views. Our goal is to become a media platform that gives a voice to people who haven’t traditionally had one. We want to be a platform that rejects the constrictions of post-secondary education, because we know you don’t have a master’s in journalism to write quality content. We want NobodyAsked. to be platform where we uplift creatives, activists and the community as a whole.
I’m extremely happy to be embarking on this new chapter with Mya, and honestly probably couldn’t even find it in me to team up with anyone else. I’m so excited for everything we have in store and can’t wait until all our hopes and dreams come into fruition. Until then we’ll live by the expression, “success is a journey not a destination”. A journey that I am ever so grateful to be taking with my best friend.
–Nia
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