Tobi Oredein

Tobi Oredein went on to become a freelance journalist and the founding editor of Black Ballad – a niche lifestyle website written for and by black women.

A former student at Eastlea Community School, Tobi attended Havering Sixth Form College from 2006 to 2008. She achieved high grades in English Literature, History, Sociology and General Studies A Levels and gained a BA in American Studies at King’s College, London.

After finishing University, Tobi was employed as an Entertainment and Features Writer at the TV Times magazine where her weekly writing duties would include celebrity interviews, features, real life copy and news stories. She also freelanced for publications such as Entertainment Wise, Look, the Daily Mail, Woman: Diet Special, Chat and Pick Me Up.

But Tobi grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of representation of black women in the media and so in 2014, she decided to launch her own website, blackballad.co.uk

She calls it ‘a forward thinking lifestyle website for the black and mixed race women of excellence’. The website’s mission is to create a media platform that helps black women in Britain live their best life and it has covered a varied range of topics, such as mental health, beauty, careers, politics, disability, dating and higher education.

After three years of being a free platform, in December 2016, Black Ballad ran a successful crowdfund to transition into a membership platform and has achieved month-on-month growth since its launch.

Tobi continued to develop her website and to write as a freelance for publications such as Grazia, Glamour and BuzzFeed. She says she is passionate about creating unique content that simultaneously engages readers and that puts publications and brands on the cutting edge.