Interview with Nicolle Nyariri
conducted by Yasmin Yusuff
Nicolle Nyariri is the Head of Marketing and a founding member of the Roundtable Journal team, a publication that celebrates women of every size, shape, color and orientation — and the things they create. She is currently residing in Miami, and with the help of her editor in chief, Wasé Aguele, and the rest of the team (a global girl gang) she is helping breakdown female stereotypes in art, culture, politics media, and more via Roundtable Journal.
Yasmin Yusuff: What was your biggest inspiration when co-founding The Roundtable Journal/what are your current inspirations/how have they evolved?
Nicolle Nyariri: When we started, we wanted to create a platform that could house the thoughts of women all over the world. We were inspired by the women around us, who were under-represented or misrepresented in the media. We wanted to celebrate women like us — regular women — in a way that was authentic and true to our experiences. It’s been two years, and our goals haven’t really changed since. Our mission has always been to tell our own stories and spotlight the work of women we admire.
YY: What is your favorite issue you have worked on thus far and why?
NN: I can’t really choose. What I can say is that each issue presented its own set of challenges, and blessings. We have grown so much during the making of each issue and with it, amazing things have happened. Issue 01 was really the fact that we even put a whole, damn magazine together — when we started even this seemed like an unreachable dream. Issue 02 was our new- found commitment to print and the unbelievable success we had with the Kickstarter campaign. We never expected to actually raise enough money to put the issue together and print as many copies as we did. And finally, Issue 03 with cover star BAFTA-winning actress Michaela Coel. Having her on the cover is phenomenal — especially after trying to get a coverstar for
so long. Each issue of Roundtable has peaked in its own way and with each issue we have become better at making a magazine, learning about business, marketing, accounting and distribution. We’ve learnt so much with each issue and I’m grateful for that.
Representation has always mattered to us as well as having uncomfortable, yet real conversations about perceptions of beauty, sexuality, identity, race, gender, politics and so much more.
YY: What is your advice for aspiring young female writers and editors?
NN: Write and write a lot. Write all the time and find your voice– find
your inspirations and surround yourself with a gang of people who you
can develop and climb with. My internships helped me in so many ways– especially with writing and copy editing. On the other hand, my team helped me to find my voice and find context for my own views and opinions. At Roundtable, we push each other to write beyond our personal comfort zones, to go further with each piece and explore issues in unique and interesting ways. At the end of the day, it’s really important to keep creating. That’s the only way to find the middle between content you enjoy writing, and content readers enjoy consuming.
YY: If you could collaborate with any artist or writer, who would it be and why?
NN: This is a really tough question because there are honestly so many women in the creative industry doing amazing things but, one person I’d love to collaborate with: Yvonne Orji. Not only is she a powerhouse– most people know her as ‘Molly’ from Insecure but she also makes up one half of the podcast ‘Jesus and Jollof ’. Yvonne is always honest, and hilarious in her work– exploring topics on identity, heartbreak, culture and so much more. When choosing artists to collaborate with, we try and pick those who we believe will break-barriers and she is, without a doubt, bulldozing through them.
YY: Why did you decided to get into this field?
NN: One of my oldest, and dearest friends, Wase Aguele, approached me and asked me to help her with this brainchild of hers. She already had a name and a concept — in fact, she had a blog but not enough exposure on it. We decided that together we would focus on getting exposure for this blog and eventually release one article by a different writer, every week. That was it, that was all we wanted to do. To get us going we wrote out some goals, set dates and focused on building out our mission– which was, and still is — about representation. Representation has always mattered to us as well as having uncomfortable, yet real conversations about perceptions of beauty, sexuality, identity, race, gender, politics and so much more.
YY: What are your hopes for the Roundtable Journal in the future?
NN: We’ve always dreamed big when it comes to the Journal. We started as a blog, developed into a website for a digital magazine and finally moved into print. It’s hard to say where Roundtable Journal will be in the future but hopefully we’ll be producing more issues, throwing more events and collaborating with various brands. We’d love to become more dynamic and multidisciplinary, reaching audiences through different mediums such as film/ video and podcast. That’s the goal.
Spring 2019 Issue, Interview
You can find more about Roundtable Journal here: (https://www.roundtablejournal.com)
