Dear BellaStylistas,

I am so happy to announce that we have reached the end of one of our most exciting months yet in 2021. The question I ask myself a lot since my appointment as Head of Content for BellaNaija Style is how can we keep inspiring our audience to think of style and beauty as more than just clothes and makeup?

What we aim to do on the BellaNaija Style team every day is to inspire our broad, diverse and lively community of BellaStylistas to accept and celebrate their own individuality and uniqueness. In my view, the best way to do this is to encourage our mega audience to lift each other up. I look back on my own journey and resonate with the struggles of women who own their uniqueness and personal style; we are called a lot of names, treated according to so many false stereotypes, and are easily criticized for our style, for our interests, or for simply being ourselves.

That is why the month of March was so important to us. The BellaNaija Style Women’s Month celebration was, simply put, for us and by us, because we believe in the power of African women. We dedicated four weeks in March to select events and activations to celebrate the remarkable achievements of women in our industry, learn about their extraordinary contributions and uplift each other.

#BNSConvos

One of the aims for #BNSWomensMonth2021 was impact. We made our first foray into the Clubhouse scene through weekly #BNSConvos, hosting top influencers, fashion designers, beauty industry leaders, and the best African creatives on and off the continent every weekend. The conversations spanned across how to build and maintain a successful fashion business in 2021 to the future of the beauty industry post-2020 and beyond. Needless to say, we pulled together the best of the best including Achieng Agutu, Chioma Ikokwu, Toke Makinwa, Powede Awujo, Mirian Njoh, Msendoo Mbachilin, Teni Sagoe, Sumaiya Mohammed, Ejiro Amos Tafiri, Didi Akinyelure, Lisa Folawiyo, Anita Adetoye, and Ohemaa Bonsu. We hosted 4 discussions with over 200 listeners throughout the month. You can catch up on all the conversations via our YouTube channel HERE.

International Women’s Day Diary Session

In honour of International Women’s Day, we released a limited mini-series where fashion, beauty, and entertainment industry figures sent out personal messages to women everywhere. These words of encouragement were to celebrate and create a space for all people to come together and support each other. Some of the women who participated in this were Ini Dima-Okojie, Chioma Ikokwu, Ijeoma Kola, Tolu Bally among others.

BNS Shoutouts

We take pride in amplifying the work of fresh talents and rising leaders in African fashion and beauty. Through the weekly #BNSShoutout, we engaged our audience to shout out their favourite female-owned fashion brands, female influencers, female-owned beauty brands and African female entrepreneurs. The result? Over 577 African, female-led businesses and personal brands were amplified. Not only that, the most mentioned brands received a complimentary feature across our platforms each week.

BNS Giveaways

Every week in March, we gave back to our community in collaboration with some of our audience-fave brands; Toke Makinwa Beauty, Ibilola Ogundipe and The Nail Bar NG. The participation was amazing and we were happy to put smiles on the faces of our #BellaStylistas.

#BNSWomensMonth Closing Concert

To round up the month-long event, we partied with superstar DJ Lambo for a virtual closing concert. DJ Lambo is a leader in the music industry who has worked hard to make her mark in a male-dominated industry. Not just is she a notable artist, she is also a woman whose accomplishments deserve to be constantly celebrated. In case you missed out on the fun, watch the show below.

On behalf of the BellaNaija Style team, I want to use this opportunity to say a very big THANK YOU to our #BellaStylistas – everyone who watched, listened, liked, commented and was a part of the BNS Women’s Month in any way. We are also grateful to the whole BellaNaija team for support and encouragement.

We appreciate you and we will continue to do better and be better for you.

Till next time!