Lekia Lée is a TV presenter, journalist, entrepreneur, and founder of Project Embrace, a social enterprise that inspires young black girls to feel empowered by their unique hair texture.
Her journey at Greenwich began with over five years’ worth of broadcast experience in Nigeria behind her. “It was the course content at Greenwich that got me excited. With the work experience I had already gained, I was looking for a good mix of practical and theory, and the programme offered me that. ”
Lekia recognises that the essay writing was the most challenging aspect of her studies, but it ultimately stood her in good stead during her career as a broadcast journalist. Additionally, the programme gave her “not only the discipline to focus and the courage to deconstruct ‘normality’, but the confidence to believe in my ideas. ”
After graduating, Lekia embarked on a career in the media, including roles as a TV researcher, broadcast journalist for BBC Africa Service and BBC London, radio reporter and presenter for Choice FM (now Capital Xtra) and Colourful Radio. Finally, she decided she could make more of a difference to society by going out on her own. “I wanted to address the mindset of inequality. My time at Greenwich, deconstructing cultural norms and media, led me to do the same with media representation and that further led me to coming up with a solution that can contribute to fairer representation of the marginalised – in this case, black women. ”
Project Embrace was borne out of Lekia’s desire to address this misrepresentation. “The effect of narrow beauty standards and the insecurities and trauma is can cause can easily be covered up but eventually it shows up in navigating relationships, self-care, schools and workplaces. I wanted my daughter and girls like her to see images that represented their beauty in a public place and that’s when I created Project Embrace and our Afrovisibility billboard campaign. ”
The billboard campaign in particular was a culmination of “lot of tears, self-doubt and courage”, however, “the whole process taught me a lot about self-confidence and self-love, about potential and how to tap into it. ”
Project Embrace has since grown to include initiatives such as Daddy Hair Hero workshops, designed to help teach fathers the basics of nourishing their daughter’s afro hair, with the ultimate aim for “black and mixed-race girls to feel seen and therefore valued”. Lekia plans to grow these workshops as part of Project Embrace, so that it can be franchised out all over the country.
“Steve Jobs said that “The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones that do” and you can too. You don’t need to change your hair or anything about your identity to do that. Your beauty is as good as anyone else’s. Own your beauty, own your uniqueness, and go be great. ”
