Seyi Akiwowo
Youth Empowerment
Seyi Akiwowo grew up in East London and first became involved with politics at school and subsequently joined the Labour Party, serving as Chair of her Branch Labour Party and Women’s Forum and as Executive Officer of West Ham Constituency Labour Party (CLP).
A graduate of the London School of Economics and Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, she recently became a Fellow of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
After graduating, she spent a season in Brussels, working for the European Youth Forum. Returning to British politics, Seyi ran and was elected as the youngest black female Councillor in the London Borough of Newham, at the age of 23.
Seyi Akiwowo
Seyi Akiwowo
After a video of her speaking at the European Council went viral, Seyi received a torrent of racist and misogynistic abuse, but received little to no support from the moderators of the social media platforms.
Realising that this kind of unchecked abuse is beginning to have a chilling effect on women (and particularly woman of colour) entering politics, in 2017, Seyi founded Glitch, a non-profit organisation aimed at ending online abuse.
To date, Glitch has presented at the 38th United Nations Human Rights Council, delivered their Digital Citizenship Citizenship workshop to 2,000 young people across the UK and Europe and over 30 individuals in public life received their bespoke Digital Resilience Training. The organisation’s work was praised in UK Parliament last year.
She makes regular appearances as a speaker on digital vigilance, self-care in the digital age and youth entrepreneurship and provides critical pieces for outlets such as The Guardian.
In August 2018, Seyi was named Stylist Magazine’s Woman of the Week and her many achievements have been mentioned in books such as Slay in Your Lane and Misogynation. Seyi is Amnesty International’s 2018 Human Rights Defender and is part of the #ToxicTwitter campaign to end online abuse against women.