Naya Agyemang

It was a hot day in Soho when I met Nana Agyemang for a photo shoot and interview. Agyemang is the founder and CEO of Every Stylish Girl. She started ESG in 2016 as a blog telling the stories of diverse fashionistas but just within its two-year lifespan, it has grown to be one of the go-to platforms for women of color in the fashion industry. If you think that is impressive, just wait until you see what ESG has to offer in the near future.

With this being my first time meeting Nana I didn’t know what to expect. I met up with photographer Alessandra Angelini, ( a girl boss in her own right) outside of Nana’s apartment. Both of our jaws dropped as Nana made her way through the revolving doors. It was like a scene out of Gossip Girl and Serena van der Woodsen was walking towards us in the most glamorous of a slow-motion stride except Serena was Nana, she had beautiful chocolate skin, long flowing black hair and legs for days.

“Hi! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Nana said with the brightest smile I’ve ever seen as she shook my hand. Is this girl even real?

After introductions, we started our shoot. It was a hard-hitting 95 degrees, Alessandra and I were sweating our lives away but, it seemed as though the sun was Nana’s energy source. She continually posed for the camera like a pro, hitting all of the right angles and giving the camera a smize that Tyra Banks would be proud of.

We finished up the shoot in time for lunch and a quick chat at Sweet Green.

As we sat down to eat, I treated them to some salads, drinks and thank you gifts for their time, yes, my mom taught me well.

Originally, Nana was going to wear a bright yellow suit but instead, she wore a plum colored, mini skirt suit. I was not upset at all about the outfit change but I had to ask.

Q: So what happened with the yellow suit? I love this, of course, I was just wondering.

A: Well you know it’s all about the monochromatic looks, right? I had this yellow blazer, the one I sent you a picture of, but no yellow bottoms! I went everywhere, I went to Topshop, I went to Zara but no luck. I showed a worker at Zara what I was looking for and she said to do purple because purple isn’t embraced enough on dark skinned women.

Q: Oh, I love that! I am so happy you went with the purple. These pictures are the bomb! What else do you do besides work at Refinery29?

A: There are a lot of blurred lines between being an entrepreneur and working under a company. I’m really surprised at how Refinery29 has taken ESG under its wing and has been super supportive of everything we do, non-stop. But actually, sometimes it can be seen as a conflict of interest because we have similar audiences; women empowerment, girl bosses, etc. But we are a little different because we focus more on the beauty and fashion aspect so that’s what I think makes ESG so phenomenal and so unique because there was really no other platform for women of color that was bridging together storytelling between fashion and beauty. There was nothing like that even on Instagram. I mean, there is FashionBombDaily, reposting photos but not really going into storytelling and looking at those people who are up and coming. That was something I always wanted to do

Her eyes lit up as she swallowed a huge bite of her sweet greens salad.

The internship program is what’s really important for me because I always felt like mentorship was really how I got here! People have asked me ‘How were you working at the New York Times at 22?’ and honestly it’s mentorship. I knew people in the company and I built close relationships with them knowing that they would be helpful to me one day and it came around.

Q: So, what got you into fashion in the first place?

A: My brother would make fun of me and say ‘I wish people would come to see your room in Ohio from when you were a preteen’ I used to cover my walls with fashion covers. I did this when I was about 13 or 14, I was so obsessed but I was also so frustrated because I never saw a reflection. I never saw black women, never saw natural hair; all of these spreads were always a white woman, blonde hair or brunette. That’s when I really started to notice that this industry that I’m dying to be a part of isn’t even a reflection of who I am.

One of my biggest goals, like any other girl, was that I wanted to work for Vogue and working there I could really make a difference and pave the way for black women at Vogue to really enter into this space of journalism.

So, when I was in high school, I was a part of the yearbook club as the photographer and I was psycho, you guys. I would style all of my friends for this big fashion shoot or make them send me pictures of their outfits so I can approve them. I would set up my home, make sure everyone matched, make a backdrop ( my mom said I was so obnoxious).

But it was little things like that when I knew this was something I was really passionate about. And I talk a lot so I knew to be in journalism and being a person of communication was also something I had to be in alignment with. This slowly built up to things I did in college. I became the Editor in Chief of our only black magazine on campus, Ace Magazine. Then Instagram started to become such a huge thing so that’s when I first realized that I wanted to be a fashion blogger, that was going to be my ticket in.

I was talking to my brother who is like my mentor, he’s my everything when it comes to creative ideas for business and I told him what I wanted to do on Instagram. He told me ‘ Yeah, that’s cool but everyone is doing that. Wouldn’t it be cool if you turned the camera around and focused on other women? Tell their stories and take photos of them.’

She admitted feeling reluctant at first, wanting to show off her own style and all but she thought about it. Then it hit her. During her senior year, Nana created Every Stylish Black Girl, the original name of what is now known as Every Stylish Girl. Having a large number of other friends from other ethnic groups, she wanted to include all WOC making ESBG into ESG but focusing on diverse women in fashion.

Q: How did ESG grow so quickly?

A: It really started to pick up after my senior year. I moved to NYC to attend Columbia for grad school for journalism and that’s when my life changed. I was working at Elle Magazine and everything was moving so quickly. I was getting in front of celebrities, I met Yara Shahidi and was able to feature her on ESG who then gave us a shout out in Teen Vogue. I thought to myself that this was what I was supposed to be doing because everything was happening so quickly. That’s when I realized I was building a community. I started getting so many DMs from women asking if they could meet me, tell their stories, and connect with the girl bosses we were featuring. I knew I needed to create something to connect all of these women and that’s when ‘Sip ‘n’ Slay’ came about, our women’s’ career and networking brunch. We bring together girl bosses on a panel and me knowing all of these movers and shakers and knowing how hard they are to meet, I bring to these events for young women to connect with them. I’m really trying to bring these profound young women to show how they started their careers and how they can help other women break into their own. Truly inspire them.

Q: Can you explain the set up of ESG? How does it work exactly?

A: Within our internship program we have workshops, we have a training session, we have bi-weekly meetings. It’s different how we are set up because we are a training program, we are training you to build your own skills, break off and be your own badass.

Q: That should be on a shirt!

A: That’s a good one! Let me write that down!

I tried to add in that once that shirt is made I should get 10% but Nana seemed to laugh it off as we moved on with the interview. I brushed it off and continued the conversation.

Q: Who is in your intern program now? How big is your group?

A: Right now we have 11 interns broken up into different areas like photographers, content creators, and social media bosses/ writers. Its cool because they are all getting this experience, they were all just featured in Refinery29 so it’s definitely beneficial. They never thought that they would get featured in Refinery and who knows what we will be able to connect them to next. This is really a great way to help them build their own brands as well.

Q: Where do you see ESG going in the near future? What’s on the horizon?

A: We are really leaning towards videos and experiences. We are revamping and pushing our Youtube. We want to create informative videos like Jada Pinkett’s Red Table Talk series or a lookbook on how to style a blazer in 10 different ways. We are really trying to teach women, especially WOC that you are represented. Too many media companies do not push WOC on their video content!

Nana bangs her hand on the table passionately and though I was startled a bit, I felt what she was saying on a spiritual level.

It’s honestly so weird to me. Why can’t you get black women on video, why can’t you get black women on magazines?, I don’t understand why this is such a trivial topic. Even plus-sized women and exploring more in body diversity. It’s really not that hard! And that’s another thing about ESG, we have featured so many amazing women to choose from. We kinda created this directory of photographers, models, and other talents that big companies like Vogue or Refinery can pull from when they are looking to fill this space.

Q: Do you see ESG going global?

A: Yeah! I would love to have a Sip ‘n’ Slay in London, I would love to host one somewhere in Africa. That is a goal of mine.

Q: So the theme I’m seeing here is that you spread the love. You love giving an opportunity to others.

A: Yeah, I’ve done partnerships with Revlon and Puma and whenever I get an opportunity, I will call a friend and say ‘Hey, do you want to style this shoot for me?’ I am always trying to put my friends on. And I always say to my interns, who are applying for jobs right now and reaching out to the highest person in these big companies, reach out to your peers first. My peers are the ones that got me where I am, not the directors and editors. Don’t reach out to them, they’re chilling, they already have their jobs, they don’t know you, what do they have to do for you? Build yourself up with the people you know.

Nana was truly preaching to the choir. It felt so amazing to sit and vibe off of this confident women who is killing it in her field. I truly felt inspired.

As the conversation was coming to an end, I had to ask the most cliche yet vital question of all.

Q: What is one key piece of advice you have for other girl bosses?

A: I have two. First, I would like to share this quote; ‘Short-term sacrifices for a lifetime in paradise’. What does that mean? Right now is when you hustle, this is when you sacrifice and work so you can spend a long time in paradise, stress-free and comfortable. I gave myself that quote in high school so I can say that college isn’t going to be easy but it’s something I have to do to get to what I want to do. I knew that starting ESG would be a struggle, I’m not going to hang out, I’m not going to go to parties, I’m not going to have a social life but that is short term. Be disciplined in life and remember those things can come later and be even greater than they are now. The second thing is the goals. This may seem corny but making a goals list will really help you. My brother made me make a 10-year goal list and I almost cried but I still reflect on it to this day and it’s amazing how a lot of it lines up with my life today. I realized that I can make my life whatever I want it to be. I always encourage my friends to make a weekly goal list but to definitely do a 10-year goal list. If you don’t have a goal, you will end up confused and easily manipulated because you don’t have a focus, you don’t know what your goal is. Since I know my goal and know where I want to be, you can’t manipulate me or throw me off track. I know I want to be a girl boss and run my own company and I won’t let anything get in my way.

With that, we finished our salads and parted ways. Nana is just one of the amazing women doing great things to change and grow her industry and we hope she inspired you to do the same. You can follow Nana on Instagram @itsreallynana and Every Stylish Girl @ everystylishgirl.

Also, Nana, I know you’re reading this so I wanted to remind you that I still want 10% for that t-shirt idea.

Interview by Niara Wright | Photos by Alessandra Angelini