Paula Akpan

There’s something desperately sad about going through a world map and crossing off all the places you can’t go to. Poring over Wikipedia and scrutinising the LGBT rights section of each country before checking what other Black people have said about travelling to this part of the world. You’re hedging your bets, calculating the trade-off of some discrimination and discomfort in exchange for an idyllic holiday setting, before likely deciding that you simply cannot put yourself through this.

Golden sandy grains nestled between one’s toes, blue waters lazily rolling in and back out, the distant squawks of seagulls letting you know that you have truly arrived at your destination—the call of the beach entices many. Along with offering us a break from our everyday lived reality, it remains the very picture of tranquility and relaxation. However, over the years, the towns boasting these idyllic spots have become havens for specific communities: Black and queer people.

Oaks Bluff in Massachusetts has long been billed as the "summer haven for the African-American elite" as it was histor

The nation switched over to Love Island from the Euros final last night, licking our wounds after a bitterly disappointing penalty shootout, searching for some reprieve and levity. A week ago, that would’ve been a hopeless endeavour. But as if they read our minds – or, no doubt, scoured through our tweets – the Love Island producers have finally upped the ante on the island of amour.
New bombshells for both the boys and girls have rocked the house. All the men are finding ways to manufacture ...

With a promise of hot singles ​“ready for a summer of love”, ITV’s flagship dating game show is back and honestly? It’s been underwhelming, to say the least.

Pandemic or not, Love Island delivered on its classic first week staples: a grandiose tour of the neon-adorned villa with a revamped doghouse and honeymoon pad, squealing girls attempting to crack open that first bottle of fizz while quietly assessing the competition, Laura Whitmore stalking into the villa to start of the proceedings. An...

After skyrocketing to fame last year as the breakout star of Netflix hit show Outer Banks, Madison Bailey felt compelled to address her sexuality on TikTok. As she becomes one of GLAMOUR’s Beauty of Pride Issue digital coverstars, she opens up to Paula Akpan about her journey to realising her pansexuality, the pressures of being a Gen-Z queer spokesperson, the importance of queer representation and her unbridled love for her girlfriend.
Madison Bailey, the 22-year-old star of Netflix teen dra...

I can’t imagine my life without spending time with the people who form my Black and queer circles and, over the past year, the pandemic has given me an all-too jarring glimpse of that.
I went from swanning from the warmth of one friend’s home to another, exchanging tales and classic queer drama, to attempting to comfort and hold space for one another through a screen whenever our Black and queer bodies have proved to be, yet again, all too deviant for this world – whether through police bruta...

Photo via @nish_rowe_tattoo.
Monday 12th April marked the reopening of pubs, gyms and hairdressers across England and for those who had been patiently (read: desperately) waiting for some ink, step two in the government's roadmap out of lockdown meant tattoo studios were now back open for business.
However, for Black people – particularly those with darker skin – getting tattooed often isn’t a simple process. Alongside placement and design, we have to ensure that the tattoo artist we choose i...

“I didn’t know people thought I was elusive!” exclaims Sydney Bennett. Halfway through our Zoom-facilitated interview, the California resident giggles as I attempt to explain how she seems to give off an unattainable vibe. Sat in her white Land Rover Defender truck with enviable LA sunshine streaming through the windows, Syd appears genuinely stumped: “Like, what? I met my girlfriend on Hinge! I’m just out here.”

While our definitions of ‘out here’ may somewhat differ, there’s no denying that the 28-year-old is an alternative R&B sensation. Raised around musical family members, Syd discover

Anna* rushes through a London airport, luggage in tow. She checks her phone as she walks – she’s dangerously close to missing her flight to Barcelona, a little September holiday to recover from a chaotic start to the academic year. As she breezes through security, she is stopped by an airport official who accuses her of refusing to have her bag searched. Confused, Anna asserts that she did have it searched, and carries on – only now, the official is following her all the way to the boarding g...

Warning: This feature contains descriptions of sexual harassment some readers may find distressing
We read so many statistics in day-to-day life, they almost lose their meaning. 86% of young women have been sexually harassed in a public space. 618,000 women in England and Wales in 2020 were reported as victims of sexual assault. A quarter of women feel unsafe exercising outside alone. But when these statistics stop just being words on a page, and you take a moment to really, truly consider th...

Entering a stadium among a sea of equally boisterous and kitted-out fans, kicking around a weather-worn ball in the park, impressing friends with yet another newly mastered trick—these little nuances of what has come to be widely known as The Beautiful Game feel like almost a lifetime ago. However, in the midst of all our foot- ball wistfulness—and, very conveniently, just before the Men’s and Women’s UEFA European Championships— London–based Scot Priscilla Mante is breathing new life onto th...

After my girlfriend and I had to cancel holiday plans to Tanzania back in 2019 because we couldn’t guarantee our safety as an openly Black lesbian couple, I knew I never wanted to feel that despair and helplessness again. These feelings were spurred, not only from a safety standpoint, but also from simply not knowing how to connect with Tanzanian queer communities despite knowing that they very much exist. We constantly kept thinking that there must be something more than a cursory Google of ‘LGBTQ+ rights in Tanzania’ and that there must be other Black queer people who have been faced with th

Despite menopause being a process that half the population are directly impacted by, it remains a taboo topic, shrouded in mystery and stigma. We’ve encountered “the change” that occurs when a person experiences their last period, normally between the ages of 45 and 55, predominantly through a plethora of stereotypes: the cantankerous and unhinged older woman grappling with mood swings and hot flushes.
Work has taken place in attempts to demystify menopause, from parliament debating NHS menop...

It’s December – the month we traditionally begin winding down, reflecting and looking ahead to the next year. But how do you even begin processing a year that threw our lives into chaos when we’re not even out the other side yet? Jobs have been cut, normality abandoned, and, for the unluckiest among us, family members and loved ones have been lost. We were all forced to adapt our lives at breakneck speed all while reckoning with our own mortality.
It’s not exactly the ideal environment for mo...

It goes without saying that this has been a bleak year with what feels like little reprieve, which is only amplified for Black people. Grappling in real time with a pandemic alongside continuous Black death and trauma — including the murders of Breonna Taylor, Toyin Salau, Tony McDade and George Floyd — has left many of us reeling. We're in search of somewhere to offload, but also, just chill.
With that in mind, Alaysia Brown and Ndeye Thioubou created Black Girls Chillin, a digital community...