Robin Morgan’s Introduction and My Remarks at the Women’s Media Awards

I won the Women’s Media Center 2012 Social Media Award, based on my work on AwesomelyLuvvie.com and with The Red Pump Project. Read my recap of the entire evening HERE.

Robin Morgan, co-founder of the Women’s Media Center (and epic superwoman) presented me with the award at the Women’s Media Awards on Tuesday, November 13, 2013 at Guastivino’s in New York City. Below is here introduction of me and my remarks!

ROBIN MORGAN’S REMARKS

It’s a genuine pleasure to present the winner of the 2012 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award. I love this award, because it honors the future of media and the global online explosion of information—the kind of communication that can fuel activism.

On the big screens you’re seeing the names and faces of our 19 Women’s Media Center Social Media Nominees. They’re all new media makers for gender justice.

This is The Women’s Media Center’s one de facto ‘people’s choice’ award, since the winner is chosen by voting online at the Women’s Media Center website. These young nominees, previously ignored in traditional media, have mapped their own paths to reaching wide audiences and affecting many lives.

Due to her extraordinary work and innovative thinking, and her dedicated social media following, Luvvie Ajayi was selected from an impressive group of nineteen prolific bloggers, social media activists, and new media makers.

Luvvie Ajayi is a humor writer, a social media strategist, and a trainer. She has been blogging for 9 years, 6 of which have been at her award-winning blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, which combines pop culture commentary and humor with a voice for gender and racial justice.

Merging her passion for social justice and her addiction to shoes, Luvvie co-founded The Red Pump Project, a national nonprofit organization that raises awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.

Luvvie’s work has earned a Congressional Record mention from the U.S. House of Representatives as well as a resolution adopted in the project’s name by the City Council of Chicago.

She has been recognized by the Black Weblog Awards for the “Best Humor Blog” in 2009 and was named one of BlogHer’s “Voices of the Year” in 2010.

Poised at the intersection of comedy and technology, and wielding the superpower of humor, Luvvie raises consciousness about the real lives of women and girls.

I am proud to present to you, our Women’s Media Center Social Media Award Winner self-proclaimed “red pump rocker, techie, superb side-eye giver, and bodacious blogger,” Luvvie Ajayi.”

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I had to write my remarks before the day of the award show so they could be inputed in the teleprompter (which I’d never used). Below is what I wrote and I stuck to this 90%. I ended up adding a couple of things while onstage so I look forward to seeing the video to get everything I said. But yes.

LUVVIE’S REMARKS

Hi, my name is Luvvie and I’m addicted to social media. And for this I’d like to thank God, Mark Zuckerberg, and whoever invented the internet. Which I think we’ve agreed isn’t Al Gore. But I’ll thank him anyway because I’m feeling chipper.

I was nine when my family moved to the United States from Nigeria, and I had to start from scratch. We built a new life here and left a lot of the people we knew behind, not able to keep in touch with everyone as promised. Five years ago, I got a message on Facebook from someone with a name that I could never forget. Tomi was my first ever best friend. We’d been friends since I was THREE. And when I left Nigeria, we lost contact. Thirteen years later, she finds me on Facebook. That was 2007 and that might have been the moment I realized the power of social media as the great connector.

Since then, and possibly earlier without me being conscious of it, I’ve been harnessing the power of the web to speak on what I believe in and to be critical of the world around me.

Blogging has kicked down doors for me that were previously locked, and it’s taken me to places I never even knew existed.

And when I created The Red Pump Project in 2009 with Karyn Watkins, what started as a simple call for fellow bloggers to talk about HIV/AIDS on Girls AIDS Day has turned into a movement. We’re getting women from all over the world to do something as simple as putting on red shoes every year on March 10th and letting us know why they care about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We’re empowering women through events around the country, and workshops that arm them with information that is potentially-life saving. We’re meeting women and girls where they hang out (online, in schools, bars) with the message of women are greater than AIDS. And it all started because of the power of this thing we call social media.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Women’s Media Center for giving me this award. No, actually, I’d like to thank you more for including me in the company of so many epic women. The ladies who were nominated with me are people I have the utmost respect for, and I’ve been watching their work from afar. The amazing and courageous Janet Mock, innovative Issa Rae, awesome Veronica Arreola. And the rest of these ladies. I’m truly honored to be mentioned along with you.

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to those who voted for me because they’re the reason I’m standing up here.

My purpose is to make people laugh and to make folks think critically. And I’ve been told that I say what others want to but can’t. But most of all, I want to change the world, and social media has allowed it to be that much easier for me.

Realizing I’m one tweet or blog post away from my dream door being opened is amazing and I hope everyone feels closer to their dreams everyday like I do. Thank you.

And yes, I’ll be totally tweeting this.