Meet Akilah Blount | Philanthropist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Akilah Blount and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Akilah, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

When I started the BEE Club in 2013, I was honestly thinking about what I needed. It sounds cliche, but grade school truly has its way of challenging a young person’s sense of belonging, from beginning to end. In high school, I struggled to find places where I could be seen, heard, loved, and accepted for all of me and not just pieces of me that could fit in. I was in TAG, Magnet, AP, Honors, and pretty much all of the enrichment programs offered at my school, but I also liked to have fun, be social, and make my own rules. I started the BEE Club when I realized that as a creative, talented, and free thinking person, I would never be the right shape or size for anything that held me to being “this” or “that”. I had to make space for myself.

So, I thought about what I needed. Not just in that moment, but throughout all of my childhood experiences leading up to being a teenager and the beginnings of womanhood. I always wanted mentorship and someone to talk to. I valued friendship and bringing people together. I needed new skills to continue to grow in these areas of my life, so I decided to create the BEE Club, a place where girls could come as they were and work toward being their most empowered selves—together. I told my story. Other girls became  interested. More and more people started to believe in what I was doing. They started supporting and becoming a part of the work. Then, it became apparent that this was so much bigger than me. My need for inclusion and belonging was no coincidence. Invisibility and rejection was a shared experience for girls that was too common.

From that point, I knew that BEE Club had to transcend my time in high school. It had to transcend my involvement. It had to be something that girls in future generations would also have access to. My story was only the beginning of a movement. It was about holding schools accountable for the way they teach–or don’t teach–girls to view themselves, relate to others, and engage with the community around them. The BEE Club was a nonprofit organization, and I knew that in the first year of existence.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Today, I am the Founder and CEO of BEE Club Inc. I am also the Program Director of the Greater Wealth Works Women’s Business Center, which is one of the three Women’s Business Centers in Georgia. It’s been amazing to grow from serving teen girls, helping create a space where they can build their own paths and further define themselves, to serving women entrepreneurs, helping them connect with resources to empower themselves through self-employment. There is something so honorable and magical about the work that I’ve been able to do—and at such a young age myself. I just thank God for trusting me with a cause as important as the empowerment of women and girls, and I pray that I’m prepared for far more than I could have imagined in my career. I am dreaming and believing in myself, relentlessly, and that’s where I am. I’ve found my purpose, and I’m growing in it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Atlanta is a big city. I came into my adult life in Athens, which is much smaller, but since I’ve come back, my favorite place that I’ve found so far is Colony Square—a beautiful complex in the heart of Midtown. If my friend was visiting, we’d go there first. We would find street parking because parking the deck can get pricey. We would go to the dining area, and order chicken and veggie birria tacos. We would have margaritas from the bar, and we would talk and laugh about life. Then, we’d go get our nails done at Lush Nail Bar. We’d have wine and talk and laugh more about life. We’d leave, only to go home and change so that we could head to Aroma Night Lounge. We’d meet up with some good friends of ours, and have more drinks, and smoke a little hookah. Then, we would head to an after hours nightclub, run into more good friends and even some high and local celebrities because that’s just Atlanta. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a culture. Then, we would go home feeling like we had the perfect night in ATL.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s hard to pinpoint one specific person to highlight in my story. While I have had to carry and do so much on my own with BEE Club, I have had a lot of help. From family to true, dedicated friends to perfect strangers who solely believed in the BEE Club’s mission, so many people have poured into my journey as a nonprofit Founder and organizational leader. I’ve had older women and men open doors for me in the professional world that would have never opened on their own. Year after year, school teachers and administrators support the BEE Club by providing advisory and meeting space to support our girls throughout their leadership journeys. The girls themselves work so hard throughout the year to host programs and support community causes that are important to them while also growing themselves and building a life that they can be happy with. Community members, including alumnae and sometimes parents, volunteer to help with organizational efforts that would remain undone. College students do big projects to help us build capacity and do more with less. All in all, I know that God is to credit for everything. God has a heavy hand in pushing and pulling me and the BEE Club forward.

Website: www.thebeeclubforgirls.org

Instagram: thebeeclubforgirls

Facebook: BEE Club Inc.