Squarespace x WePresents: Make It Real - Liv Little
Directed this series about representation in business focusing on black female entrepreneurs for Squarespace and WePresent Words by Squarespace Photos by Mitch Noakes
Liv Little is the founder and CEO at gal-dem, a media company committed to spotlighting the creative talents of women and non-binary people of colour.
Curator, writer, producer, publisher, CEO – there’s not much that Liv Little can’t do. And at 25 years old her rise may have come quickly but it certainly hasn’t been without plenty of late nights and a serious amount of grafting. While still studying at the University of Bristol Liv founded gal-dem, a title by and for women and non binary people of color to address a lack of representation in the media. It was a necessary reaction to the whitewashed news cycle of mainstream media, but also a form of catharsis for Liv. Feeling unhappy, isolated and misunderstood at university – “I would cry every day” – gal-dem provided a way for Liv to create a like-minded community of women going through the same thing.
“Growing up the people I would see on TV or in entertainment that looked like me were very Americanized, and they were the only things I could in any way relate to,” Liv says. “That’s true for a lot of Black people in Britain I think. The recognition of the British media of Black people and people of color more broadly has always been behind. Even the history I studied in school that was in any way related to Black history was the American side,” she says.
“I think as you get older you get to a point where certain things just don’t sit right with you anymore and when I was in university I had started to develop a framework to articulate those experiences,” she says. At the time Liv was also working part time in television and documentary making, giving her a broader understanding of storytelling and more specifically which stories were being told. “gal-dem seemed like a viable route to tell more stories from different perspectives,” she says. “It made sense for me.”
It was a manic but incredibly exciting time – I wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Liv has spent time working within TV, most recently in commissioning in the factual department at the BBC where she developed a new strand focused on the history we aren't taught in schools. She also has experience working on a range of shows as researcher, producer and art director and in 2018 produced her first audio documentary for the Migration Museum. Liv has been voted as a Future Leader, a rising star at WOW and included in the inaugural BBC's 100 women series. Liv has also spent time working in a range of third sector organisations including Women for Refugee Women and the Simon community in Dublin.
Project Tags
Companies
Squarespace
- Technology
WeTransfer
- Publishing
gal-dem magazine
- Media Production