Meet Ochuko Akpovbovbo: The 22-year-old college student behind Parachute Media
“I don't have a very strong sense of impossibility,” says Ochuko Akpovbovbo, laughing softly under her breath, “My friends always say that I have the confidence of a white man because I genuinely believe that I can do anything.”
Akpovbovbo is a dreamer who believes no goal is too far out of reach. And her drive matches her dreams — meaning she won’t just have the idea, but she’ll also create a plan of action for making it a reality. Take her current dream-come-true, for example: Parachute Media. Maybe you follow Parachute on Instagram or maybe you’re reading it now for the very first time; either way, it might come as a shock to learn that it all began with a 22-year-old girl and her larger-than-life dreams.
Akpovbovbo was born in Lagos, Nigeria — the most populous city in Africa — where she lived with her mother, father, older brother and two younger sisters. With a father who worked from home most of the time and a mother who taught at her school, Akpovbovbo became extremely close with her family, and they have watched her grow up to become the go-getter she is today.
“When Ochuko was 5 years old, we were at a general assembly and the teacher asked the children how they spent their holiday,” says her mother. “I saw Ochuko raise her hand and tell everyone that she went to America. I didn't say anything, but I knew she didn't go to America. After the assembly, I asked her, ‘Why would you say that?’ And she said, ‘Mommy, I know that I will go to America one day. I believe it and that's why I said it.’ So I told her, ‘OK, God will take you there.’”
As a child, Akpovbovbo would often sit in her room and imagine she was someone else living an entirely different life — more specifically, a life in America. When she was 16, she got the opportunity to leave home for the first time when she received a scholarship to finish high school in Canada. She lived there for two years before moving to Portland, Oregon at the age of 18 to attend college.
“When I got to America, I was really disappointed,” she says “I would watch American movies in college and I thought I would have so much fun.” But instead, Akpovbovbo wound up at a small liberal arts school called Lewis & Clark College, which she describes as “weird and hipster.” She initially struggled to find friends who shared her affinity for big goals, but she never let it deter her. Whether she was listening to entrepreneurial podcasts in the shower or skipping classes to attend leadership conferences, Akpovbovbo spent as much time as she could learning how to make her dreams a reality.
As a woman of color, Akpovbovbo is no stranger to rejection and doubt. In a world that isn’t always designed with people like her in mind, she has learned how to take charge of her own future. So instead of finding a seat at the table, she decided to build her own: Parachute Media. She has always dreamt of creating a platform for women and non-binary people of color to reclaim their narratives and tell their own stories. “When I moved to America, the only stories that I would hear about people like me were of trauma or struggle,” she says, “and while those things are obviously real and true, there is so much more to me.”
In recent years, most content created for people of color has centered around an experience of adversity and oppression. And while these things are integral to the identities of most people of color, they limit entire communities by only telling stories of their pain and never of their joy. Akpovbovbo explains that this is the reason Parachute focuses on promoting positivity and well-being for women and non-binary people of color. It aims to highlight the complex experiences of people in these communities, who each have their own uniquely intersectional identities.
“No one person or group should be the voice of an entire, complex community,” says Akpovbovbo. That is why her strategy with Parachute is to have at least 80% of the content be user-generated. This means that, in addition to the content produced by the small team of staff writers, Parachute will also be publishing work by everyday women and non-binary people of color looking for a place to tell their story. Her goal is to give everybody a platform to craft their own narratives and share their experiences with the world, which is an opportunity that doesn’t really exist for women and non-binary people of color. Through Parachute, Akpovbovbo plans to revolutionize this industry for the people who seldom get the chance to make their voices heard. And at 22 years old, she’s only getting started.
Written by Gabi Rodriguez
Header graphic by Gabi Rodriguez
