13 June Selena on Instagram: Please meet Raquel Willis (@raquel_willis)

@selenagomez: Please meet Raquel Willis (@raquel_willis). Raquel is an activist, soon-to-be author, and media strategist dedicated to building the power of Black transgender people. She began her career as a newspaper journalist, and eventually began working with other Black trans organizers at Solutions Not Punishments Collaborative (@Snap4Freedom) to develop campaigns to support Black trans people being profiled by police in Atlanta. Her talents led her to Transgender Law Center (@translawcenter) where she founded Black Trans Circles (@blacktranscircles_tlc), a project focused on healing justice for Black trans women in the Southern and Midwestern United States. She is also the former executive editor of Out magazine, where she created The Trans Obituaries Project dedicated to elevating the stories of slain trans women of color. She is currently working on an essay collection about her life experiences and activism called The Risk It Takes to Bloom.⠀
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Raquel believes in the power of storytelling and digital organizing as elements of radical change. She believes that the world can learn a great deal from Black transgender people because we are all limited by restrictive notions of gender. “Black trans people are a window of possibility for the men and boys who struggle to express their emotions and be tender, to the women and girls who struggle to be seen as smart and capable leaders, to everyone in between struggles within all simultaneously—you deserve to be complicated and human.”⠀
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Raquel is taking over my Instagram today!

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Please meet Raquel Willis (@raquel_willis). Raquel is an activist, soon-to-be author, and media strategist dedicated to building the power of Black transgender people. She began her career as a newspaper journalist, and eventually began working with other Black trans organizers at Solutions Not Punishments Collaborative (@Snap4Freedom) to develop campaigns to support Black trans people being profiled by police in Atlanta. Her talents led her to Transgender Law Center (@translawcenter) where she founded Black Trans Circles (@blacktranscircles_tlc), a project focused on healing justice for Black trans women in the Southern and Midwestern United States. She is also the former executive editor of Out magazine, where she created The Trans Obituaries Project dedicated to elevating the stories of slain trans women of color. She is currently working on an essay collection about her life experiences and activism called The Risk It Takes to Bloom.⠀ ⠀ Raquel believes in the power of storytelling and digital organizing as elements of radical change. She believes that the world can learn a great deal from Black transgender people because we are all limited by restrictive notions of gender. “Black trans people are a window of possibility for the men and boys who struggle to express their emotions and be tender, to the women and girls who struggle to be seen as smart and capable leaders, to everyone in between struggles within all simultaneously—you deserve to be complicated and human.”⠀ ⠀ Raquel is taking over my Instagram today!

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