Contributor Alert - Chidinma Peppy Akaniro

I met Chidinma sometime last year. Her cousin, Chichi, took me to her fashion store to 'check out the place' and just like that, Chidinma gave me the gift of my first Ankara Crop Top ever. (I don't think I ever told her it was my first). 

We didn't immediately become friendly with each other and for the life of me, I can't recall the point at which we became more than passing acquittances but that eventually happened. She went on to start a movement, YFENN (Young Female Entrepreneurs Network Nigeria) and I was very happy to be part of it...although my work schedule and load made it difficult for me to be as involved as I would have preferred to be.

I got to experience Chidinma as a real, brutally honest, focused, very catholic, original Igbo, passionate, hard working and sensibly romantic young woman. A lot of times, I wish I had had such a clear vision of where I wanted my life to go when I was 23. Chidinma, without trying to, helped me learn to keep up and keep moving...one time she told me how she started reading random things to enrich her mind because she had identified that as something I did...I never told her but I was very happy to have influenced someone I draw a lot of inspiration from.

I am not much of a Facebook person (and yes, I am trying to be more social on Facebook) but every once in a while, when I check out Facebook, I fall upon one of Chidinma's posts about something or other she has experienced and the read is fantastic...her story telling style, the purity with which she relays the thoughts and details and most importantly, the positivity that lines her stories, make it hard to stop reading before it ends. So many of her Facebook friends have asked her to put together a book and take writing seriously...I don't know if she ever will but I do know she has given me permission to publish some of her writings here. Maybe someday, we can get her to write pieces, exclusive to this site.

All her pieces will be signed "Peppy" and you can navigate directly to them by clicking on the label in the side bar on the right side of the blog page.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.