HERstory: Kayla Austin

Welcome back to the She Shall Speak Series! We are excited to kick off the eighth episode of our HERstory series, a collection of stories of young Black women and girls who are leading the way for positive social change in their communities. Tune in to hear Kayla Austin-- an activist, author, inventor, and creative-- discuss her advocacy journey, her experience at Howard University, and advice she has for aspiring visionaries.  

Kayla Austin is an activist, author, inventor, and an overall creative. She is from the Chicagoland area and is a freshman Television and Film major at Howard University. Kayla graduated high school from Cranbrook Schools where she began to develop her love for photography.  As an innovator, she created her first invention in the third grade and graduated to a patent-pending invention to combat gun violence. She has combined her social justice and Girl Scout efforts to receive the prestigious Gold Award.  Kayla hosted several community forums with police officers, school officials, community leaders, and teens to cultivate conversations to promote gun safety.  In addition to this, she spent her senior year of high school on a mission to mobilize other youth to ignite their passions within social justice. She did this by authoring a book and website called “How to be a Teen Advocate”.  Not only is she the national spokesperson for the Shoot Film Not Guns initiative but has had speaking engagements for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Microsoft, Jack and Jill of America, and her local church. Kayla is a mentee of Black Girls Rock’s leadership program, a HERLead Fellow, a Foot Locker Scholar, and has won two Presidential Community Service awards. Her work within her community has led her to be recognized as an AT&T Dream in Black Rising Future maker. After graduation, Kayla plans to use her innovative ideas as a social entrepreneur.