Nicole Young is a writer and artist whose non-fiction essays on race, gender, and culture have been featured in Elle, YES!, Vox, Scalawag, and Bitch magazines.

She is a part of the editorial team of Jacaranda Books, working to bring a non-fiction book series on Black American culture to life. Nicole became a full-time writer after working on political campaigns, serving as an appointee in the White House and U.S. Department of Education, and leading a small early college program in New Orleans. Her writing is influenced as much by those experiences as it is being shooed out of her grandmother’s kitchen, reading for hours at the Norfolk Public Library while waiting for her mom to get off of work, singing in church choirs and cover bands, and devouring Sailor Moon fanfiction in the early aughts.

Nicole previously served as a writer at The African American Policy Forum, co-host of the Kidlit These Days and Worth Noting podcasts, and contributing editor for Book Riot Media. In addition to her non-fiction writing, Nicole is dreaming up fantastical worlds for middle grade and young adult readers in her fiction novels and short stories. She hopes that by grounding all of her work in Blackness, collectivism, and ancestor practices, she can help people of all ages imagine a better and more just world.