Vanessa Vallely, recently touted as “Queen of the City” due to her role in encouraging diversity, empowerment and networking opportunities for women in London, has unveiled a season of celebrity bloggers on the website she founded, www.wearethecity.com.
“This summer we will be treated to a very personal insight into the lives of over a dozen celebrity and guest writers who will be blogging for us” Vanessa (39) explained. “They are all truly inspirational – from the businesses they have founded, to their charity, campaigning and diversity work.”
The first blog is being written by Vanessa herself and future bloggers include award winning garden designer Kate Gould, campaigner against arranged marriages Jasvinder Sanghera and founder of buymywardrobe.com Kal di Paola.
Heba Elawadi (25) is the first blogger to be featured. A young designer whose work blends her exotic North African roots with love of London life, she graduated from The American Intercontinental University in London in 2005. Since then she has gone on to found her own label hebz.com and recently launched bungalowh.com which showcase fashion and lifestyle works by upcoming designers of the future with the support of international brands that are well established and known.
“Heba’s inspiring because she combines a passion for fashion with a desire to give something back, donating to international charities from the collaborations and collections she’s involved with” Vanessa enthused. “She has firsthand experience of the Arab Spring and both the challenges and opportunities that presents for women.“
Wearethecity.com was started with Vanessa’s husband Stewart in their spare time. That spare time is in increasingly rare supply for this mum of two, as she juggles a successful 22 year career in the city with her other passions. Aside from the website reaching a record of 60,000 unique visitors last month, no easy feat. Vanessa is booked to speak across the globe at women’s conferences and is frequently seen in her Pearly coat at fundraising events in her role as Pearly Queen of the City of London.
“We’ve put together this blogging season to celebrate the great successes and passions of women with women, something we’re notoriously bad at doing”.
With such a powerful message and ambassador, it seems likely that Vanessa may become Queen of more than just one city in the very near future.