My Profile — Toyin Zuleiha
I got an author’s autograph on a book before I was born.
My earliest memories of reading were reading books my father gave me, I don’t know how long he had bought and kept those books but I know when I was old enough to read, he would give me books that I wasn’t aware of when he bought them.
But I read the one where the author wrote me a note saying “she hopes that someday I get to read the book and become all I am destined to be”.
How could someone like that not like to tell stories?
However, I lost the plot.
Stories sometimes seem ordinary. We make the mistake of thinking they are merely for entertainment or only to convey gossip and jest.
At least that was how I saw stories as a child. Whenever I was enjoying any form of storytelling, whether it is by watching the TV, or reading a book or even listening to my friends or narrating an experience to my friends, I was filled with guilt — I should be reading my school books, I should be doing something more serious with my time.
It is not until I grew up that I understood the power that stories hold and why I have always wanted to be a storyteller.
I watched a lot of TV growing up, I loved the entertainment, I loved the fact that I could learn something new and unprecedented. The height of my day usually is learning something new that I never expected. It gave me a strong passion, I wanted to inform people, entertain them, take their minds to places they never thought existed, expand their perspective.
I started my career thinking I was only interested in broadcast media being a radio/TV host but turns out, I am an all-around storyteller, because how do you even do any of those without writing. Writing is the basis of all storytelling.
I am a multi-media content creator with experience as a television host, radio host, filmmaking, and freelance journalist.
I have published stories with different online platforms, the most recent being on AMAKA about women who are making moves behind the scenes in music, a UK-based platform created to tell stories about women.
I have written a couple of articles that have gained some numbers, the first one is my About Me story which earned me some email subscribers. You can read it here.
https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-toyin-zuleiha-d427b28c10c9
The second is a story where I talk about why I won’t stop writing on Medium even though I was not accepted to the partner program.
https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/why-you-should-not-stop-writing-on-medium-4688c6676af4
The last one is a story about how to turn your year around that details my experience in2021 and how I was able to stay centered all through the year despite the shit storm that was going on.
https://medium.com/curious/how-to-turn-a-bad-year-around-dc286b3605fe
I am open to collaborations, I am great at interviewing people and writing about it if you have a paying gig for me. I am also open to coffee times interviewing me for the interview series. I am also open to other freelance writing gigs including journalism-type stories. You can email me at zuleihaxpressions@gmail.com.
I have struggled with putting myself out there on social media for so many years as an introvert but using Medium has helped me get over that fear and I have created a course on Skillshare about How to Put Yourself Out There on Social Media, you can take the course by clicking the link if you have the same struggles.
