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Yelitza Smith – Saluting Our Sisters

Yelitza is an educational veteran with an impressive track record spanning over two decades. Throughout her career, she has nurtured young minds from primary, through to post-16; in both schools and community settings. With her expertise as a former Year Manger, Head of English Faculty, and Lead Practitioner in Literacy, Yelitza has consistently showcased her commitment to educational excellence and as unwavering desire to help young people thrive and succeed in their learning.

Yelitza was first introduced to the huge void in literature whilst teaching English at secondary school. Gifted with the opportunity to enhance young boys’ achievement, she worked with a group of Afro-Caribbean boys, to help elevate their grades and expand future life opportunities. For those, once avid readers, their passion waned in secondary school due to a crucial realisation: the lack representation in the books they encountered. Fast forward a few years and not only has Yelitza crafted books that captivate all readers, but she is helping to create a whole new genre of picture-fiction; combining traditional styling with graphic novel and comic illustrations with inter-woven literacy style questions. She listened to her audience and created the new Class 7E book series, and the Afroboy comic, where the main characters, look just like the readers.

2022 saw her achieve the prestigious Black Talent Award for Solopreneur of 2022 and 2023 is set to be the year the business really takes flight.