photo by maile wilson
Karen Walrond is a speaker, writer and photographer.
She's also wildly convinced you're uncommonly beautiful.
Karen's bestselling book, The Beauty of Different, is a chronicle of imagery and portraiture, combined with written essays and observations on the concept that what makes us different makes us beautiful -- and may even be the source of our superpowers. It is available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bright Sky Press, and other booksellers around the world.
The book inspired BlogHer's Own Your Beauty initiative, where Karen was the lead blogger, and which also appeared as part of USA Today's OwnIt campaign. She is a TEDxHouston speaker and a sought-after keynote speaker, including having covered topics as varied as parenthood, diversity, social media and women in leadership. She has appeared on both local & national television shows and other news media, including PBS, Huffington Post, CNN.com and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Karen is also the author of Chookooloonks, an award-winning photoblog. Her fine art photography pieces and projects have been included in exhibits around the country. She is a contributor to the book Expressive Photography: A Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart, a guide for beginning and intermediate photographers for adding heart and soul to their imagery. Karen's writing, images and other projects have been featured on CNN.com, USA Today, Good Housekeeping and Wondertime magazines, among others.
She is a proud and awestruck member of the advisory board of the ONE Moms, a part of the ONE Campaign, a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease in developing countries, particularly in Africa.
Karen is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with Marcus (her English husband), Alex (her American daughter), and Rufus the Wonderdog. She's a former engineer and an attorney, holding a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association.
About Chookooloonks
Chookooloonks was first published in 2004 as a personal parenting journal, and has since evolved into an award-winning lifestyle, travel, inspiration and photo blog. Through the pairing of striking imagery and essays, Karen helps thousands of people around the world every day see that their ordinary lives are, in fact, extraordinary. Her belief that every person on the planet is uncommonly beautiful is a deeply-held conviction, and her mission is to convince others of this fact, too.
Chookooloonks has garnered many awards including 2011 Top 50 Mom Blog from Babble.com, Best Eye Candy Blog 2010 of the 2010 BlogLuxe awards; The 2010 Black Weblog Best Photoblog Award (Judges' Choice); and was a finalist in The 2011 Bloggies. In addition, Karen was recently named one of the Top 50 Twitter Moms of 2011 by Babble.com for @chookooloonks.
If you're interested in becoming a sponsor for Chookooloonks.com, please check out the media page, as well as the details on sponsorhips.
Work With Karen
Karen is available for speaking engagements, as well as collaborating on marketing campaigns whose missions closely tie into the message and aesthetic of Chookooloonks, and for which Karen is allowed creative control. For more on how Karen can help your organization, click here for her media kit, and feel free to contact her directly.
