Welcome to my website! Here you’ll find lots of information about me, my novels, news of upcoming events, competitions and future publications. Journey through my website where countless wonders (well certainly lots of stuff) await… Enjoy your visit!
I was born in London, grew up in a library, and was the first in my family to go to university. After graduating from Oxford, and following a brief stint at New Scotland Yard, I chose a career in publishing over being the next Sherlock Holmes. Today I’m the founder of Storymix. A children’s fiction development studio that creates inclusive stories and nurtures voices from under-represented backgrounds in children’s books.
Who is Lola Morayo?
Lola Morayo is the pen name for the creative partnership of writers Tólá Okogwu and Jasmine Richards. Together they write Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door.
Tólá is a journalist and author of the Daddy Do My Hair series. She is an avid reader who enjoys spending time with her family and friends in her home in Kent, where she lives with her husband and daughters.
Jasmine is the founder of an inclusive fiction studio called Storymix and has written more than 15 books for children. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and two children.
Both are passionate about telling stories that are inclusive and joyful.
Who is JD Sharpe?
As well as my own books, I’ve also written several books in the Beast Quest series and for teens I write under the pseudonym, JD Sharpe.
JD Sharpe was born in 2009. If your next question is “how does a kid write a book?”, read on. If it isn’t, then seriously, what on earth were you going to ask?
For a very long time, JD remained hidden in the deepest recesses of the mind of an author called Jasmine Richards (yes, me!). Jasmine had a nice life. She lived in an old blanket mill and grew herbs on her windowsill but then one day JD got out and things were never the same again.
JD had a dark imagination. An imagination filled with zombies and soulstealers, ghosts and vampires. An imagination that just wouldn’t let go…
Visit my Books page to find out more about JD Sharpe’s first novel for teens…
Storymix: creating stories where all kids get to be the hero
When I’m not writing my own books, I’m running Storymix, an inclusive fiction studio with a social purpose. We create children’s stories with diverse casts of characters in an organic, joyful and authentic way.
Of the 9,115 children’s titles published in 2017 only 4% featured Black Asian Minority Ethnic characters. Only 1% of those books had any BAME lead characters.
Storymix is challenging that. We create heroes for every child and tell stories where every child can be the hero.
Inclusivity in children’s fiction matters. If young readers from under-represented backgrounds continue not to see themselves in books then they will choose other media that reflects them better. These same children are less likely to grow up to be authors and the cycle of under-representation continues.
Representation or the lack of it affects all of us. Children exposed to different cultures, viewpoints and backgrounds grow up to understand the world better and change the world for the better.
