44. Phendu Kuta
Vital Stats:
- Business: Unlabelled magazine
- Established: 2014
Up-and-coming fact:
Kuta attributes her decision to take a leap and launch online youth culture magazine Unlabelled, to being resilient, positive, determined, authentic and calm.
After working as a visual merchandiser for retail clothing brand Mango, managing a blog and interning as a writer at Fashion Week, Kuta felt that the media wasn’t authentically representing young Africans – and so she launched Unlabelled to change that. Her media company has expanded to offering photography, art and creative direction, styling and photoshoot production. Unlabelled’s accolades include the Design Indaba Emerging Creative award in 2016, a nomination for Young African Publisher of the year by Creative Nestlings in 2015, and Kuta was selected as part of Superbalist 100 – a list of 100 young South African influencers and game changers.