Joy is a copywriter by trade and a storyteller at heart. As a Black woman who is gifted with the pen, she feels it’s her responsibility to amplify Black voices past and present. She uses several digital tools to disseminate her stories, build a community, and give back. Simply telling stories wasn’t enough for Joy, she needed to see them for herself. Where Joy Wanders was born as a way for Joy to recapture the narrative of the American road trip and make it meaningful to Black culture. She travels the country in ways her ancestors couldn’t and collects stories from their history to share.

The American Blackstory is Joy’s response to Black lives being written out of history, pop culture, and media. She preserves the rich and untold stories of Black people in the tradition of the griots before her, going above and beyond to study, curate, and share Black history with her followers every February. In June, Joy lights up the sound waves with the SOUND IN COLOR playlists and blog, taking her audience on a journey of sight and sound into the history, joy, pain, and power of African American music. This platform also raises donations for Black arts nonprofits. Throughout Joy’s career she has made meaningful work for clients like AT&T, Corona, KFC, and the U.S. Army. Most recently, her team reinvigorated the Corona U.S. business and brought a brand that had “lost its accent” back to cultural relevance with the “La Vida Más Fina’” campaign, resulting in Corona’s first double-digit growth in 10 years.

Joy Rises Up in her career as a co-leader of the Black@MullenLowe employee resource group. She served as creative director for the Black Catalog, a site dedicated to Black wellness, launched the Ratchet and Refined Media Club, and hosted an agency-wide discussion with Kimberly Annece Henderson, a historical researcher who centers Black American lineage. Joy also lends her talent to agency initiatives that help build a culture of belonging. Her words brought to life the experiences of diverse employees through MullenLowe’s Proud Stories Instagram series during Black and Women’s History Months. She was the lead creative for Momternships, a first-of-its-kind internship that welcomes moms back to the workforce. She also reaches back and serves as a mentor to junior talent at MullenLowe and as colead at a Golin’s Copywriting Night School session.

Joy builds a community wherever she goes. Whether she’s at work, online, or in her solo travels, she manages to connect with people on a deeper level and rally support for her passion to perpetuate Black history. As a guest on the Globetrotter Lounge podcast, she even inspired the host to use travel in a unique way—to heal and honor Black culture. Her three-pronged approach—music, travel, and storytelling—to influence and inspire people sets her apart and tells a more complete story of Black culture.