Active Voice

How Naj Austin Is Creating Virtual Safe Spaces for People of Color in the Pandemic

The 29-year-old founder of Ethel’s Club had to make a hard pivot last year, but she knew it was important to stick to her vision

Photo Illustration: Save As/Medium; source photo courtesy of Naj Austin

Naj Austin knows exactly what she wants and has no problem making it happen. Her high school classmates always knew this. “She’s a dog with a bone,” says a description in Austin’s high school yearbook. “She doesn’t let anything go. When she finds something she believes in, it’s a never-ending journey.”

Now 29, Austin feels she hasn’t changed at all. In November 2019, she launched Ethel’s Club, a social group and safe space invented for people of color, after becoming fed up with the lack of options for people like her to flourish and thrive in a welcoming environment. She decided to open her own safe space for people who could relate to her experience. The Brooklyn-based club now has over 1,000 members nationally and is named after Austin’s late grandmother, an advocate who organized and hosted community events from her home. “I grew up around safe spaces and wanted that to reflect my daily life as a twentysomething New Yorker,” Austin explains. “When I went to go search for that, I couldn’t find it.”