Gender/Pro-nouns: Cis Female, she/her
Date of Birth: March 15th 1990
Place of Birth: Tel Aviv - Israel
Current Residence: Notting Hill
Length of Residence: Since March 2020
Occupation: Travel writer / blogger / freelance photographer
trigger warnings: drug addiction mention, emotional abuse mention, mental health issues, attempted suicide, bullying, homophobia
First things first, Akida was born in Tel Aviv as the daughter of an Israeli drug dealer, who was neither old enough nor fit to be a mother. On a whim, Akida’s mother decided to take the girl and move to the UK – Manchester to be exact. Over the first few years of her childhood, Akida’s life was everything but easy. In and out of drug addiction, the girl’s mother oftentimes let her anger out on her, which caused Akida to have her guard up most of the time. Due to the fact that Akida’s mother refused to speak English to the girl, it took Akida much longer to learn the language than it usually would, which oftentimes made her a target for bullying in school. Explosive mood swings from her mother’s side and phases in which the girl was more than just neglected eventually caused Akida to get taken away from her mother when she was nine years old.
Akida was placed in a home for a little while, until she was eventually adopted by a couple from Newcastle, Lucia Ricci and Grace Baker. Legally, Akida and her other adoptive siblings were Grace’s adoptive children, as her career as a psychologist made her a suitable candidate and the system did not yet allow same-sex couples to adopt. However, once this became legal in 2002 and Lucia and Grace were officially allowed to enter a civil partnership. Lucia took on her partner’s last name and the children were finally adopted by her as well, making the family complete on paper. Akida was the fifth adoptive child of the Baker family, albeit not the youngest. She was set up in Evie’s room, who was a little more than two years younger than her and more than just excited to get a roommate. Finally, a new chapter of Akida’s life began.
At first, the young girl had a very hard time adjusting. Not only was she still self-conscious about her less than perfect English, but she was also used to having to keep her guard up. Being accustomed to having to fend for herself, it took the shy girl a very long time to open up to her older adoptive siblings as well as her new parents. It was Evie’s positive and relentless nature that slowly brought Akida out of her shell, though it took several months for her to be fully comfortable in her new surroundings at home, especially since it was so multicultural and her siblings were spoken to in Italian by Lucia to give them a multilingual upbringing. Still, Akida was more than just glad to have three older siblings to look up to, as she was trying to fit in as much as possible. Her siblings as well as Lucia and Grace helped her as much as they could and it eventually became very clear to Akida that she had lucked out with where she had ended up. The family was nothing but loving and open minded, which made her feel safe and cared for once she felt comfortable enough to open up a little bit.
During her teenage years, Akida really struggled coming to terms with her sexuality, as she knew from a very young age that it wasn’t just boys she was interested in. While Lucia and Grace were naturally very open minded, Akida had already become a target at school due to the family she got adopted into and the accent she was still trying to lose - she didn’t want to give her peers another reason to pick on her. For a very long time, she kept the struggle inside, not talking to anyone about it. Eventually, however, she opened up to her parents about what she was going through and they were nothing but supportive when it came to her journey, making sure they were there for her while at the same time letting Akida figure things out at the speed she was comfortable with. Still, rumors happened and Akida ended up under fire at school once more, which resulted in the girl turning even more into herself.
Things changed when she finally ended up coming out, effectively taking most of the ammunition her peers had away from them. They ended up leaving her alone and she could focus on her studies, eventually graduating secondary school, her GCSE grades better than average. She then did her A-Levels over the next two years until she turned 18 and started her Bachelor’s Degree for photography at the Leeds Arts University, which quickly turned into a major passion of hers. Whenever she could, she had the camera in her hand, especially fascinated by sceneries, buildings, as well as people from cultures other than her own.
When Akida was 22, she started traveling, wanting to see the world and different cultures. She started writing a blog, quickly discovering her passion for travel journalism and using her photography to make her posts stand out. And while she missed her family, traveling gave her the freedom of being able to be on her own and figure out what she wanted out of life. Her blog slowly got more popular and eventually she was approached by a magazine. They wanted her to write for them and she accepted, running her blog on the side. Always the hard worker, Akida put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into getting where she was, always making sure she perfected each article.
Having been left at the altar by her ex-fiancee when was 27, Akida now has a very hard time committing and letting people get close. This also caused her to fall into a deep depression which ended in a suicide attempt. She ended up admitting herself to a hospital to get treatment for her issues and her younger adoptive sister Evie was there for her every step of the way. Now she has successfully overcome that part of her life and while she still struggles with some dark thoughts every now and again and feelings of unworthiness, she does her best to keep her head up high.
She’s very selective about who she really lets close but once you have Akida as a friend, she is fiercely loyal and protective. Still, she spends a lot of time with her work and works extremely hard, partly because she wants to keep her success and partly to distract herself from everything else that’s going on in her life. After running into her ex-fiance again recently due to the magazine not telling about who she was going to be working with, Akida finally threw the towel and quit the job, now relying on her blog as her main source of income.
She’s now moved in with Evie, living with her for the past month and sharing an apartment in Notting Hill with her. She still has enough content from her travels to keep her blog afloat for a while and she works as a freelance photographer on the side. The truth is, she isn’t sure where she wants to go when it comes to the rest of her life or where it will lead here, but she takes it one day at a time and tries to not say no to opportunities that could potentially turn into something great.
Penned by: Xandy find them here.
