Chinaza Favour, a visionary advocate for personal transformation, dedicates herself to empowering individuals, especially the youth, to embrace their highest potential. As an accomplished author of transformative books, including ‘Dear Young One,’ she has impacted over 15,000 youths worldwide.

Chinaza is a brand ambassador for WORITAL, a leading African publishing company. Recognised as one of Nigeria’s top 100+ authors in 2023, she hosts a yearly literary contest, highlighting exceptional literary skills.
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Passionate about mental health advocacy, Chinaza destigmatises therapy and mental health intervention. As a modest fashion model, she promotes African authenticity and has received accolades, including the 2023 Impact Women in Leadership Award.

Driven by a desire to restore hope and compassion, she believes in effecting change one person at a time. Her guiding mantras, inspired by the Ubuntu Philosophy, make her not just a writer and speaker but also a beacon of inspiration leading towards a brighter, more empowered world.
In this interview with ESTHER IJEWERE, she shares her story. 

Inspiration behind her mission to empower the youth and promote personal transformation
I wish I could point to one incident that made me get on this path, but I know that I have always been passionate about youth empowerment. I have always loved seeing people make changes in their lives, which in turn makes them live more happily. I just recently narrowed my message to young people because I realised that in the next 30 years, the outcome of all the choices we made now will be glaring us in the face and I wouldn’t want anyone who knows me to be filled with regrets. I have this thing where I say that I want to look back at my life when I am older and say ‘it was a life well lived’. For that to happen, we must begin to make the right choices now. So, I have made it my responsibility to take as many young people as I can with me on this journey.

Championing mental health advocacy through La Roche Leadership Foundation
My affiliation with La Roche Leadership Foundation is not about mental health advocacy. That is a part of what I do with my personal brand even as I am a student of Psychology in the University of Lagos. Mental health has been stigmatised for a long time. I have always wondered, if we are not ashamed to see a doctor when we have bodily ailments or just want to have our routine checkups, why should we be ashamed to see or shamed for seeing a therapist when we have issues that trouble our minds or just want to keep our minds in the best shape possible? I use my platforms to create awareness on mental well-being and also honour invitations to speak on other platforms on the same topic.

With La Roche Leadership Foundation, personal leadership and nation-building are at the core of what we do. We host outreaches to schools of all levels from the primary to the tertiary levels. We publish, buy and donate books geared towards our goals of raising exemplary leaders and visionaries.

One of the best things I love about our foundation is our understanding of the impact of literature; so we have well-equipped libraries – an adult library, a children’s library and an IT library – that are free to access. That is one of our ways of empowering youths by giving them access to the right knowledge and information.

Memorable success stories from impacting 15,000 young minds through books
I have too many success stories than I can count but two stand out for me. After a recent live session I held on my Facebook profile with over 105,000 followers, a young man messaged me to say that he was just contemplating suicide before he stumbled on the session. He now has a renewed outlook on life and has chosen to do his best to change the direction of his life’s story. That is one out of many lives saved from generational extinction.
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With my book ‘Dear Young One’, the second edition of which is coming out in a few months, a young lady messaged me and told me that because of the letter I wrote about honouring our parents, she has gone back to make peace with her parents. She had harboured hatred for them for a long time because of what happened in her formative years but she was able to reframe her perspective of the whole story and had to make peace with them. This seems little but it is a big deal for me.

I receive messages from people (young and older) whose perspectives on life changed since coming in contact with my works and they now live life with a renewed sense of meaning.

Navigating challenges in youth development
I haven’t faced many challenges as a youth except for times when some adults would like to take advantage of me because they are higher up. Being young is a blessing but when you meet people who think that the youth has nothing to offer, you have to prove to them that you are only young, not useless. Just like Paul admonished Timothy, I let no one despise my youth by giving them nothing to use against me. For this reason, I always get the attention I need because I use my youth to my advantage.

Influential women who inspire her
Yetunde Bankole-Bernard. She is a reflection of a part of my future self. Her ‘Find Your Next Self’ yearly retreat was a dream I had that I wasn’t sure was possible, only I saw her doing it.

Lisa Nichols inspires me a great deal. She is a woman whose messages I deeply resonate with, and I see myself unapologetically and authentically embracing and expressing myself because of her.

Oprah Winfrey is a woman whose story and life show me that anything is possible. I dream wide because Oprah is, and I hope that my life inspires many others the way these women have inspired me.

The role of literature  in personal and societal transformation
It used to be said that if you want to hide anything from a black man, put it inside a book. I am glad that this narrative is changing because we have come to understand that literature is the way forward.
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For the youth specifically, it plays a very crucial role in that we get to learn the lessons from experiences we didn’t have and gain wisdom from lives we didn’t live. I recently heard a quote paraphrased thus: ‘The old man has wisdom but does not have time; the young man has time but does not have the wisdom. Wisdom beckons the young man to take the wisdom of the old man and add to his time’.

It is our duty to search out the wisdom that will guide the rest of our lives now that we are young. And a good chunk of this wisdom is found in literature.

Strategies to effect change and measuring impact
As an author, I write books that spur change on a personal level. I have always believed that societal change is possible only when personal transformation has been achieved. This is because individuals are the building blocks of a society. So, when I write, my main goal is to force my reader into deep reflection and introspection. This, in turn, leads to new resolutions which produce visible changes in their lives. Testimonies abound.

I also host retreats where young people take time to refresh their minds and get ready to face the world again. This seemingly little activity has birthed action-takers who now face their fears and are building the life that they desire, relentlessly.
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How do I measure my impact? By the results of those who have come in contact with me. I don’t teach money-making strategies, the results of which are more visible. I teach growth from the inside. So my result is a community of intentional young people who would stop at nothing to pay kindness forward and love deeply. Resolute young people who have decided that no matter what, they will give living their best shot and leave a mark in their own little way. These are in their thousands, and I am deeply honoured to be championing this transformation.

What makes you a Woman of Rubies
The precious stone, Ruby, has several qualities, three of which I deeply resonate with— durability, colour and its association with royalty.

Rubies score nine out of 10 on the Mohs scale, which tests for hardness. This hardness can be used to symbolise resilience. I am that person who rarely gives up when life deals me a heavy blow. I always bounce back and just like a Ruby, I shine brilliantly like I did not just walk out of hell.

Rubies have varying shades of brilliant red all of which symbolise passion. I am very passionate in everything I do and I love deeply.

For the longest time, Rubies have been considered a gem for kings. I identify as royalty, so it is only given that Rubies would be part of my favourite gemstones. In a nutshell, I am a woman of Rubies because I am resilient, passionate and regal.
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