Bristol’s Trailblazing Women
Celebrating women is at the very core of City Girl networks mission, and there is no better time to showcase their successes than now! We want to platform trailblazing women from across Bristol, who bravely pioneer the spaces they are in, championing their passions and emboldening women across the globe to step into space they deserve to be in.
We were spoilt for choice when it came to picking just a few of the incredible women we are surrounded by whether it’s medical breakthroughs, championing women’s rights or pioneering women’s sports. Bristol is bursting at the seams with women pushing boundaries and changing lives.
But big achievements don’t make the everyday actions you take are any less remarkable. Whether it’s following your dream career, moving out for the first time or getting through the day, we are all trailblazers in our own right and we encourage you to reflect on which areas of your life you are a pioneer in, as we can guarantee there will be some!
Stacey Olika
Bristol based Stacey is exactly the kind of women we had in mind when we were planning this article. She is strong, independent and embracing every inch of the industries she works within. Creative Diversity Coordinator for Channel 4, public speaker, business owner and artist, Stacey has forged a path for herself, grabbing opportunities as they came and learning as she goes.
We have been lucky enough to have Stacey on a Bristol Girl panel as a guest and host, and we have witnessed firsthand, her ability to capture the room and inspire.
Photography Credit: Tamara Breeze Photos
Ilona Maher
Ilona may not be a permanent Bristol resident, however we didn’t feel like we could miss this remarkable woman off out list. Having spent just three short but sweet months playing for the Bristol Bears, Olympic bronze medallist Ilona Maher’s impact on the sport has been dubbed the ‘Maher effect’ and is undeniably impressive. She is now the most followed rugby union player on social media in the world (BBC, 2025) and the first Bristol Bears game she played in had to be moved to Ashton Gate Stadium to accommodate the numbers of people wanting to attend the game.
Championing body positivity and pushing back against online hate, she has shown women across the globe they can be strong and feminine.
Dr Rebecca Allam
Dr Rebecca Allem is a Bristol based haematologist, who started her career with a desire to positively impact people’s health. Initially encouraged to take on more traditionally female roles, she pushed back and qualified as a haematologist (Preactiv Facebook). Rebecca noticed a gap in health care for ‘prehabilitation’, where individuals are optimised before surgery through nutrition and movement, improving post-surgery recovery time and reducing likelihood of complications.
This led Rebecca to found ‘PreActiv’, a digital service that facilitates cost effective, individualised pre surgery programmes, all while she was pregnant! She went on to win the 2023, Women in Innovation award, champions women in her business, continues to inspire women to become part of the tech space and the service has saved an incredible 13,600 bed days in hospital (Preactive, 2025).
Rhian Sherrington
Rhian Sherrington is a women after our own hearts, founding the 'Women in Sustainability Network'. Their mission is to 'offer a safe, learning community to all women, and those identifying as women, to grow and amplify our impact together' in the sustainability space. Having worn many hats throughout her career, Rhian started the network in Bristol by putting out feelers to see if there were other women in the space who wanted to connect, share and learn and to her shock, 80 women turned up (womeninsustainability.net).
There is now an overgrowing team of women who coach, facilitate and train for the network, with regular events that stretch across the globe.
Eliz Mizon
Strategy lead for the Bristol cable, Eliz Mizon has proven she is a force to be reckoned with, working to ensure the journalism produced for the Bristol cable has impact. Not only this but she smashed the fundraising target to unlock further funding for the Bristol Cable a week ahead of the deadline (Bristol Cable, 2024).
Her Substack publication 'Power and Pop Culture' campaigned for a better media industry by broaching subjects others may not be so brave to do. Includingimproved rights and contracts for workers across the media industry, diverse leadership, an end to press intrusion into people's private lives (elizmizon.substack.com). Oh, and she is going freelance this year!
Mena Fombo
Film director, founder and facilitator Mena Fombo, is the embodiment of the world trailblazer. Not only if she the International ambassador for the City of Bristol, named as Bristol247’s Women of the Year in 2019 and holds an honorary doctorate for her work in equality, she founded the ‘Black Girl Convention’.
The Black Girl Convention started in 2016 with a small grant, and has grown into a creative tech studio offering workshops and retreats with the aim of ‘ensure that ALL womxn of African and Caribbean heritage have a sense of home, by sharing, shaping and owning the Black Girl Experience’ (blackgirlconvention.com). Mena also launched NYCTMH in 2017, a portrait photography exhibition, accompanied by a survey collection of over 230 hair attack stories from around the globe (menafombo.com).
Emylia Hall
Bristol author Emylia Hall writes brilliant, immersive cosy crime novels which have hit the Kindle Top 10 list! (Emyliahall.co.uk, 2025). Alongside Emylia’s writing career, she founded the innovative ‘Mothership Writers’, a programme which holds space for new mum’s to explore their creativity while navigating a new chapter in their lives.
The ‘Mothership writers’ is in its seventh year of running and has resulted in two powerful books, ‘Mothership Writers, Dispatches from new motherhood’ and ‘born in lockdown’ (mothershipwriters.com) featuring the voices of 327 women in total, which we think is pretty amazing!
Written by Megan Lee