Lola Akinmade Akerstrom

Introduction

Lola Akinmade is an award-winning visual storyteller, international bestselling author, and travel photographer. She has dispatched from more than 80 countries and her work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Travel Channel, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Forbes, and many more. She has collaborated with commercial brands such as Dove, Getty Images, Mercedes Benz, Intrepid Travel, Electrolux, ASUS, and National Geographic Channel, to name a few.

Selected publications

In addition to contributing to several books, her travel book, Due North, received the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book, and she is also the author of international bestselling "LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well" available in over 15 foreign language editions.  

Her internationally acclaimed novel In Every Mirror She's Black was a Good Morning America (GMA) Buzz Pick, Apple Editors' Pick, Amazon Editors’ Pick,  and Independent UK Best Thought-provoking Story. 

Her novel Everything is Not Enough is an NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick, a Washington Post, Sunday Times, and Amazon Editors’ Pick, among others. 

And her novel Bitter Honey was an Audible UK Best of 2025,  Glamour Magazine SA Pick, Amazon Editors’ Pick, People  Magazine, Essence, and Stylist Best Book Pick.

Education

Lola has a BSc in Information Systems and Geography, and MSc in Information Systems from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from Harvard Business School.

Awards
In addition to several awards and mentions over the years from SATW and NATJA, as storyteller, Lola was featured on Condé Nast Traveler's Women Who Travel Power List. 

She was named one of the Most Influential Women in Travel by Travel Pulse, a Hasselblad Heroine (partnership with prestigious Hasselblad camera brand) and Bill Muster Travel Photographer of the Year bestowed by the Society of American Travel Writers. 

Her photography was shortlisted for the TPOTY awards and Global Peace Photo Award and longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize. She was also honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture and a Newsweek Future of Travel Storytelling Award, to name a few recognitions. 

Her photography has also been featured in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, including most recently Hasselblad Foundation's Fotosalongen.

Philanthropic work

She has collaborated with several NGOs as a photojournalist and photography mentor including the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), the Swedish Red Cross and World Hope International, to name a few.

Fun travel fact

She was featured in a vignette as a National Geographic photographer called “Through The Lens” which aired on Nat Geo channels across the globe for several years.