Elena Favilli is a global bestselling author, speaker, and founder of Rebel Girls, the global brand dedicated to inspiring generations of confident girls.
She is the creative visionary behind The Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling series, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which has been translated into more than 50 languages since it was first published in 2016. Elena’s work has been recognized with multiple awards including several Webby Awards for the podcast Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, an Apple Design Award for the Rebel Girls app, and a Publisher’s Weekly Rising Star Award.
Elena’s pioneering work has revolutionized storytelling in children’s literature by reinventing the fairy tale, exchanging princesses for biographical stories of real women who are the heroes changing the world. Featuring trailblazers both past and present, her books have sparked a global movement of Rebel Girls, who are growing up inspired by real-world female role models, from Cleopatra to Serena Williams, and from Taylor Swift to Greta Thunberg.
An advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of expression, Elena is a keynote speaker at leading conferences such as SXSW, Pensylvania Conference for Women, and WOW Conference. She contributes to major publications around the world, including The Guardian, Vogue, McSweeney’s, Elle, and La Repubblica.
Elena Favilli holds a M.A in Semiotics from University of Bologna, where she studied under Umberto Eco’s department. In 2006, she studied at U.C. Berkeley Department of Rhetoric on a one-year scholarship. She was born in Italy, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
