How This Black Woman Is Creating Online Safe Spaces For Geek And Anime Fans

As a Black woman who loves anime, Bee Law knows these spaces can often be unwelcoming to people like her. To combat this issue, she created a solution to give Black women more representation in the community.

Bee Law’s life has been guided by a desire to help communities. At 16, she started a nonprofit for students with autism after witnessing one of her friends get bullied.

Later on, Law pursued a full-time career in cytogenetics, which she saw as a way of helping communities from a scientific perspective.

Now, at 29, Law has launched QuirkChat, a video social network for anime and geek fans. According to Law, launched in April 2021, QuirkChat already has tens of thousands of users.

The app allows users to create 15-second videos that other users can reply to, discussing all things geek and anime. Eighty-four percent of users identify as people of color, and 56 percent use she/her pronouns, communities frequently underrepresented in all things geek.

“No racists, sexists or trolls” are allowed on QuirkChat, she told Forbes last year.

And with recognition from Snap’s Yellow accelerator and the Techstars Anywhere incubator, QuirkChat’s technology enables users to send video responses to one another, limit online harassment, build niche communities within the app, and even monetize with in-app transactions.

The app reportedly uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to seek out different types of online abuse, not just racism.

Law already secured $750,000 in funding, including an investment of $250,000 from Chicago-based investment firm Greenhouse Fund, led by entrepreneur Kathryn Finney.