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Anya Jenev Dillard (born May 14, 2003), also known as AJ Dillard, is an African-American activist, philanthropist, social entrepreneur, model content creator, and aspiring filmmaker. She is also the founder of The Next Gen Come Up – a 501(c)3 dedicated to encouraging young people to pursue activism, organize amongst their peers, get involved in community service, and raise awareness through creating thought provoking works of art. Dillard is best known for helping to organize the largest civil rights protest and the first public Juneteenth celebration in the history of her home town West Orange, New Jersey.

Early Life and Education
Anya Jenev Dillard was born in New Jersey to former R&B singer Enid (also known as Jae) Dillard and Jean Pierre Dillard, an Oscar nominated animator known for his work on the hit children's shows Courage the Cowardly Dog, Sesame Street, and Pinky Dinky Doo.

In the early years of her childhood, Anya's advanced knowledge and understanding of natural sciences led many to believe that she would one day become a veterinarian or zoologist. In middle school, Anya began involving herself in STEM programs for the gifted and, because of her academic achievements, was chosen to represent her school district at the Envision National Youth Leadership Forum for STEM Exploration in 2016. After witnessing the racial disparities within the STEM industry and the global outcry that took place in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin (2012) first hand, Anya began to develop a strong interest in social justice and realized she wanted to explore the world of social activism. After graduating from the Envision STEM Exploration program in 2016, Anya Dillard was invited to the 2016 Presidential Inauguration, and at the time it was still uncertain whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton was going to win the election. After coming to the conclusion that neither of the candidates represented the future that Anya envisioned for her country, she decided to decline the invitation and coined the moment as the first political decision she ever made.

In 2017, Anya was accepted into the BLACK GIRLS ROCK (BLACK GIRLS LEAD) Conference — a competitive leadership program, created by DJ Beverly Bond in partnership with BET, for black girls (ages 13-18) from all over the world doing amazing things in their communities. Being apart of BLACK GIRLS LEAD is what inspired Anya to fully commit to becoming a social entrepreneur. During her sophomore year, shortly after attending her first year at the conference, Anya founded The Next Gen Come UP.

Throughout high school, Anya was a member of the West Orange High School Institute for Humanities (IH) — a high honors program for freshman and sophomore students who consistently showed outstanding academic achievement. On top of being a honors and AP student, Anya was also a dedicated member of the West Orange High School Jubilee Choir, National Honors Society, and Nu Theta Omega Girls' Step Team.

On her 17th birthday (2020) Anya was elected the 3rd-ever black female Student Council President, and became the head of the first ever all female and all POC Student Council Cabinet in West Orange High School's history. She graduated from West Orange High School in 2021, and continued her education at Rutgers University Newark as a member of The Honors College and The Honors Living Learning Community; to programs that possess acceptance rates below 7%. As a Rutgers student, Anya is pursuing studies in Journalism and Video Production with a minor in Social Justice.

Philanthropy
Anya's journey as a change-maker began when she was just 5 years old. In 2008, she started an annual holiday gift-giving program for the long-term care pediatric division of Rutland Nursing Home at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Since then, Anya's program has raised tens of thousands of dollars annually to provide children (ages newborn to 18) that suffer from severe neurological and physical disabilities with toys, clothes, winter coats, underwear, blankets and other necessities each holiday season. In addition to her annual contributions to children of Kingsbrook's pediatric division, Anya works equally as hard contributing to her own community. In 2018, Anya began raising funds to provide the children of Sierra House — a nonprofit in East Orange, NJ that provides housing, counseling, and other critical social services to homeless, young women and mothers between the ages of 18 and 25, who are victims of abuse, neglect, or aging out of the foster care system — with back-to school-supplies and winter coats. In 2019, as part of an effort to raise money and awareness for period poverty and eradicate period shame, Anya created her own annual social media campaign “#MyRedStripes”. The campaign inspired many members of her school community to start speaking more openly about feminine hygiene and menstruation, and inspired Anya to start calling herself an “image activist” — someone who utilizes their creative visionary talents to create polarizing media that pulls societal norms apart, sparks controversial dialogue, and helps to educate the masses.” Anya also hosted weekly bake sales, in collaboration with her school's step teams, that raised money to provide teen girls in Ghana with feminine hygiene products ). In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020), Anya created the "Kindness Through COVID" campaign, which allowed for people to write motivational messages to pediatric and geriatric nursing home patients who had been barred from seeing their loved ones due to quarantine restrictions.

Activism
As a freshman in high school, Anya contributed to a massive student walkout — in solidarity with March for Our Lives — that demanded that action be taken to prevent gun violence in schools and to encouraged members of her community to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Parkland, Florida shooting that took place at Stone Man Douglass High School in 2018.

In the wake of the Global Climate Strike (2019), Anya helped to organized a demonstration that encouraged over 600 West Orange High School students to cut class and march the track demanding that action not only be taken by elected officials, but by the members of their own student community, to combat pollution and global warming. After George Floyd was brutally murdered by Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin, Anya and a few of her peers came together to organize what would turn out to be one of thee largest civil rights demonstration in West Orange History. Over 3,000 people gathered on the steps of West Orange’s town hall in support of the rally, and to hear speeches from community leaders including Marley Dias, Akhil Khalfani, Mayor Robert D. Parisi, James Abbott — Chief of the West Orange Police Department, and Anya Dillard herself. Anya's speech in particular gained over 25,000 views via social media and sparked a huge dialogue on Facebook regarding the fight against police brutality. As a result of the rally, Anya became one of the co-founding members of the West Orange Youth Caucus and went on to meet with other elected officials, including Mayor Parisi, to organize more rallies and re-evaluate ordinances related to ensuring the equal distribution of funds to West Orange’s predominantly black and Latinx public schools, mandating anti-bias training for law enforcement officials, and enforcing diversity and educational inclusion acts. In partnership with the West Orange Youth Caucus, Anya also helped to organize West Orange, New Jersey's first ever Juneteenth celebration — an event that has since become an annual West Orange tradition upon President Joe Biden’s decision to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Entertainment and Media
On top of her work as a civil rights leader, Anya is also a freelance model and content creator who has worked with major brands including Lancôme, Thread Beauty, and Vega.

begun currently pursuing a career in film, and media studies as well and hopes to one day own her very own production company. In 2017, Anya got her first gig in the industry as a social media promoter for the Gravitas Ventures documentary Memphis Majic directed by Eddie Bailey. In 2018, Anya worked as an assistant social media manager and associate producer for 40fyd+ Media LLC — a brand, founded by her mother Enid Dillard, dedicated to highlighting the journeys, accomplishments, and talents of women over 40. With 40fyd, Anya co-hosted live webinars with Dondre Whitfield as a part of 40fyd's collaboration with Male vs. Man — an inspiring book and web show dedicating to educating both men and women about what real manhood is (2020). She also worked for One Story Up Productions as an archival intern and production assistant in 2021.

On top of her work as a content creator and producer, Anya has also modeled for independent brands such as the celebrity cosmetic brand Fairweather Faces.

Honors and Awards
Dillard has received countless community service and presidential awards for her outstanding work in the community, and her many academic achievements. The following local, national, and international honors have been listed by the date they were awarded:


 * 2020: The Conversationalist Human Rights Award
 * 2020: The BLACK GIRLS ROCK Social Justice Grant
 * 2021: NJASC Student Leader of the Year Award
 * 2021: West Orange Board of Education Outstanding Community Service Award
 * 2021: West Orange Board of Education Student Leadership Award
 * 2021: West Orange High School Principal's Award
 * 2021: West Orange High School Student Council Award for School Service
 * 2021: Ulta Beauty's Muse 100
 * 2021: Minnesota Teen Activists 21 Changemakers of 2021
 * 2022: McDonald's Future 22
 * 2022: Varkey Foundation Global Student Prize Top 50
 * 2022: Teen Vogue 21 Under 21

Written works

 * Dillard, Anya. “Is Black History Your History?” Channel Kindness. The Next Gen Come Up. 27 July 2021.
 * (In part by) Dillard, Anya. "Our Past. My Future. Growing up Black in America." Medium. 8 February 2021.
 * Dillard, Anya. "All of These Moments Left Up to Chance" The Pioneer. 16 December 2019.
 * Dillard, Anya. "Shout for Sudan" The Next Gen Come Up. 20 June 2019.