Patrice Grell Yursik is a Trinidadian writer who currently lives in downtown Chicago. In August 2006, she created Afrobella.com, a blog to fill a void that existed in print and online media - a continual celebration of natural hair and women all shades of beautiful. Afrobella readers are enlightening and entertaining, intelligent and glamorous, friendly, fabulous and fun. If you love the skin that you're in and the beautiful natural texture of your hair, if you enjoy learning about different cultures and listening to eclectic music, if you have an obsession with makeup and fashion and all things fabulous -- then this is the blog for you.

Afrobella has been featured in Essence, Ebony, Glamour, People Style Watch, Allure.com, the Trinidad Guardian, Trinidad Newsday and Fast Company.

Patrice Yursik has contributed writing to Essence, Newsweek.com, Jane.com and Ebony.com, and was one of the initial contributors to Italian Vogue’s Vogue Black.

She has been featured in full page print advertising campaigns for hair care brand Crème of Nature – these ads have run in every major African American magazine from Essence and Ebony to Sister to Sister and Hype Hair. She has participated in online advertising campaigns for cosmetics brands Urban Decay and Lancôme, and hosted events for brands including the Huetiful hair steamer, Design Essentials and Carol's Daughter.

In 2011 Afrobella partnered with MAC Cosmetics to create her own custom lipgloss called "All Of My Purple Life," part of the Bloggers' Obsession collection (which debuted on June 21, 2011). Her lipgloss sold out in a week was re-released, and then sold out again in another week. To promote the lipgloss, she created a Tumblr blog where fans of All Of My Purple Life could submit their photos. Currently there is a fan-created petition calling for the color’s return.

Afrobella is currently on Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list, alongside the likes of Jay-Z, Oprah and the Obamas. Afrobella.com is one of few blogs in the Black Weblog Awards Hall of Fame, and to date Afrobella has won more than ten online awards, ranging from Glam’s Best in Beauty Award to Best Writing in a Blog from the Black Weblog Awards.

Afrobella is on The Root’s list of 20 Black Bloggers You Should Know, Black Enterprise’s list of 20 of the Blogosphere’s Best, For Harriet’s list of 45 must follow Tumblr blogs, and on Mike Street’s list of top 10 African Americans to follow on Pinterest. Afrobella is on the Signature 99 list of top beauty and fashion bloggers in the world.

Afrobella is a featured panelists at Blogging While Brown 2012, June 1-2 in Philadelphia at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Her panel, Next Level Sister Bloggers sponsored by BlogHer, will discuss how bloggers can become entrepreneurs by building a solid brand on and offline.

Regular registration for Blogging While Brown 2012 ends May 7th. Register today!