Bio
Briana Lawrence is doing her best to cosplay as a responsible adult.
At the age of nine, like most kids, Briana Lawrence had a dream. She wanted to be the best “WRITTER” in the whole wide world - fourth grade misspellings and all. Back then, her stories were created with crayons and construction paper. As she grew older they progressed into notebooks and colored ink pens of pink, blue, and purple.
When she lost her older brother, Glenn Berry, in a car accident when she was thirteen, she stopped writing.
Dreams, however, have a funny way of coming back.
Before she realized it she was grabbing her notebook and pens again, inspired by the likes of Goku, Vegeta, and the other characters of Dragon Ball Z. This continued throughout college where she would always end up writing about the space exploits of the pilots of Gundam Wing and other works of fanfiction. Soon she realized that she wanted to do more than that. Her head was full of ideas, full of original characters and worlds that she wanted to share with others.
Today, Briana is working to create stories that her younger (and older) self could get lost in. Her characters are a reflection of her Black, queer, nerdy self, with a touch of well choreographed transformation sequences, dynamic poses, and longwinded, superpowered attacks. Outside of fiction, her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation and the various ways we interpret pop culture. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook).
Features
“As a queer woman of color, I know content that puts me smack on the front cover is rare, so I decided to do something about it. On top of getting my stories out there, I think Black creators inspire each other. Seeing one of us out here encourages more of us to take those steps.”
“I especially wanted to show a range of emotion with Black women. The girls are strong, but they also have disagreements. They cry, they love, they encourage each other and support one another. They do everything that I—and other Black women—do as people.”
Podcasts
Sparkleside Chats With Magical Girl Ayu
A discussion about how the magical girl genre has inspired Briana in her work and in her day-to-day life.
Sailor Moon Fan Club Utena Panel
A discussion about how magical Revolutionary Girl Utena is and the impact it's had on the magical girl genre. The podcast also features writer, podcaster, and video essayist Princess Weekes!
A discussion about grief inspired by Briana's WandaVision piece and how grieving is a sign of the love you felt for the person.
Celebrating Sailor Moon's 30th Anniversary : NPR
Briana goes on NPR to discuss Sailor Moon, the impact it still has after 30 years, and how she still learns so much from Usagi Tsukino after all this time.
The Magical Girl's Guide To Life
On this episode "The Magical Girl's Guide to... Protecting Your Peace!" Briana talks about protecting your peace online, SK8 The Infinity, Animal Crossing and more!
On this episode of "The Wonder of Anime," Briana talks about SK8 the Infinity, the original anime that premiered in 2021. We dive deep into what this skating anime has to say about life, having fun, your purpose and so much more. We also discuss whatever happened with the government corruption plot and speculate on what the SK8 OVA may reveal.
Personal email: if you’d like to interview me, feature my work, hire me to write some words, or have my wife and I come to an event, shoot me an email at brichibi@yahoo.com.