Yola Mzizi is a reporter at The New York Times and a member of the Times' 2025–2026 Fellowship class, a programme for early-career journalists. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University’s Medill School with a degree in Journalism and additional majors in Sociology and Global Health. She was also inducted as a Kappa Tau Alpha scholar, having received national honours in journalism.

Her reporting explores how youth culture, identity, technology, and politics shape the way we shop, dress, and express ourselves. Yola has covered everything from the front row of fashion week and the Met Gala to the boardrooms of major retailers, protests led by garment workers, and deliberations on sustainability at the United Nations.

Before joining The New York Times, she reported on Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumer trends at The Business of Fashion. She also has bylines in CNN, STITCH Magazine, and North By Northwestern Magazine, and occassionally pens a newsletter called The Column, where she explores fashion, culture, and politics from a Gen Z lens.

Of South African heritage, Yola’s journey to journalism began with her being immersed in multicultural environments and institutions. She has lived and studied in four countries — South Africa, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the United States — an experience that deepened her interest in how fashion is used as a tool for self-creation. In her work, she uses style as a prism to understand how culture, politics, and history shape our sense of self and how we wish to be seen. Fluent in five languages, she is passionate about learning and telling the vibrant stories of the people around her.

Yola was recently awarded a scholarship by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business to attend its flagship programme for business journalists and was recognised by the institution for contributing unique insights to the world of business.