Melanie Perkins is the co-founder and CEO of Canva, which is one of the world’s most valuable startups that has revolutionized the design industry. For the first time, graphic design has become accessible and incredibly effortless to users everywhere. Creators no longer have to navigate confusing photoshop software and attend extensive training to be able to design something. Canva is an extremely easy-to-use website and app where users can design something for businesses, schools, organizations, or anything else they want. Completely free of charge, Canva allows creators to design virtually anything in seconds.

When Perkins was 19 years old, she was inspired to make a website that helps yearbook creators easily design their school yearbooks. She worked together with her boyfriend at the time, Cliff Obrecht, to start Fusion Books, which later became known as Canva. This small idea has transformed into a website with over 60 million active users across 190 countries. Due to the success of this website, Melanie Perkins is worth 6.5 billion dollars which makes her one of the richest women in the world. She uses her money very generously to help other people and donate to organizations. Perkins and her now-husband, Obrecht, give more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for numerous charities. One of the charities the couple is giving to is GiveDirectly which distributes money to vulnerable families in Southern Africa. They also committed to planting one tree for each print order it services, which has reached over two million trees to date.

The collaboration aspect of Canva allows teams and multiple people to work together on projects. With over 800,000 templates, the options are endless for what you can create. The visual aspects of different fonts, colors, images, and tools make the designs look put together and professional. The immense accessibility of this company has led Canva to be valued at 15 billion dollars. Perkins did not settle for less and worked hard to let her ideas be heard even after hundreds of investors turned her down. She persisted until people believed in her as much as she believed in herself. Perkins says, “it shouldn’t matter where you are in the world, or socioeconomic status, or your skills and experience, everyone should have the ability to design.” Her view on creativity should be embraced by people everywhere.

Written by: McKenna Madis, Design: Sarah Szymeczek