Bona Parle is an exciting new digital magazine for storytellers, content creators, influencers and changemakers.
We started as a small Etsy Shop selling physical and digital products to creatives, photographers, filmmakers, actors and content creators, with a strong focus on sustainable and eco-friendly sourcing and production.
Our products are organic, vegan-friendly, and produced using a carbon-neutral process or hand-made wherever possible to ensure no waste is produced.
Bona Parle’s Mission
Our mission with this platform is to empower, educate and connect content creators, influencers and storytellers… to changemakers who are actively working in communities to improve human rights, living standards and working to protect the planet.
By connecting individuals and organisations with significant online influence to those fighting to make the world a better place, we can truly change the world together.
What does “Bona Parle” mean?
“Bona Parle” means “language” in Polari, a secret language spoken by the queer community at a time when it was against the law to be gay in the UK.
Where Are You Based?
We’re based in Camden, the creative heart of London, UK. Our platform is designed for the global community.
Who is Behind Bona Parle?
Bona Parle was founded by Matt Mahmood-Ogston, a multi-award-winning charity CEO, LGBTQ+ human rights campaigner, activist, CSR and personal branding photographer and filmmaker.
Matt started his career as a graphic designer for a local publishing company when he was 15. He then studied photography at Bournville Art College and later earned a degree in filmmaking. Matt spent the next 20 years working as a web developer and UI/UX designer while running his own award-winning tech startup for five years, receiving funding from a former Dragon from Dragons’ Den.
Matt is now the founder and CEO of Naz and Matt Foundation, a charity that works to remove the barriers that prevent religious and culturally conservative parents from accepting their LGBTQI+ children.
For the last ten years, through his work at the charity, he’s led a small team that has helped thousands of individuals find safety, flee familial abuse and transform their lives. He has campaigned tirelessly in the national and international press about suicide prevention and has called for greater acceptance of LGBTQI+ people within conservative families.
In 2014, his fiancé and soulmate of thirteen years, Naz, took his own life two days after being confronted about being gay for the first time by his religious parents. Matt started his charitable work and campaigning soon after.
His vision is a world where every parent accepts their child for who they really are, and who they were born to be.
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