Create belonging: Stella Marques on co-leading Pride@

This Pride Month, we sat down with Stella Marques, Pinterest Sr. Content Partnerships Specialist, who also co-leads Pride@, our Pinclusion Group for LGBTQ+ employees and allies. In this Life at Pinterest Blog article, Stella is sharing more about being a Pride@ Global Lead, this year’s Pride theme and what inspires her. 

Hi Stella! Thanks for joining us. Please introduce yourself. 

Hi! Thank you so much for inviting me – it’s a pleasure to chat with you. My name is Stella Marques, and I’ve been at Pinterest for five years now. I’ve always been based in São Paulo, Brazil but I work managing Creators from all of the five countries of spanish-speaking Latin America that Pinterest is present in – Argentina, México, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

In addition to your role at Pinterest, you are one of our amazing Pride@ Leads. What is Pride@ and why were you interested in becoming a Lead? 

Pride@ is our employee resource group, or what we call a Pinclusion Group, for LGBTQIAP+ identifying folks and allies at Pinterest. In the many years I’ve been here, I’ve always been involved as a volunteer for Pride@’s many activities, especially in making a difference in international offices such as Brazil. 

Last year, myself and a couple of other Pinployees from the São Paulo and the Mexico City offices gathered together to meet as local members of Pride@, seeing how eager people were to make it happen really motivated me to try and apply to be a global Lead and represent all of them in I&D forums where the strategic decisions were being made.

This year’s Pride theme is “Pride and Progress.” Can you share more about what this means to you? 

First of all, it’s fundamental that we acknowledge the hard times we as a community have been experiencing, the backlash against our community’s right to exist with discriminatory legislation limiting our civil liberties all around the world, hate crimes against LGBTQIAP+ people, and “debates” questioning our visibility, validity and safety all on the rise in the past few years. Despite that, LGBTQIAP+ folks are still resisting, living their lives and trying to succeed and be happy under such circumstances. This intersection between the challenges and the joy of being part of the LGBTQIAP+ community is where Pride and Progress was born.

This means that Pinterest predicts the future, but it also inspires a better one. While the fight for LGBTQIAP+ acceptance is far from over, it doesn’t stop us from celebrating every step forward. Together, we’ll learn about current challenges but focus on what a brighter future holds and how we, as a community, can build a platform for progress and possibility.

Pride@ members gathered to tap into their artistic abilities and design their own Pin shirts to wear during Pride parades this month.

At Pinterest, we’re on a mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. What inspires you? 

This is going to be SUPER cheesy but really, the people that I love are my greatest inspiration and reason to keep going. My friends, my chosen-family and their happiness and safety inspires me to keep working to build this future full of Pride and Progress. I also hope one day I can somewhat be of inspiration for those who come after me in the same way those who’ve come before were to me.

What are you currently Pinning?

For the past two weeks, I’ve been Pinning a lot of Pride make-up looks for my Bi The Way… Board (pun intended) just because São Paulo’s Pride parade just happened on June 11th, but I just got my tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (also, big inspiration). I’m 100% laser-focused on Pinning and making as many friendship bracelets so I can to trade with my fellow Swifties in November.