Teena Apeles

About the Author

Teena Apeles is a native Angeleno who has spent two decades covering art, culture, design, activism, history, and beyond for print and online media. She has written for numerous outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, KCET, PBS SoCal, PBS Canvas, LAist, WHERE Traveler Los Angeles, Hunker, JoySauce, BUST, Giant Robot, LA Weekly, and Pasadena Weekly. Teena has also contributed to and edited numerous books covering a wide range of topics, from L.A.’s public parks and urban wildlife to comic book culture and Disneyland.
 
Her works include the history book for teens, Women Warriors: Adventures from History's Greatest Female Fighters, and essays in the anthologies Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them, and Bare Your Soul: The Thinking Girl's Guide to Enlightenment, among others.

In 2016, Teena founded the creative collective Narrated Objects, which produces books and experiences to showcase the diverse voices of the city of Los Angeles. The collective published the L.A.-themed books We Heart P-22, We Heart L.A. Parks, and Dear Seller, which feature artwork and stories by Angelenos of all ages. Past collaborators have included Homeboy Industries, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the L.A. Conservancy, the Autry Museum of the American West, Helms Bakery District, the National Wildlife Federation, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, and USC Pacific Asia Museum.
 
For her work with Narrated Objects, Teena has received an Awesome Grant, a Creative Economic Development Fund Grant, and a Certificate of Recognition from the California Legislature Assembly, and appeared on Spectrum News 1, KCRW’s DnA: Design and Architecture, and the podcasts Bookstories and The Hidden History of Los Angeles, to discuss their collective’s unique projects.