World Literacy Foundation Global Ambassador Bolu Babalola Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 List for 2021
“I wish for every child to have the opportunity to find stories they enjoy and learn from, books that feel like support and inspiration for who they can become and what their futures hold.”
Babalola's debut novel, Love in Colour, was published in 2020 by Headline Publishing Group. The collection of short stories "remixes ancient love stories from Asia, Greece, and around Africa for a new audience", including pre-colonial Yoruba stories, Orisha traditions, and Ancient Soninke tales. She stated that she hopes the book is a "step towards decolonizing tropes of love". Babalola changed many of the stories to make the female characters more empowered, and to demonstrate consent and love without suffering. She has said that its important to her to write about and for Black women, stating: "you're used to seeing white women play [romantic archetypes]. They're fun girls, independent, they have their own minds and they have access to their own iteration of romance. Why don't we have that?”
Love in Colour was featured on 13 November 2020 as "book of the week" of BBC2's book club programme Between the Covers, hosted by Sara Cox.Fellow writers Candice Carty-Williams, David Nicholls, and Meg Cabot have praised Love in Colour, with Babalola saying "That's when it felt real... Meg Cabot who I adored growing up, who I still adore, loves the book… That's the moment when it sunk in."
Babalola is a self-styled "Romcomoisseur".She has named Insecure (by Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore), Brown Sugar, When Harry Met Sally, My Best Friend's Wedding, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Lovesick, and New Girl as her favourite romcoms. She has also praised Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You. She has called the characters Ashley Banks (from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Moesha (the titular character of the series Moesha, played by Brandy Norwood) important examples of "just dark skin black girls living".
From August 2020 Babalola began to tease a new novel, "a collegiate rom-com set in an Afro-Caribbean Society in a UK university, where enemies become friends and eventually lovers".