ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Hollyn Alpert
Hollyn is a trilingual bibliophile, community-builder, high school student and multidisciplinary artist with a love for service and storytelling. Her curiosity and compassion for others led her to found a Social Impact Book Club in 2020, when she was an elementary school student at UCLA Lab School, to read and discuss socially-relevant books and connect more deeply with her classmates during the Covid-19 virtual learning period.
This book club experience planted the seeds for Hollyn to launch Stories Without Borders as a student-led organization in 2023, with a mission of using the power of stories and service to build connection, empathy and understanding around the world. The dedicated team of Stories Without Borders Student Ambassadors coordinates ongoing service projects, often in partnership with schools and established nonprofits, to support a variety of communities through activities focused on education, literacy and storytelling. Hollyn also writes, produces, hosts and wrote/performed the theme music for the Stories Without Borders podcast, featuring interviews with authors, artists, advocates and entrepreneurs who embody the SWB mission.
Additionally, Hollyn is passionate about creative writing, journalism, playing piano and guitar, singing/songwriting, acting, drawing and painting. Her writing and artwork have won multiple Scholastic Gold Keys and Silver Keys, the Society of Young Inklings Book Contest, Creative Communication Poetry Contests and the Skipping Stones Magazine Youth Honor Award. Her work has also been published in Stone Soup Magazine and Little Thoughts Press. Her journalism for The Oracle at The Archer School for Girls has won multiple Best of SNO Awards. She works part-time at a local indie bookstore in LA and recently completed an internship with the Youth Media Representation Program at the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers, where she conducted research and provided feedback to industry professionals on different aspects of youth representation in film, TV and other media. At the 2025 Teens and Screens Summit at UCLA, Hollyn was invited to speak to an audience of hundreds of academic researchers and entertainment industry professionals alongside featured speaker and acclaimed TV and film writer-producer-director Greg Berlanti. She was quoted in a Variety article about the event.
Whether she's immersed in a good book, spearheading a service project, engaging in investigative journalism, expressing herself through art, or hosting meaningful discussions with inspiring podcast guests, Hollyn's goal is to amplify stories that foster empathy and inspire solutions to social issues. She is determined to continue using her platform to bring together people of different backgrounds and build understanding about our common humanity.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Hollyn Alpert
Hollyn is a trilingual bibliophile, community-builder, high school student and multidisciplinary artist with a love for service and storytelling. Her curiosity and compassion for others led her to found a Social Impact Book Club in 2020, when she was an elementary school student at UCLA Lab School, to read and discuss socially-relevant books and connect more deeply with her classmates during the Covid-19 virtual learning period.
This book club experience planted the seeds for Hollyn to launch Stories Without Borders as a student-led organization in 2023, with a mission of using the power of stories and service to build connection, empathy and understanding around the world. The dedicated team of Stories Without Borders Student Ambassadors coordinates ongoing service projects, often in partnership with schools and established nonprofits, to support a variety of communities through activities focused on education, literacy and storytelling. Hollyn also writes, produces, hosts and wrote/performed the theme music for the Stories Without Borders podcast, featuring interviews with authors, artists, advocates and entrepreneurs who embody the SWB mission.
Additionally, Hollyn is passionate about creative writing, journalism, playing piano and guitar, singing/songwriting, acting, drawing and painting. Her writing and artwork have won multiple Scholastic Gold Keys and Silver Keys, the Society of Young Inklings Book Contest, Creative Communication Poetry Contests and the Skipping Stones Magazine Youth Honor Award. Her work has also been published in Stone Soup Magazine and Little Thoughts Press. Her journalism for The Oracle at The Archer School for Girls has won multiple Best of SNO Awards. She works part-time at a local indie bookstore in LA and recently completed an internship with the Youth Media Representation Program at the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers, where she conducted research and provided feedback to industry professionals on different aspects of youth representation in film, TV and other media. At the 2025 Teens and Screens Summit at UCLA, Hollyn was invited to speak to an audience of hundreds of academic researchers and entertainment industry professionals alongside featured speaker and acclaimed TV and film writer-producer-director Greg Berlanti. She was quoted in a Variety article about the event.
Whether she's immersed in a good book, spearheading a service project, engaging in investigative journalism, expressing herself through art, or hosting meaningful discussions with inspiring podcast guests, Hollyn's goal is to amplify stories that foster empathy and inspire solutions to social issues. She is determined to continue using her platform to bring together people of different backgrounds and build understanding about our common humanity.