Beautiful, charming AND socially conscious, BLB Spokesperson Sonia Rockwell has appeared in numerous hit television shows, such as: * 90210 * Sex in the City * Life * How I Met Your Mother * Two and a Half Men She has also frequently graced the big screen, in films such as: * Blind Ambition * Date Movie * Rift * Extreme Movie Sonia can be seen this summer in the upcoming movie “Spread” starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche. BLB’s new volunteer campaign and marketing coordinator Sonia Rockwell is not only a true mover and shaker with a heart of gold, but a fantastic actress!

Gloria Talbot is BLB’s Honorary President and the inspiration behind Bag Lady Bags.

Gloria is a true “Bag Lady” who has lived for many years in her car, at various domestic abuse shelters and on the streets of Los Angeles. She is the mother of 10 children and used to own her own home while doing well working in real-estate and Investments But then Gloria lost it all …after falling ill and ending up in a wheelchair, while running away from an abusive relationship….

Growing up in Minnesota, Gloria was the daughter of Parents active in the US Civil Air patrol. As a young child Gloria had big dreams of becoming an air force Pilot…and she earned her pilots license at 15, before she could drive.

Still a teenager Gloria consistently volunteered in her community to help with land search rescue missions for downed pilots and missing persons, and volunteered at the local hospital and church in helping the homeless. So Gloria’s Life had started out on the right Path…and even though having an early-unexpected family changed her initial goal, Gloria was determined to work hard to give her children all she could give. In the early seventies, Gloria went to college and finished her Associate of Arts degree in real estate appraisal and business marketing. She then went on to earn her real estate license and worked in property management and financial investments, purchased her first home and developed an impressive real-estate portfolio for her families future.

Then her son died and her ambitions and priorities shifted. Gloria chose to become a stay at home mom for the other 9 children and with only one focus in mind…making sure that she was raising her children well.

But life was to have more challenges… finding herself in a abusive and manipulative relationship, Gloria felt that she needed to start back to work, and shortly after was injured in a job related accident, injuring her back. She has had to rely on a wheelchair ever since…

With her 3 youngest children in tow, Gloria came to Los Angeles in early 1999 where she hoped to start a new beginning, away from abuse, for her children. Staying at domestic violence and family shelters, She soon found herself entangled in a failing system, loosing her kids to foster care in a legal battle with the state of California child protective system unjustly accused of not being able to care properly for her children due to her health and living circumstances. Gloria, hopeless, depressed and out of options, was at her lowest point in her life and considered to put an end to her suffering by jumping of the Santa Monica Pier. This is when she met Q’orianka at age 10, who was singing on the streets of 3.rd street promenade in Santa Monica and who notices the “sad, poor woman in the wheelchair”. Q’orianka family took her in and Q’orianka taught her to make “forever Roses” out of Palm leafs. This enabled Gloria to earn a modest living, and keep on fighting in children’s court. Q’orianka and her family spend days at a time helping Gloria to do her research about the failing legal system…and accompanying her to court to lend support and testify on her behalf. But there was no justice for Gloria… she ultimately lost her children permanently to the system, due to lack of adequate legal consultation.

A true fighter, Gloria decided to return to school, with the hopes to earn a law degree, specializing in advocacy work.

Gloria’s goal is to help to make a difference in society by becoming a victim’s advocate for the Justice system.

She is also studying hard to be a drug and alcohol counselor that specializes in domestic violence survivors Gloria hopes to work with domestic violence survivors and do investigations involving abuse of the elderly and disabled and is currently studying for her M.A. degree. She hopes to take part in the process of improving our present laws, focusing mainly on improving the safety and protection of our society’s most vulnerable.

Her current plan is to graduate with my B.S. degree, with a major in Criminal Justice by fall of 2009; complement my B.S. with a certificate in the drug and alcohol counseling program by the summer of 2009 and then start my M.A. degree by fall of 2009, in the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peace building program.

“My personal reasons for wanting to become an advocate and make a change stems from my early childhood. When I look back at the chaos, and problems that took place while I was growing up, I realized that if I could really ever do anything worthwhile, it would be to help the vulnerable in our society. All I ever wanted to know was “the why!” Why after thousands of years of civilization do people still hurt one another? I have tried just about everything to find the answer.”

“I have learned through all of the pain of my human inadequacies, that one could never be able to change another’s behavior. Pain has made a severe impact on my life. . Maybe I cannot change the past, but I can definitely learn from it. The change has to start with me, and education is the only way to stop the hurting and help with the healing. I feel that everything that I have gone through in my experiences could definitely help me make a huge difference in helping others…. Because what happened to me happens every day to mothers who love their children.”

Gloria has always been a good role model by maintaining a positive attitude throughout all of the circumstances that she faced. One of the ways she has been able to help her community is through the volunteer ministry work that she has been doing over the past several years…. Bringing hope, spiritual support, comfort and friendship to many others living on the streets.

“I believe that tragedies should be looked upon as a blessing in disguise; only to be viewed as an opportunity for growth. I also know that if you do not give up, an inner strength that allows you to overcome adversities will emerge and so will an everlasting peace.”

Gloria feels blest for having her long lost daughter Tamaria find her way back into her mothers life… Tamaria recently turned 18 and returned to stay close to her mother after having spent most of her childhood in foster care.

Tamaria is BLB’s Youth coordinator!!!

Tamaria Talbot is the Bag Lady Bags Youth Coordinator.  She is a senior at Venice High School in Los Angeles, CA. Despite being homeless as a young child, Tamaria has grown into an inspirational paragon for homeless youth with her success in building robots.  For the past 3 years Tamaria has been engineering working robots to compete in the International F.I.R.S.T competition. Not only does she build robots but she also finds sponsors for her teams and inspires other young women to go into the fields of science, math, and technology. Tamaria is currently one of the founding members of the Venice High School FTC team. To find out more information on F.I.R.S.T. please go to usfirst.org or if you would like to help the Venice High School robotics team please go to vhsrobotics.moogle.com.

Q’orianka Kilcher – BLB Founder

Qorianka Kilcher emerged at the age of 14 into the front ranks of young actors with her portrayal of Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick’s The New World, an epic film about the dramatic encounter between English and Native American cultures in 1607. Q’orianka started her performing arts career at age 6 back in Hawaii and moved to Los Angeles in 1998 at age 8. Now 18, she is not only an award-winning actress with high critical acclaim, and amazing singer /songwriter, but a committed human rights and environmental Activists and fearless, powerful young force who uses her voice as a tool to bring the need for universal dignity, compassion, and basic human rights to the attention of the international community. Traveling frequently and speaking at youth events, colleges and universities, Kilcher speaks out on issues like corporate accountability, indigenous peoples rights and environmental justice and lends her voice and presents to various causes and organizations such as Amazon Watch (global youth Ambassador), AIDESEP (international Voice) Amnesty International (Woman’s Rights), Walking The Healing Path (spokesperson-against domestic Abuse on indigenous reservations) Thursdays Child (counselor), The Community School for the Arts Foundation (mentor), Turning The Tides (Collaborator for Clean Oceans) and the American literacy campaign (2006 Spokes Person).

Qorinka is the first and only teenager in the world driving a zero emissions Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car and her efforts on behalf of environmental preservation are highlighted in magazines worldwide. She is the Winner of the Young Hollywood “Green Award” and the prestigious Brower Youth Award for her work to bring attention and highlight the 35-year struggle of the Achuar people of the Peruvian Amazon against multinational oil companies. She was a strong media force in connection with Occidental Petroleum’s recent withdrawal from the Peruvian Amazon and was invited as a keynote speaker on a panel at the United Nations the International Forum on Globalization in New York City and the IFIP .

She Is the founder of on-Q initiative‚ a youth oriented human rights and environmental organization with which she hopes to inspire and connect young Hollywood and young initiative takers with youth activist leaders and projects in our communities and throughout the world. Through her production co. i-Q films, Q’orianka is currently developing several cause driven documentaries and educational programming.

After the recent imassacres in Bagua, Peru , Qorianka just recently Launched the Youth4Truth media campaign for justice.

She is also featured in the forthcoming documentary version, The People Speak and is on the Voices advisory board. Kilcher recently finished filming the story of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in “The Barbarian Princess” in which she starred as Princess Kaiulani

Inspired by the need to eliminate plastic waste and pollution and by homeless woman on the streets of Los Angeles, Q’orianka Founded Bag Lady Bags in early 2009. BLB is the first ever hand bag line, created entirely by homeless ‘Bag-Ladies’ and Woman in homeless shelters! Bag Ladies turn into Eco warriors… reusing and recycling todays waste into high end fashion! All bags are made out of 100% recycled plastic bags and other recycled materials.