Paris Kissel: Empowering Kindness Through Public Relations
Founder of bekind comms helps clients advocate for marginalized communities.
Paris Kissel is the Founder and CEO of bekind comms, a public relations and communications firm that exclusively serves clients who share the mission of making the world kinder. The business’s mission is simple, but it comes from the complex story of a woman who has been driven by a commitment to compassion throughout her life.
Kissel is a first-generation college student growing up in Alabama at her family’s carnival. Being reared in the deep South, she understood early on, as she explored her queerness, that keeping it discreet seemed to be her only option.
“I was a very quiet child,” she reveals, “and this felt like something that needed to be tucked away so that I could be more palatable to everyone around me. And at that time, there weren’t any stories, or at least any accessible to me, that normalized what I was going through.”
This catalyzed her exploration of the stories of those with marginalized intersections, and catapulted her into digging deep into stories that compelled people to be more considerate of differences. Outed shortly thereafter, she delved into feelings of isolation and discovered her natural inclination to live out loud and proud by developing her storytelling skills. This moment of being outed, which was intended to shame her, was the cause for a significant shift in how she reclaimed herself and started to ask some deep questions.
“When I was outed,” she says, “I realized just how many of my loved ones were also struggling in silence. What if we had just been open from the start with each other? What if we had shared our stories and supported one another? What if I started being vulnerable and honest?”
Kissel found herself scrolling through websites with raw narratives, like Tumblr, and traveling outside of her state to discover people who were just like her: confident in their identity, but with few possible models of comfort. “This realization,” she says, “is the backbone of bekind comms.”
The public relations firm that she ultimately manifested empowers clients with passion and purpose in advocacy, civil rights, and community connection. For Kissel, this ensures she has a clientele who will inspire her daily, stand for the causes she believes in, and are genuinely good people. Against all odds, she has made many connections with clients nationwide and beyond as a powerful force of commentary and active communication in outlets such as Time magazine, Essence, and Billboard.
Still, as a woman in business, it has not always been easy. While working in Washington, DC, she began to develop self-doubt about what she could accomplish based on her gender. “Agencies frequently tout their values and commitment to inclusivity, but it is far too often just language used for a website,” Kissel says. Behind the scenes, she alleges, they tolerate sexism, sexual harassment, bullying, and more.
“Public relations is a women-dominated field,” she notes, “but I have been at agencies where there isn’t a single female senior-level employee. I was raised by so many strong females—my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, aunt, and sisters all working and living beside me in my childhood—but somehow I forgot that power when I was in male-driven agencies.”
It wasn’t until Kissel returned to Alabama to see what her sisters had accomplished within the male-dominated carnival industry that she began to believe starting a business was within her capabilities. This clarified her purpose and exposed her deep desire to uplift those who were farthest at the margins.
“For too long, Black and queer folks have had their stories told for them, have been assigned tropes meant to shrink their complexities, have been censored, or have been entirely erased. I see my work as a way to challenge that.” — Paris Kissel
The work she does at bekind comms is personal, because behind every statistic and policy debate there are real people with real stories. Her goal is to act as a storyteller and bring the humanity to the forefront. Kissel’s clients represent a spectrum of people often overlooked, many of them Black and queer. “For too long, Black and queer folks have had their stories told for them, have been assigned tropes meant to shrink their complexities, have been censored, or have been entirely erased. I see my work as a way to challenge that,” she emphasizes.
Kissel’s tireless efforts have empowered events like the Black Queer Advancement Festival (BQAF) to emerge as national events celebrating acts of resistance through music, dancing, community building, and resource sharing. It is this passion and drive that ensure everyone feels seen and valued. “I truly believe it saves lives,” she concludes. “I know that BQAF is reaching people in the South who are struggling with their identities and feeling unseen or unheard. This event is showing them that not only are they not alone, but they are part of a vibrant, thriving community that welcomes them.”
Keep up with Paris on Instagram @pariskissel and @bekindcomms.
