Abdullah is the daughter of Melina Abdullah, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter LA.[1] She grew up in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles[2] and has Jewish heritage on her mother's side. She majored in African-American studies at Howard University.
As a child, her mother brought her along to protests including a rally in support of the Jena Six when she was 2[4] and marching in protest of the murder of Oscar Grant when she was 6.[5] At age 10, during the Ferguson protests that arose in response to the killing of Michael Brown in 2014, she took notice of the lack of teenagers and other youth.[6] This led her to co-found Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard in 2015.[6] The group advocates for the reduction of police in schools and was successful in stopping random police searches in Los Angeles schools.[7] In 2018, Abdullah addressed a crowd of 500,000 at the Women's March in Los Angeles.[8]
All the sudden I’m seeing huge corporations that were once shying away from the controversy of even admitting that my life matters, saying, 'Hey, your life, it matters now... so here’s a 50%-off, all-black hoodie.'
Abdullah created Black Lives Matter in Schools when she was 15,[10] an effort that promotes racial justice that was eventually adopted by the Los Angeles School Board.[6] She also is involved with the March for Our Lives, a student-led organization which demonstrates in support of gun control legislation.[8] Abdullah has been critical of corporations "co-opting" the Black Lives Matter movement.[9]