The question caught Tiffany Walden off guard.

“Have you ever been shot?”

As a cub reporter in places like Abilene, Texas and Orlando, Florida, Tiffany was asked questions like that sometimes when she introduced herself to a source and said she was from Chicago. Another popular question: “how did you make it out” when she mentioned attending and graduating from Northwestern University.

“That was when I recognized people had a perception about being from Chicago,” Tiffany told me. “That perception became more negative as I got older.”

Tiffany hated how people viewed her hometown. She still does to this day.

In her eyes, Chicago is not a war zone — it’s a city brimming with culture and creativity. It’s a city where people look out for one another.

It’s a city she’s proud to call home.

“Chicago runs through every ounce of me,” Tiffany said. “It shaped my outlook on the world.”

Focusing on community

Chicago is made up of 77 community areas, each with its own unique identity. Tiffany grew up in North Lawndale on the city’s West Side, where she felt everyone had her back. She remembers being a kid and watching neighbors on their porches waving or nodding at passersby. It was a sign of common courtesy — of respect.

“Chicago is very community centered,” she said. “It’s really a collection of neighborhoods with people who care about what’s going on in their neighborhood and on their blocks.”

After two years focused on breaking news at the Orlando Sentinel, Tiffany found herself longing for that community. She was tired. She was burned out. And she was depressed from covering murders, car crashes and other breaking news.

She returned to Chicago and began freelance writing about music, race, and culture. Although she was back home, she still felt a part of her was missing — more specifically, a part of her community.

“Chicago had changed, particularly the Black nightlife scene, and I couldn’t figure out where people my age were hanging out,” Tiffany said.

Filmmaker and close friend Morgan Elise Johnson felt the same way. Together, the two set out to bring Black millennials together and re-energize their sense of community. And with that, The TRiiBE was born.

What started as a passion project quickly evolved into a digital media platform. Since its launch in 2017 with Morgan as publisher and Tiffany as editor-in-chief, The TRiiBE has produced print magazines, a local businesses database, multiple newsletters, in-person outreach events, and daily online reporting.

In 2025, thetriibe.com had more than 1.1 million pageviews.

Now, you may be wondering the significance of the double “i” in the platform’s name. Tiffany said the reason was more practical than philosophical.

“We couldn’t afford the one ‘i’,” Tiffany said. “The domain for the regular spelling of ‘Tribe’ was thousands of dollars, but we really liked the name. So we decided to put an extra “i” in there and do something creative with the logo. That way, the domain name only cost $2.99.”

While creativity and resourcefulness were needed to launch the platform, Tiffany credits The TRiiBE’s approach to storytelling as the reason for its success.

“What makes us stand out and different from mainstream media is we center people,” Tiffany said. “We don’t prioritize what officials are saying. We prioritize people, and that’s why our readers believe in our work.”

Putting people first

That people-centered focus shined in 2020. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, The TRiiBE highlighted a disconnect between young Black residents and Chicago officials after video of a house party with hundreds of people gained national attention. Weeks later, the platform published first-person accounts of protests on the heels of George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota.

Their reporting that year landed Tiffany and Morgan spots on the cover of Chicago Magazine and a place on the publication’s list of “The New Power 30.”

This past fall, national media outlets covered the movie-like scene of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) using a BlackHawk helicopter to perform a late-night raid of a Chicago apartment building. The TRiIBE wrote its own story about the building, focusing on its residents and the unlivable conditions that predated the ICE raid.

“Why would people who witnessed and or experienced violence itself, oppression itself, attacks, whatever it is, why wouldn’t they be considered an official source and why wouldn’t their own account be credible?” Tiffany said. “Having voices in a story can really deepen the surface level narrative that’s being told.”

The idea of building stories around people is nothing new for Tiffany — it’s a lesson she learned in college as a journalism major, and one she honed during her time at the Orlando Sentinel.

“I always tried to lead stories with an anecdotal lead, because a lot of editors love that type of storytelling,” she said. “Editors love when you have information from someone that another publication doesn’t have, and editors are all competitive. So I would use that competitiveness to my advantage.”

As she helped grow The TRiiBE, Tiffany made sure that competitive advantage was the centerpiece of the platform’s content strategy.

But she also is realistic.

She knows not all stories can follow that mold — just as she knows not all writers can emulate the freedom she and her colleagues have to touch on contentious topics. Her advice to budding storytellers is simple: tell the truth and advocate for yourself whenever possible.

She also has a practical suggestion for anyone who interviews other people as part of their job.

“Approach interviews from a perspective that you’re learning something for the first time,” she said. “It can be easy to be egotistical and feel like you’re the expert in the situation, but when you do that in an interview, you cut off the opportunity to get good quotes or new pieces of the story that you may not have known.”

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3 storytelling tips for you

1) Shift your focus

In building the editorial framework for The TRiiBE, co-founders Morgan and Tiffany decided not to follow the traditional reporting hierarchy and look for alternative story angles. That shift not only changes the tone of the stories coming out of their newsroom, but it changes who feels seen by the stories. If you want your story to resonate, focus on the people most affected by it.

2) Drop the ego

Tiffany goes into every interview looking to learn something new — and that openness allows her to identify more compelling stories. It’s easy to feel like you know the story you’re trying to tell better than anyone, but that perspective gets in the way of new angles you may not have known about.

3) Be resourceful

Tiffany and Morgan couldn’t afford the cost of the domain they wanted for their platform, so they got creative, and that creativity helped forge The TRiiBE’s identity. You may not have all the resources you need to tell the story the way you want, but chances are a little creativity can still help you share it in a compelling way.