Varaidzo Kativhu


Varaidzo Kativhu is a British Zimbabwean education activist and social-media personality. She has received a Diana Award and been listed on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023 as a "Content creator and YouTuber".

Early life and education

Varaidzo Kativhu was born in Zimbabwe and grew up speaking the Shona language. When her father died, she moved to the UK at the age of seven. She first lived in England, then in Pontypridd in Wales and then moved to the West Midlands of England. She attended Dudley College and worked at McDonald's in Birmingham. She was the first person from her school to go to the University of Oxford, where she studied classical archaeology and ancient history at Lady Margaret Hall. In 2021 Kativhu graduated with a Masters in international education policy from Harvard University, studying on-line because of COVID-19 restriction. She subsequently began PhD research about education leadership at Claremont Graduate University in the USA.

Career

Whilst at Oxford, she set up a YouTube channel in 2017 under the name Miss Varz and vlogged about her experiences of university. Her friend and fellow student Malala Yousafzai appeared in some of her videos. Afterwards kativhu set up the charity Empowered by Vee, to help to make higher education more accessible for men and women students from underrepresented and financially disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2021, her self-help book Empowered: Live Your Life with Passion and Purpose was published. She continued to be a StudyTuber and as of June 2025, her channel had 279,000 subscribers.

Awards and recognition

In 2021, Kativhu's achievements were recognised with a Diana Award and the United Nations selected her as a young leader for the Sustainable Development Goals. She was listed on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023 as one of the world's inspiring and influential women. In 2024 Kativhu received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford.

Publications

*