Meral Jamal was born and raised in a joint family in the United Arab Emirates. She will be graduating with a bachelor of journalism from Carleton University and is the newsletter editor with LiisBeth. She spent the summer of 2019 in the Yukon as part of Stories North, an initiative by Carleton professor Kanina Holmes to get journalism students involved in experiential reporting. Her time there taught her about reporting from and with racialized communities.