Maya Penn was born and raised in Atlanta USA and founded Maya’s Ideas in 2008 at the tender age of eight. The company has become an award-winning label for sustainable, hand-crafted accessories and clothing made from organic, and recycled materials. She broadened the brand in 2011 to include a non-profit arm called Maya's Ideas 4 The Planet. Maya has since become a prominent voice for a generation – speaking at a TEDWomen event and delivering subsequent TEDTalks and a TEDxTalk.

In 2024, she completed her first film Asali: Power of The Pollinators, an animated action-adventure short based on Maya’s own drawings which follows a group of pollinators and an environmental scientist as they save their habitat from a deadly force. The film is executive produced by Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, and voiced by Maya herself, Whoopi Goldberg, and Monique Coleman. Maya is an active member of One Billion Rising (to end violence against women) and Girls, Inc. (which encourages young women to be "strong, smart, and bold” through direct service and advocacy). Maya is helping FAO to promote Bee Day and other FAO-driven initiatives relating to sustainable fashion.