Starting Over…Again
If I’m being completely honest, I never wanted to start a business or a be any sort of entrepreneur.
I wanted to write, tell stories, and travel around the world while doing it. I wanted to be a magazine journalist/foreign correspondent/globe trotting fly girl with a pen.
With a flexible schedule and no one really being the boss of me.
A ‘magazine junkie’ since forever, I couldn’t think of anything more perfect than getting paid to write for one. (Once I realized that people actually got paid to write)
I helped create my first magazine while still in high school. Our after school teen girls empowerment group surveyed some our classmates and learned that one of the three biggest issues they faced was negative body image. So during our summer job with the same program, we worked to put together a “healthy body image” magazine to help. We learned everything by doing: conducting research, writing articles, and illustrating the articles and this cover, designed by me.
I loved the experience - I was bit with the bug - but I didn’t know where to go from there.
Eventually, I ended up in journalism school where I was sure I’d be able to intern my way into my dream life. But a funny thing happened along the way. Digital media shook the table and knocked all of print media’s shit on the floor.
I was similarly feeling disenchanted with what I saw - specifically the way the stories of black women and girls were either ignored entirely or overly scrutinized.
Out of sheer frustration, I created a magazine that I felt got it right. I created and paid to publish two print issues I was SO proud of, but I felt like I was going nowhere fast. I wasn’t connecting with an audience and I certainly wasn’t making any money.
So I pivoted and rethought and renamed and relaunched a few times. I got frustrated and flamed out and gave up, too. But I kept coming back to this.
A life coach asked me once if I was pursuing this path because I still really wanted it, or because I had at one time and never allowed myself to re-evaluate a childhood dream. I didn’t know the answer. But I figure I need to get back to basics in order to figure it out.
Stop chasing the next digital (or meta) thing and start back at the source - writing for my people.
Welcome to the journey.