{"id":6803,"date":"2018-02-09T10:52:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T18:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohoproductions.org\/old\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2018-02-09T10:51:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T18:51:44","slug":"woman-anisa-marie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohoproductions.org\/old\/blog\/woman-anisa-marie\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS WOMAN || Anisa Marie"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The fourth extraordinary woman featured in our This Woman<\/em> portrait and interview series is the magnetic Anisa Marie. This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing<\/em><\/a> co-producer and actor Beth Thompson sat down with Anisa recently to talk entrepreneurship, inspiration, empire-building, and returning to your first<\/em> first love.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos by Lava Alapai<\/a><\/p>\n

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When Anisa Marie<\/strong> walks into the room, you\u2019re almost bowled over by her presence. She\u2019s grounded. She\u2019s bright. You know she\u2019s listening to you. So, you perk up. You offer yourself. Additionally, your skin pricks to inform you she\u2019s ready to take over the world. She\u2019s been walking up the mountain proudly, steadily, and quickly for years. Owner of Best Brows in Portland<\/a>, model and actress, I was introduced to Anisa through her mentorship work with young women.<\/p>\n

I begin by asking her what made her want to express her leadership through business ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t like being told what to do. And so, after years of kind of being in the retail world (which it was connected to spa and makeup which is in line with what I want to do, but it wasn\u2019t really fulfilling in any way, it was more about sales and making somebody else rich) and I was like, \u2018Well, why am I just spinning my wheels here and not going anywhere? I\u2019m over it.\u2019”<\/p>\n

“Since I was eight I\u2019ve always said that I was going to have my own empire so this is kind of like the first step to me.\u201d<\/h2>\n

She isn\u2019t done with her work yet (Anisa strikes me as the kind of woman who will never think the work is done, there will always be more beauty to bring into the world) and the path has been circuitous.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until my first year in design school, my first love was babies. So I worked with babies, worked in a \"\"daycare, ended up running that daycare, took a short break and started working at another daycare, and was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to have my own daycare one day,\u2019 and then\u2026I got burnt out. I was like, \u2018Maybe this is not it. Maybe I should go to my first<\/em> first love, which is fashion and art.\u2019 So I went and did design school full time. And then something happened with my financial aid where I wasn\u2019t able to go anymore, so I had to drop out, and that killed me. So instead of staying depressed about that… because my big thing was, \u2018I\u2019m going to have my own design line, it\u2019s going to be on the runway, we\u2019re going to go to Paris.\u2019 and then a year and a half in I had to drop out. It was so devastating. But then that following year I was in beauty school. And from there I went to a spa, and I was like, \u2018This is going to be great, I\u2019m going a new direction, fashion and beauty go hand in hand.\u2019\u00a0 Six months into school I meet this lady, she\u2019s like, \u2018I have a spa. You can come out, work for me. I\u2019m all about empowering women.\u2019 And that didn\u2019t work out.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really being fulfilled because I\u2019m this big,\u201d she said, spreading her arms as wide as the horizon, \u201cbut I\u2019m living this small little nine-to-five type of role.\u201d<\/h1>\n

“I decided I wasn\u2019t going to let my failures lead me, and I wasn\u2019t going to hide anymore, so the opportunity to be a business owner came. I always wanted to own my own business. And it may not be what everyone thinks is the best thing for me right now, but it\u2019s what I want to do so I\u2019m going to go for it. And from there challenges completely happen. I just continue to meditate on what my empire looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is one of the ways Anisa\u2019s real world experience reflects the mythical story of the sisters in This Girl Laughs\u2026<\/em> Their journey leads them to serve in things they’re good at, but aren\u2019t necessarily good for them. Then, they change. They try something old, something they\u2019ve always loved, but in new ways that allow for a fuller expression of their truth. Throughout our conversation, inspiration is a regular refrain for Anisa. It feels like such a grounding touchstone that I ask her to tell me more about what it means for her.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI think being an inspiration, what it means to me is being real about your challenges. Being more transparent, but also working to get past it so you\u2019re not always the victim, but more the victor. So like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve had this challenge, I used to have really low self-esteem. I used to be suicidal.\u2019 And so overcoming that and my journey to find healing I think can inspire and does inspire a lot of people, because that\u2019s one of those secret battles I think most people deal with that we don\u2019t talk about. So, with being more transparent and saying, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m a business-owner, I\u2019m a model, I\u2019m an actor\u2019 – People are always telling me \u2018just choose one thing.\u2019 Why do you have to choose one thing? That\u2019s boring. Like, don\u2019t put me in a box. I hate boxes. I\u2019m claustrophobic. – \u00a0I think that alone is inspiring. Like, I think anything that inspires me will inspire someone else, so I just choose to share.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cSo my main challenge, what all my challenges kind of stemmed from was that I was molested as a kid, so like from the age eight to about seventeen by a family member. So, you go through just not feeling safe. Feeling like there is something wrong with you that this is happening. Feeling unloved because no-one else is stopping it. So all those things kind of like snowballed into huge..like being emotional all the time, really seeking approval and attention from other people and so, my inspiration kind of stemmed from lack of what I felt I didn\u2019t have.”<\/p>\n

“And so, instead of staying in that place of lack, because I don\u2019t like to feel angry, I don\u2019t like to feel sad. I don\u2019t like to feel \u2018less than\u2019, I\u2019m like, okay, how can I get myself out of this, because clearly no one else is going to rescue me. So, I have to rescue myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo from that I was like, \u2018Okay, well, what makes me feel pretty: clothes. Okay, well maybe I\u2019ll just design some clothes.\u2019 So it started there, and I was like, \u2018What else helps me feel pretty? Makeup!\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m already an artist, Oh, I\u2019m kind of good at this!\u2019 How do I continue to build my skills, and then how can I put that onto other people? Because I found out later, I\u2019m not the only one who\u2019s dealt with these challenges. It\u2019s actually pretty common, people just don\u2019t talk about it.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, finding what makes me feel better, I found, helps other people feel better too. So, it just kind of \"\"helped me focus more on how can I be a blessing to other people, rather than just focusing on myself because if I focus on myself I stay small, but I want to be huge. Like, empire? What? That\u2019s not light work. So I\u2019ve got to touch as many lives as possible, and beauty, fashion is so common. And then I find that I\u2019m good at making people laugh and connecting with people, and you know, I take a good picture! So modeling and acting is another outlet that helped me find healing, and be more myself and express myself in a way that was healthy, rather than, you know, trying to kill myself. So I think in doing that, in finding healing and finding what inspires me just snowballed into turning my pain into joy, and then being able to bring that joy to others. So it\u2019s all a healing process, there\u2019s still a long way to go, but there\u2019s a lot more things to do, so I\u2019m fine with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask Anisa what challenges she finds she\u2019s facing at this point in her journey and what tools she\u2019s using to address those challenges. True to form, she\u2019s simply honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cA major challenge I\u2019m dealing with right now is being a black female actress and model here in the Northwest. It\u2019s opening up more, but historically it\u2019s been a major challenge. Not a lot of roles. But in that, I\u2019m starting to create my own roles and make my own videos. Like, I auditioned for this fashion line to be a model, they didn\u2019t choose me, so I guess I\u2019ll design my own clothes and model them myself. So just finding different ways, and creating something out of that place of lack and choosing joy and moving forward rather than to be stuck in those challenges.\u201d<\/h3>\n

Choosing joy and moving forward. That commitment and the power of her attention are the qualities that create that sensation of being bowled over as Anisa walks in the room. Ready to offer, ready to receive, and open to inspire and be inspired.<\/p>\n

Check out Anisa\u2019s business, website and her new line of skin care products here<\/a>, and get your tickets to see\u00a0This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing <\/em>here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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