Let’s go ahead and start from the beginning. I feel like the backstory is important to understand how I came full circle to creating this online magazine. Don’t worry, this will be the short version ;).
Ever since I was a little girl I LOVED magazines. When I was young, print magazines were the only available kind and I loved browsing through the pages and admiring all of the beautiful images, including the advertisements. In high school I would cut out all of the prettiest images and display them in a collage on the back of my bedroom door. I have also always loved writing. My entire life whenever I had a strong message I needed to get across to someone I would write it out in pages because I knew I could express myself better that way.
Fast forward to college where I decided to major in Advertising so that I could create my own beautiful images in magazines. I interned at a local magazine and it brought me LIFE. Working at a magazine was always the plan…. and then life happened.
I went through some personal hardships for a few years and then once I recovered I found my way to NYC in 2015. I started by working a graphic design position at a fashion company in Midtown. I thought it would be a dream but quickly realized it was my nightmare. I won’t go into the details here but if you know the fashion industry then you can probably guess that I just couldn’t hang. After 6 months of working there I left and spent the next 3 weeks in between jobs having yet another quarter life crisis.
During those 3 weeks I brainstormed various creative projects I could dive into that would ignite my passion and nourish my soul (while also applying to practical jobs to pay the bills in the meantime) and then one night I woke up at 3 am with an idea…
I was thinking about my original dream and connection to magazines, but decided I didn’t want to try to work at one because the NYC corporate ladder wasn’t for me and also because I didn’t feel that I aligned with the content in most of the magazines out there. So… I decided to start my own online magazine.
I named it Wisteria Magazine and it started with me writing about various topics and adding in high quality stock images. I got a job as an artist’s assistant working for an older man who was battling Parkinson’s and was in the process of archiving his life’s work in his final years. I helped him archive and put on a few more shows, organized his Tribeca loft, and took him to doctor appointments. While in the waiting room during his appointments I just kept writing. I soon brought in a few of my friends to be writers for it too and before I knew it I had 11 women contributing their own stories and niche topics.
After 2 years in NYC I was over it and needed a change (I love NYC but not everyone is meant to live there for long periods of time and you don’t always know you’re one of the people who isn’t until you try). So I moved to LA, in an apartment right across the street from my best friend. I got a job as a counselor at a Malibu rehab and also kept working on the online magazine.
The views were great and it was fun for everyone involved but alas… life got in the way again. I started dealing with some health issues and doctors were baffled because all of my tests were showing normal results but I was definitely not feeling normal. After two and a half years in LA I decided to leave and went to stay at a family beach house in south GA so I could work on healing myself for a few months. I fasted, tried various healing methods and walked barefoot on the beach every day and magically, my body healed. Sometimes you just need nature and rest (this is when my love for nature and healing began – more on that later).
Through that process I let go of Wisteria Magazine and it kind of just faded away (I can now see that it wasn’t the right time because I had a lot of spiritual healing to do and life lessons to learn before I was ready to create the vision that I have now and not all of the topics I was writing about then align with my mindset now).
After healing my body I randomly intuitively felt pulled to go to Portland, OR. I couldn’t explain it to anyone I just knew that I had to go there. So I applied for a job online, did a phone interview, and miraculously got the job just from the phone interview (that never happens for me I’m not usually a greater interviewer lol). So I packed my bags, shipped a few boxes and flew to Portland where I found an apartment a few days later.
Just 2 months after moving there, I met my soulmate/life partner/now husband. We met at a sound bath meditation. I was in my early 30s and he was in his late 30s and we both had been through a lot of life and knew what we wanted and it was clear from the second date that he was the “one”. A few months after that I got pregnant with our first child and a few months after that we were married. Needless to say, the intuitive call to move to Portland was one of the most rewarding experiences from following intuition that I’ve ever had.
Shortly after we met in 2020 life changed as we (and everyone else in the world) knew it. Lockdowns, riots, loss of jobs, etc. The current events at the time began shifting my views and opening my eyes in ways I didn’t even know they were closed to.
We decided to move to Georgia to be near family with a baby on the way and got married on the coast of South Georgia. I had our first daughter in February of 2021 and again, my world and views were forever changed. I had no idea it was possible for me to love someone so much and though I had been through hard things before, motherhood brought out a strength and stamina in me that I didn’t know existed. Motherhood also taught me how to have more patience and grace than I ever thought possible.
Becoming a mom led me to researching everything and trusting my intuition and not relying on the input of others, whether those people be professionals or personal friends and family.
I think this transformation happens to most mothers and it leads to our Grit and Grace mentality. We will do anything for our children and yet we also contain a compassion and love so strong and forgiving at the same time.
Fast forward to today, a mom of 2 toddlers and a baby on the way.
I had been feeling disconnected in recent months from my true purpose creatively when God woke me up in the middle of the night and gave me a sudden burst of inspiration reminding me of my love for magazines/blogging and my passion for helping other women. God gave me the intuitive feeling that women need an online space that focuses on our vitality and strengths that God gave us and not what society has told us to be for so long (superficial beauty, climbing the corporate ladder, doing a million things all time time) in the way that most magazines do. God also gave me the name: Violet and Valor. When I heard the name in my head I knew what valor meant but I did not know what violet meant until I looked up the symbolism… and it tracks with the vibe of what I envision for this space (more on that in my next post).
Women don’t need to know what brand of perfume or clothes to buy, or how to be skinnier (like many popular magazines millennial women grew up with). Women don’t need more plastic surgery or competitive energy. Women need inspiration and encouragement, information on how to make ourselves healthier and stronger mentally, physically and emotionally while embracing the natural beauty and body types God gave to us.
I’ve been through many trials and experiences in my life that have shifted my perspective and given me a lot of grit and grace, and I am sure that whoever is reading this has also been through things that have led to the same.
I’ve been influenced by external beauty standards and worried about it in all of the wrong ways before, which is why I want to discuss beauty from a standpoint of natural beauty, graceful aging, health and vitality. I’ve experienced the loss of loved ones and overcome extreme mental and emotional hardships that I have at one point tried to resolved in ways that made me feel worse, which is why I want to discuss mental health and the things that can hurt it or help it. I’ve had health scares and dealt with physical ailments that I learned how to overcome in ways I wouldn’t have originally thought would help, which is why I want to discuss health tips and remedies that can make us feel physically strong and well. It wasn’t easy but everything I’ve been through has led me to be the person that I am today with the passion for the topics I like to discuss that I think will help women thrive.
From this space you can expect to see a wide variety of topics from natural remedies, recipes, inspirational stories, relatable stories, tips and tricks, etc. While the range of content may be wide, the overall mission they set to accomplish is the same – to inspire, uplift, and strengthen women mentally, physically and emotionally.
I hope that by reading this you can grasp where I am coming from and understand my passion and intentions for this space.
