A Renewed Mission
The past week, I have taken the time to reflect about all that has been happening in the world. I needed to pull away in order to do that, it's hard to think independently when so much is coming at you on social media and the news. The question that kept coming back to me was this: how can I, one person, enact change on a grander scale? I thought I would share some thoughts about diversity and my mission.
As some of you may know, when I first started ROSE & IVY, it was a total side project that I was working on to lift my soul when I was in a terrible, corporate dead-end job. I had no idea what I was doing but all of a sudden I was pitched a big household name and things changed. From that point, I was somehow dubbed 'worthy' to some people and I was able to feature other talent that people knew. I quickly realized though that I was getting pitched women who looked exactly the same. For those of you who aren't familiar, and believe me up until about 1.5 years ago I had no idea how this worked, publicists pitch you talent, who are promoting a TV show, movie or album. Since I am a one woman show, I cannot say yes to everyone but I noted how the people presented to me lacked diversity. To be honest, this is so subjective anyways, I thought about stopping because who am I to say yes or no?
I am not a huge entertainment person, nor is ROSE & IVY an entertainment website—I also don’t consider myself a media person—but my goal and passion is to tell meaningful, inspiring and authentic stories, so instead of waiting for people to come to me, I approached publicists of women who came from diverse backgrounds who are coming to New York. I am based here and I create all original stories. Since I am still flying at times under the radar, I kept getting a 'not at this time' or completely ignored. When that tactic didn't work, I would voice directly to those who I spoke with or worked with about how I am looking for diversity and finally now, after doing this for nearly two years, I am able to see a range of talent who I am lucky to meet and hear their stories. But I have more work to do. I am committed to fighting for this even more because I truly believe that actions speak louder than words. There is a strong collective energy right now that I truly hope will change the world.
In love and solidarity.
xx
Alison