We caught up with the brilliant and insightful JeQuita Zachary a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
JeQuita, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
A local after-school girl’s group was reading my book, I Am Pretty as a part of their meetings. I was invited to speak at the school for a Women’s Day event they were having. A young lady walked up and thanked me for writing the book. She said before reading the book, she hated herself to the point where she wanted to commit suicide because she was being teased and bullied about her weight and skin tone. She said, “after reading your book, I’ve just decided to love myself!” She went on to tell me how she now loves and accepts herself for who she is and is no longer comparing herself and no longer thinking bad thoughts about herself.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an author and a Behavior Intervention Specialist in a public school. I assist students with building stronger social and emotional learning skills, to prepare them for success in school, home, and life! As I worked with my students, especially girls, I noticed many of them were very mean to the other girls. A lot of them had a low self-perception and thought that if they would put others down, they could bring themselves up. I decided to write my book, “I Am Pretty.” “I Am Pretty” was written to inspire girls to love themselves, highlighting that true prettiness comes from what is on the inside. Today, people get so caught up in being outwardly pretty. We compare ourselves to others and feel like we are not as pretty as the next person. We each have our own prettiness. You can be pretty as you are, not pretty like them. This book inspires girls to be pretty, strong, kind, and loving.
I often host P.R.E.T.T.Y. Parties for girls and women to come together and focus on a component of being P.R.E.T.T.Y. (Poise, Respect, Etiquette, Thinking, Talent, and Yearning for more) by way of training, goal setting, and engaging activities. No party is complete without food, drinks, and decorations. We offer these services as well.
I am also a speaker for ministry and educational topics including but not limited to Self-esteem, Purpose, Love and Marriage and Goal Setting.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I often get a little emotional when I have to tell my story. I have to go back to when I was 5 and my teacher made me feel ugly! She would constantly call me fat, dark, and constantly talked about me to other teachers and sometime would call me this to my face. I believed what she said and I never told my parents what she would say. I would just come home and tell my mom I was ugly and I did not like myself. Of course, this would hurt her feelings and she would often tell me that my saying those ugly words about myself was a slap in the Creator’s face. I soon begin to understand what she was saying was to love who I am and know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to assist young ladies in developing high self-esteem, valuable life skills, and motivation that will assist in achieving their goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jequita.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jequitazacharyjohnson/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jequita.zachary/