We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittany Jenkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brittany, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
Everything. Growing up in NY, and Brooklyn,NY at that, I was always raised with the mentality to work hard and a large part of that comes from my parents. Not only have they pushed the importance of hard work, but they have always ensured that I knew they expected hard work from me because they believed I was more than capable of doing anything I put my mind to. My parents believing in me and supporting me has been a big factor in many of the major milestones in my life. When I was struggling on deciding whether to launch Dear Brittany, my father in particular was the driving source. He reminded me to do my research, helped me find the ingredients I needed, and as a christmas gift one year he surprised me by printing out merchandise that I would be able to sell. There was even a point once, where I wanted to give up. Managing a business, while still working, and going to school was ultimately hard on me. Instead of encouraging me to continue on and push/”persevere”, the encouraged me to rest, take a break, and come back when I was refocused. Not only have my parents shown undying support but that have grown with me through my endeavors and that has made me the woman I am today.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
In 2020, I graduated from Clark Atlanta University with my B.A. in Psychology. My class however, is a very special class as we graduated in the middle-urgent stages of a pandemic. I knew how that felt as a college student, and although my journey was ending, I knew for others it was beginning. From then I decided I would become a muse for incoming students, something I didn’t really get the opportunity to have. I begun thinking about the practices I utilized for getting through tough semester times, that I could provide for students. Then came the oils, bath bombs, and essentials. Combining the two, I intended to provide tools, emotional and physical, to create a peaceful and zenful space for students in there home away from home.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
As I mentioned earlier, I was raised on hard work. So naturally, most of my life I’ve become a machine, running off of just working. It had gotten to a point where my friends were concerned because I was “working too much” and I was only in high school. It wasn’t until I got to college my sophomore year and everything begun to spiral out of control. My personal life had been effected by working too hard, and I begun working harder to take my mind off of what was going on in my personal life. My summer before the start of my Junior year, and I can remember it like it was yesterday, was the first time I had truly seen the effects of me over-working. My grades weren’t good at all, my stance in my organizations, all 3,000 of them, were terrible, and I had never been at this low of a point in my life. I had finally seen the damage, the effects of me not taking care of myself. So that summer I committed to un-learning overworking. Hard work is great, and ambition is a great as well as essential thing to have, but in moderation. I had to learn to practice taking care of myself as well.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
Definitely. Helping others has always been a passion of mine and I believe my up-bringing has contributed to that. I come from a loving family. Especially my father, and looking around my environment I realized others aren’t as fortunate to receive the love and the care that I have received. Not intentionally, but they still may have been neglected from that experience. I believe that everyone deserves to experience that whether for themselves or with the help of others.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: dearbrittanyco
- Facebook: Dear Brittany
- Other: Personal IG: brittxnyyyrosee