We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jasmine Crawford. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jasmine below.

Hi Jasmine, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Creating The People of Interest Written by Jasmine is a passion project that I’ve been working on for about 5 years now. Initially, I would write my thoughts and things I thought were interesting and important to me, but I wanted to do more with my work. Matt Barrett linked me with a writing team at the University of Houston and I got published there first. Once I got a taste of that, I wanted to create a space where I could house my work, have full creative control and give light to ordinary people with extraordinary stories; my People of Interest.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a Mixed Martial Artist, boxing coach to kiddos and the owner and writer for The People of Interest written by Jasmine. I”ve been involved in martial arts since my senior year of college. At that time, I was preparing myself to take the LSAT after working at a real law firm, but was 220 pounds and I just wasn’t confident in myself. I stumbled in a gym one day that offered MMA and it has been a huge part of my life since then. My focus now is teaching and and writing and that has brought me a lot of joy. Being able to be part of the reason why a kid believes in themselves is truly rewarding.

The People of Interest is my baby, lol. I didn’t know I liked writing until I found myself in college making notes of little gems I thought of or concepts I thought were cool. Then becoming a Mixed Martial Artist opened my eyes to the beauty in that chaos. The longer I learned the arts, the more I saw the diversity in the artists and that each one of them had a story that brought them to the gym. Whatever those reasons were, I have yet to find one that wasn’t exceptional. I see them as ordinary people with extraordinary stories and they’re my people; my People of Interest.

I wanted to house a space where all my work could be displayed the way I want, when I wanted and had full creative control. Each interview I do is tailored to that person. That differentiates me from a lot of sports interviews. I like to say they give the carfax, but not who they really are.

I’m most proud of how people feel after the interviews. The first and last question I ask during my interviews is “who are you?” After we’ve chatted about their lives and all the details they may not have realized impacted them in a positive way, they realize how great they are. Once we get to the end of the interview and I ask “who are you,” their dispositions change with shoulders back, head high, smiles on their faces and lights in their eyes and the answers become much more beautiful.

With The People of Interest, I make people realize how great they are. I’m most proud of that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first started my MMA journey in Houston, I trained at CDM Boxing and Fitness. At the time, there was an MMA coach there seemed to have a good understanding on MMA, but being a rookie, I accepted and just asked questions when I didn’t understand. And I asked a lot of questions, lol. We all were invited to his house to watch a UFC PPV fight and most of the team came. Me, the only female in the group, and the rest of the guys were all sitting in his living room commenting and questioning. Mostly me questioning and he says right in front of everyone “I don’t think you will do well in this sport. I don’t think you have the talent and I don’t think you can do it.” The team looked at me like I was a lost puppy. I don’t remember how much longer I stayed, but after that night, I knew I wanted to prove him wrong.

He didn’t last long at the gym and soon quit, but I kept training.

Some months later I made my MMA amateur debut for Garcia Promotions. When my coaches and I accepted the fight, we knew I was supposed brought in to lose because they didn’t think very much of that gym at the time and I was clearly there to pad her record.

To this day, no amateur debut, male or female fight in Houston has come close. I displayed a boxing clinic and shut down all her stand-up and ground game.

I walked around that cage like a gladiator and saw that same coach that told me I couldn’t do it sitting in the VIP section. I pointed right at him so he knew I saw him see me win.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal with being a coach and writing is to make people see how beautiful and great they are. Sometimes all you need is someone there to show you whatever you want can be done. I want to sprinkle my melanated fairy dust over everyone that I coach and write about and get them to truly understand there isn’t anything you cannot do. There may be things you do better than others, but you still can.

Contact Info:

• Website: thepeopleofinterest.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thepeopleofinterest?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Image Credits
Photos by Hosanna Rull