We recently connected with Adaeze Akilah and have shared our conversation below.

Adaeze, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I always took an interest in fashion, more specifically, modelling and styling. Being raised with Belizean and Nigerian parents, my interests were brushed off, as doing well in school was all that mattered to them. Around this time, I was a freshman in college and I just remember feeling super conflicted between my dreams and satisfying my family. While I decided that my main focus would be on school, I would often post pictures of my outfits on Instagram and shoot with friends for fun. I think the first time I really started to see a professional opportunity for myself is when I was featured in a SSENSE editorial. That’s when I started to view my potential as talent.

Adaeze, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I consider myself to be a creative all around, but I am mostly known for content creation, modeling, styling, and creative direction. I would say I got into the field I’m in now by just putting myself and my creations out there on social media. For years I would barely post or constantly deactivate my socials, just because I wanted to remain mysterious and separate my personality from my work. Once I started showing my personality more, my views, followers, and overall engagement went up and paved the way for me to become a content creator. To my surprise, people find me to be relatable and funny on my platforms. I also own my own business, FLY IN ARCHIVE, which is an archive shop where I resell vintage and rare items. With my business I will also begin to offer editorial styling and item renting in the future.

In my past I used to be very hard on myself when it came to bringing my ideas to life. This would cause me to experience extreme creator’s block and ultimately never act on even my highly anticipated ideas. It’s like I would have a specific image in my mind, but trying to explain it was so hard. My solution to this problem, which also led me to me coming up with one of my greatest jewelry concepts to date, was to talk someone that understands creative uniqueness as I do. I brought my sketches and explained what I saw in my mind to Gabby Elan and we were able to bring it to life.
(Insert picture of grillz)

The main thing that I want people to know about me, my work, and my brand is that I will always express myself through the art I make and each time will be different from the last.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The current mission driving my creative journey is the goal to live life to the fullest. Life is so beautiful to me. And throughout the many phases that life brings, the self expression that stems from any and everything I’ve endured is my favorite. I believe creativity is a constant, innovative world with no limits. I love to express myself through clothes, jewelry, or even creative directing a photo shoot. Due to creativity being infinite, the ways I express myself through these outlets will always differentiate from past or future projects I’ve done. The need and want to express my individuality in this one life I have, keeps me going.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built and am still growing my audience on social media by putting myself out there as my true, unapologetic, and authentic self. My advice for those trying to build their social media platforms is to think about what you want your content to be and then do exactly that. Don’t wait until you gain thousands of followers to make the content you want-make the content you want and gain thousands of followers from that. There is nothing wrong with being inspired from others, but be sure to put your own twist on things and make them your own! Be yourself. Express yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Ursoskinnyadaeze
• Twitter: Ursoskinny123
• Youtube: YouTube,com/ursoskinnyadaeze
• Other: TikTok: Ursoskinnyadaeze

Image Credits

Shaniah Armani (@shaniaharmani) on the professional photos.