We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aliesha Renea a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aliesha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was living in an LGBTQ shelter in 2016 and I noticed that everyone was going through the same problems mentally. Some of us had bad anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and was trying to be comfortable in our own skin. However what I also noticed was that people loved fashion. They loved looking their best. So I decided to come up with my awareness brand where I could talk about real societal issues that I actually go through that people can relate to and just combine it with fashion. That’s when “Aliesha Renea” was started.

Aliesha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m the founder of Aliesha Renea brand, a unique clothing brand for women and men. It is a street-style awareness brand that builds strength and empowerment. I’m from Columbus, OH and I moved to New York for college.

In 2016, I ended up moving out the room I was renting because it was too expensive and I couldn’t keep up with the payments, so I ended up hearing about a shelter called “Ali Forney” which is an LGBTQ shelter. I’ve always been bisexual so I felt this was a great shelter for me to try out. I did my intake and I got in and when I got there the place was underneath a church building with like 20 bunk beds inside, 2 showers and one bathroom. It looked just like the movies, I was like OMGGGG I hit rock bottom!! I was nervous, scared and depressed.

I ended up being able to get into the advance part of Ali Forney shelter so they moved me to a better place in Brooklyn. I was happy because I only shared rooms with 1-2 people. One day I believe me and my bestfriend was having a conversation and he told me one of the residents at the drop-in location committed suicide. I realized me and that person both was experiencing the same thoughts but I prayed throughout my own. I also noticed other people around had similar issues when it came to anxiety and depression. That is when I got the idea to start my AWARENESS BRAND and I decided to call it my name: Aliesha Renea! I was at a very low point in my life. I struggled with depression and just being uncomfortable and also I noticed the people around me did as well. I decided to start this brand to show that anything is possible and to help other people who are going through the same issues. I write poetry but I felt like it wasn’t enough. I felt like it wasn’t reaching the amount of people I wanted it to. I felt like I needed to do more. So I decided to make clothing since everybody seemed to be into fashion. No matter what anyone was going through at the shelters, we all tried to look our best!

My mission is to bring awareness to the issues that we face in society everyday through fashion using my own personal life experiences (body shaming, domestic violence, mental health, etc) I realized over the years, the more I shared my own trauma; the more people opened up about their trauma. I would get direct messages on Instagram saying I helped them leave their domestic violence relationships because I would post pictures of my own abuse stories. I got messages saying my mental health design and how opening up about my own trauma helped them cope with what they were going through. The more messages I got the more I realized people actually understood my WHY and I fell in love with what I do even more. Also releasing all my trauma takes a lot of weight off my shoulder and I can live more at peace. I am a proud, strong black woman and I am determined to be an example of what we all can do when we do not lose our sense of where we came from and have the drive to work hard to make our dreams a reality.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started learning that social media influencers, public figures and celebrities can boost your business rapidly. Some of them post their P.O Box information on their bio so I took the chance of just sending my clothing to them and they started shouting me out. So it built my social media presence and some of them help me get more customers.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think my whole story of me even starting my business in a shelter shows resilience. A lot of people don’t have the strength or courage to start a business while going through homelessness. Praying through all my problems really helps me. My brand is built on faith not money.

In a place where everybody is so depressed and wanting to just give up, I had to push through my own personal negative thoughts and just keep going. My advice to anyone in a difficult situation is to always PRAY!!! No one has your back the way GOD has your back! No matter if you pray and nothing happens immediately, just know he is making things happen for the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: Aliesharenea.com
• Instagram: @aliesharenea
• Facebook: Aliesha Renea
• Twitter: @aliesharenea_
• Youtube: Aliesha Renea