We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Rose Ramirez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley Rose, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
As an entrepreneur and creative, you are prone to walk astray from the typical path. This all takes courage, an inclination towards risk, with a dash of healthy delusion.
Coming out from the pandemic I felt stripped of time. It was a complete halt of momentum that left me feeling stifled with an innate yearning for growth. As restrictions of lock down were lifted, I felt an unavoidable pull to take a risk that would lead me so far away from my comfort zone; this is after all, the only way to grow.
Ever since I was twelve, I had wanted to go to Paris, learn French, and be fully immersed in the home of haute couture. The pandemic left me, as it did with all of us, with plenty of time to ruminate over regrets and fears that had held me back. I took charge by first enrolling myself in talk therapy, which slowly gave me the tools to reframe my own thoughts around my limiting beliefs. This alone created a monumental shift in my decision making, which allowed me to lead with faith in my own ability as I began to make moves in spite of fear.
I soon afterwards left a long-term relationship, took the last bit of my savings and bought round trip tickets for both my mom and I to Paris, ready to pack my bags for an entirely new adventure. We spent one week of sight-seeing together, but soon she was off, and I was left to fly solo in a foreign country of one I didn’t even speak the language of.
I spent a few months out in Europe. Paris was a particular kind of challenge I had never been faced with before. The first few weeks I was terrified to even leave my apartment, but somehow everything fell into place, and I ventured off to see Warsaw and Amsterdam. Each city filled me with new lessons and taught me to more about myself than ever before.
All this to say, if I hadn’t taken the risk to move forward in the direction of my dreams, I would not have unlocked the journey of my own self-discovery. Coming home, I felt an unshakable truth: “If I can do that, I can do anything.” I made unbelievable strides in my business that year, as a result.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have always been an artist. I was never interested in sports, or anything that did not serve as an avenue for me to express my creative nature. For as long as I can remember, I have been a storyteller. (Life being brought up as an only child will force you to fill in the gaps of time and loneliness with your imagination.) I was always creating worlds in my mind, even coming up with my own languages. Terribly nerdy, I know.
I dabbled in painting, writing, acting, dancing, and music, but my first true love, even to this day, is writing. With much great sacrifice, my mom enrolled me in an art’s high school. My focus being, creative writing. I wrote bits of everything- plays, songs, novels, short stories, and nearly a full length screenplay at just 16. I was surrounded by so many talented people, but I at the time was devastatingly insecure, as most teenagers are. From that point on convinced myself that I simply wasn’t good enough, so I stopped writing for years.
Once I enrolled in college, I had initially felt lost in what direction I wanted to pursue professionally. Every year in high school I always prioritized my choice for photography as an elective, but never got in. Luck may have it, Orange Coast College, was known statewide for having one of the best photography departments. I figured, why not sign up? As soon as I stepped into the dark room, with the glow of the red safety light, and smell of fixer in the air, I was hooked.
Every move I made going forward, down to my first job, was all centered around photography. My confidence as an artist was regained, even as I faced new hurdles of rejection in a whole other arena.
It has been an uphill battle ever since I began as a full-time freelancer in a male dominated field. I worked my way up from intern, to production assistant, photo assistant, light technician, and now as a lead creative working in beauty and fashion.
I offer my clients a high end, commercial level experience, where my knowledge of lighting, writing, and creative direction all come together in a trifecta, providing polished production value, with my own unique aesthetic. My own love of personal style and fashion fuels my point of view. What other’s may count as strikes against me, I in turn use as my strengths.
As a woman on the queer spectrum, person of color, and product of immigrants, my story telling ability is authentically me. I foster crews with similar values, and alignment, that make up a safe space for our talent to truly explore their role and take on the motivation of the day. The outcome in turn only amplifies my clients’ trust in a product that speaks for itself.
I am after all, the great- grand daughter of Mexican cowboys. I would like the think that same sense of freedom and sheer tenacity, is also evident in my career and body of work thus far.
I aim to be and create what I wished I could have seen when I was younger, so that anyone of any race, gender, or creed, can see themselves in me and know that their dreams are not only valid, but perfectly feasible in their own lifetimes.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
There is so much preconditioning that we as a society take on since birth. We should all take a moment and question what we have come to know as truths about ourselves, to better discern who we really are.
In my own life, I have had to unlearn the limits and expectations of what other’s have of me. Many of these limits I have taken on and internalized since childhood, that now, in thanks to therapy, I have began to dismantle.
I have faced racism and sexism many times over through the course of my career, going all the way back to junior high and high school. For the longest time, I allowed the pain and trauma from those events to define me and my own belief system.
In therapy, I have been guided to zoom out and refocus. People fear what they do not understand. Skin tone as an example, comes down to how much melanin a person carries within their DNA. Melanin is a protein that you are genetically predisposed to have more or less of. It all comes down to your family’s geographical proximity to the equator, and prolonged exposure to the sun.
As a woman, even as we see the current state of the world’s harsh criticism of femininity, these are all boxes that we use to further divide one another from each other. The unifying thread is self-evident: our humanity. It could really be that simple.
We can’t let what society’s expectations of us dictate our limits of how we go about of our lives. One of the most common shared regrets amongst the dying, as noted in, Bonnie Ware’s, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying,” highlights, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
Why let other people’s insecurities, trauma, and lack of self-introspection stop us from being true to ourselves? Don’t let other people define you or limit your possibilities. Life is truly limitless.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Yes, absolutely! For when you’re combating resistance and perfectionism, Beth Pickens’, “Make Your Art No Matter What,” and Steven Pressfield’s, “The War of Art,” are both great for getting back on track.
If you need a kick in the entrepreneurial pants, Jen Sincero’s, “You Are a Badass,” will remind you, it’s always right before your breakthrough that all hell breaks loose. A testament to sticking it through and to keep going!
All creative’s required reading should include, Patti Smith’s, “Just Kids.” It follows her prolific journey as young kid turned punk rock star and writer, alongside the talented late photographer, Robert Maplethorpe, as they make their way up in 1970’s New York.
If you’re open to a ‘woo woo’ approach to grounding yourself and need some guidance reframing the obstacles we all encounter as creatives in the modern age, listen to singer/rapper, producer, wife and husband duo, “House of Herby,” by the creative team behind Qveen Herby.
Most importantly, keep a journal! Write down your accomplishments, your goals, as you slowly work towards them, then later read back what you wrote. You’ll be surprised how much you can keep your own inspiration going, by keeping note of your own artist’s journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ashleyroseramirez.com
- Instagram: @ashleyroseramirez
Image Credits
1- For Kylie Cosmetics @kyliecosmetics & Ulta @ultabeauty
2- Portrait studio for PopSocial @popsociallife & Netflix @netflix movie premiere for, “The Mother.”
3- Debut collection for Sam Greep @samgreepparis, SS24 Paris Fashion Week.
4- Self Portrait. Floral artistry and props by The Vine Floral Studio @thevinefloralstudio
5- Streetstyle at the Alexander McQueen @alexandermcqueen show, Paris Fashion Week SS24 featuring @cha_.brg & @paul_simian
6- Album Cover art of ‘Diva Divine,’ for Sophie Gold @sophiegoldmusic & Motogirl Music @motogirlmusic
7- Backstage at Los Angeles Fashion Week, for designer Coral Castillo @cc.coral @coral_castillo , featuring Netflix’s Selling Sunset’s, Mary Bonnet @themarybonnet and Amanza Smith @amanzasmith , LAFW 2023.
8- Streetstyle at the Alexander McQueen @alexandermcqueen show, Paris Fashion Week SS24 featuring @sunnybunnycupcake & @koki.kkv