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

Jada, appreciate you joining 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.

I recently moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina to finish school and get a fresh new start in life. Originally, I was hesitant about the move because being 25 years old going back to school seemed “strange” to me. I had so much shame about being in my mid 20’s going back to school with people that were younger than me; I was definitely afraid of judgment, thinking I wouldn’t find community and would be isolated. However, I decided to make that leap, pack up my things, book a flight and take a chance on myself. I am a 3rd year Journalism/Mass Communications scholar, with a concentration in Public Relations, studying at THEE North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University achieving great success while being surrounded with amazing, intellectual, BLACK excellence and I wouldn’t have it any other way to be honest. I decided to go back to school to have and create community, connect and network with like-minded individuals and be inspired/motivated in a new space; being here has taught me so much about myself and it has been nothing short of amazing, people are welcoming, kind, open and yearning for success and it’s so inspiring to be apart of, I honestly feel lucky to be able to experience and be around such an intelligent group of people. Being a part of A&T culture means getting involved, making an active difference in your community/group and standing in your truth and let’s not forget, the fashion culture around camp, it’s incomparable and something you’d have to be around to feel the impact of individuality! If I had to give advice to someone that wants to create a life of luxury for themselves, I would say, TAKE RISKS and live in YOUR truth. Trust yourself to make an impact wherever you go. When you lean in and honor yourself, you have no choice but to achieve greatness!

Jada, 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?

My name is Jada Tsion, I’m 25 years old, from Los Angeles, CA and I’m an Artist/Creative! I have a brand named MADE DIFFERENT and I created the brand in lieu of my testimony/story. Short story: As a kid, I struggled with my identity. For a long time, it felt like my identity was chosen for me. I wasn’t able to identify myself because people labeled me due to my eczema. I can honestly say, I was severely bullied up until my senior year of high school. I remember being called names and being treated like an outsider, my peers treated me as if I was contagious; all of those situations stole my opportunity to figure out who I was because it consumed my identity. This caused severe insecurity and led me to hide my body/skin. With MADE DIFFERENT, I knew I wasn’t the only one facing adversity and learning how to navigate it. I want to show others how important it is to live in your truth, what makes you who you are? It’s the most beautiful thing about you. My main goal is to inspire, be relatable, create community through representation and most importantly, I want people to feel seen. I believe what sets me apart is my story. My story was specifically designed for me to inspire others. I have a natural talent and passion for creating art. Art can be defined as anything used to express oneself and my art is not limited to just one way of creating and expressing, MADE DIFFERENT was built to create a safe space for individuals of any kind. I have a lot of things in store for MADE DIFFERENT in the near future, so please be on the lookout!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson that I had to unlearn was to not allow the past to define my NOW. Like many of us, we may have a past that we aren’t proud of and we allow it to cripple us and we tell ourselves that we aren’t capable of growing and changing as people. For so long, I have allowed the opinions of others define who I am and how I navigate through life and let me tell you, it’s the most challenging part of my growth. As we grow as people, we sometimes take the pain of the past with us, we allow people who experienced who we were AT THAT TIME, to dictate who we are NOW and can be in the future and I feel like, it’s such a human thing to do, cling to our past but it’s so unhealthy when you are actively trying to break those chains to create a new you and people from your past constantly remind you of who you were. I had to and STILL actively trying to unlearn the labels that were used to identify me and grow from who I was. It’s imperative that when you want to move on from your past and the people you left there, that you understand that you are human and will make mistakes, be patient with yourself and lend yourself grace in those processes, easier said than done, trust me, I would know, however, it’s something to be done; in order to identify with who you are and who you want to be, you have to shed the skin of who you were and surround yourself with people that uplift and support your journey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Learning more ways to create myself, learn myself, to grow as a person and as a creative as well. When you create from a space of intent and from your heart, you allow yourself to be open and go deep, which in my opinion, opens new doors to unlock more of who you are and where you want to go and most importantly, you get to create anything you want; creation comes from the heart center and speaks to the sacral chakra, so whenever we create, we are birthing something with intention and love. So the most rewarding part about creating for me, is finding new ways to identify with who I am at my core and being limitless with what I’m creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0sZ8dQfFJ_hp-btLBE3V4w
• Instagram: madedifferent
• Youtube: Jada Tsion
• TikTok: madedifferent

Image Credits
Instagram: @benjamn.frank