We recently connected with J’La Scott and have shared our conversation below.

Hi J’La, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I came up with the name “Rebel Life” for three different reasons. One, after years of not feeling like it was okay to be my true self and feeling like I had to be like others to fit in, I finally chose a different path. I went on a journey of self-discovery and self-love and realized that it took what felt like me being a rebel to ultimately lead to my happiness and the most fulfillment I had ever felt in my life. This period of time seemed to happen around the same time I got heavily into fitness, which I also felt contributed to the amazing journey of finding myself. Second, getting into fitness allowed me to come up with the idea of my women’s athletic line, and being creative and artistic, I wanted to convey that in the clothing. I wanted pieces that were unique, bold, out of the ordinary, sexy yet athletic, colorful, artsy, daring—everything that exemplified being a rebel. Third, I remember how intimidating working out was for me when I first started. But, over time, I adopted the mindset that “I don’t care what anyone else thinks; I don’t care if I look crazy; at least I’m trying; at least I’m learning; at least I’m growing, changing, and looking better than I ever have.” “This is my path; this is my journey. Period.” That’s being a REBEL. And that’s part of what it’s going to take to succeed on your fitness journey and in life. So Rebel Life was more than fitting for the brand name.

J’La, 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 live in Atlanta, Ga., but I was born and raised in California. My background was in healthcare: administrative assisting, executive assisting, and surgical assisting. When COVID hit in 2020, it had a great impact on the practice I was with, so they let go half of the staff, including myself, so I had a lot of down time during that trying period, which allowed me to re-evaluate and assess my life and career path. During that time, I decided to pursue interests as well as passions that I had put on hold for a while. One of those things was real estate. After completing Real Estate school, I decided I was going to make a complete career change—one that I had control over and that also allowed me to achieve my mission and purpose of enhancing and changing people’s lives.

After real estate school, I began working in real estate. I am a Real Estate agent in Atlanta, Ga. I absolutely love being a Realtor. I assist individuals and families with purchasing a home, selling their home, buying investment properties, or finding a rental home. Making the career change into this field has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling decisions I have ever made. I think the best part is seeing the smile on people’s faces when you work hard to make their desires and dreams come true!

I am also the owner and creator of my women’s athletic apparel line, Rebel Life Apparel. Developing the line came to me very naturally. I fell in love with fitness and, in turn, fell in love with looking amazing while working out. It’s so empowering, and I feel better, perform at a higher level, and am super confident when I look good. When I was designing my athletic wear line, it was critical for me to find materials that were both ultra stretchy, especially for my super curvy women, and looked unique and different from the pieces you see everywhere. Some of my pieces are very edgy as well, which intentionally ties in perfectly with the brand name I created, Rebel Life Apparel. My brand encourages women to be themselves and express themselves freely and boldly. There was a time in my life when I was younger when I knew I was extremely different in various ways but never felt comfortable in my own skin. And it wasn’t until I started living life on my own terms, caring less about what others thought and more about what made me happy, that I truly found myself. And that is what being a rebel symbolizes to me. Being different, being you -uniquely you. I feel clothing allows you to convey that in so many ways as well, and what better way to express that than through your athletic wear when you’re going hard in the gym and being the ultimate bad a**!

What was very important to me too was to deliver high-quality materials and have patterns and styles that would smooth, blend, and enhance women’s bodies and curves. Any and every problem I ever encountered with women’s athletic wear before I created my own, I wanted to solve for women. It’s hard enough to maintain a workout routine and lifestyle; the only thing I want women to worry about is trying to figure out, “Which Rebel Set should I wear?” because they have too many options. It will never be worrying about the fit, because all our sets fit to perfection.

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

When I was in the conception stages of my business, it was all really exciting. It still is. But getting started is the super fun part. I wrote and drew things out, and it seemed like a piece of cake, but what I didn’t realize is that there are so many pieces to the puzzle of starting your own business and so many never-ending expenses. Even the tiniest little things that you may think, “Oh, that’ll be nothing,” cost something continuously, either financially or time wise, and can take so long to complete. And things add up. Being extremely detailed and particular, I had to learn to practice patience and to count the cost. Not only those two key things, but I also had to learn how to be very resourceful. Starting your business, no matter how small, is very costly, and you can’t cut corners, especially when you want to deliver quality and excellence. But being resourceful and doing a ton of research instead of going with the first thing I find, whether I need a job completed or I’m sourcing materials, has saved me a lot of time and money.

It’s not all profit in the beginning; that will come. But having a love for and true passion for what you do is going to keep you going on the crazy, wild, fun, and amazing ride of entrepreneurship.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A major lesson I had to unlearn was that it’s okay to ask for help. I feel that with so many experiences I had in life and unfortunate things that I had to go through, coupled with my fiercely independent spirit, my takeaway or lesson was always: don’t ever ask for help; lean on yourself. But throughout this journey of starting my business and other ventures in my life, I had to unlearn that and step out of that mindset I once had. Yes, be independent; most definitely always rely on yourself because often times all we have is ourselves to get through life and situations, but it is certainly OK to ask for help. I think when we go through unpleasant experiences in life pertaining to that, it has the tendency to tarnish our view of asking for help. But once I started my business, there were things that I just could not physically do by myself; literally. I needed an extra hand or someone to assist me on a project. What I found, and to my surprise, was that people were more than happy to help me out. They saw me working super hard toward something I believed in and was passionate about, and that moved them to want to help me. Whenever you are pursuing your dreams, the universe will conspire to bring them to fruition.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therebel-life.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jlalove and www.instagram.com/therebellifeapparel
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/therebellifeapparel1