Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julyah Rose. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Julyah, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I am fortunate to earn a full time living as a model, actress, and artist. It wasn’t always that way though, I started modeling when I was a teenager, and I also started a job as a waitress when I was 16, I was always willing to hustle and had a good work ethic from a young age. At first as a model and actress and any kind of artist you can’t book consistent work unless you have an established portfolio, so the first few years of my career I did free collaborations to build up my portfolio and acting reel. Throughout the first few years I also took part time jobs as a waitress, or catering; as the years went on I got more experience and could raise my rates and book more work as a model and actress, I slowly transitioned away from my side hustles into being a full time artist. As a full time artist not every job is glamorous, you have to accept some bread and butter type work like background acting, there are a lot of unrealistic expectations from mean people in the industry like “you can’t accept this kind of work or that kind of work cause it will tarnish your reputation in the industry blah blah blah”, but I don’t give a shit, my goal is to earn a comfortable living for myself, not to strive to meet unrealistic guidelines. I hope people will understand this and notice my talent. Another thing that has kept me going as an artist is diversifying my skills, the more skills you have to offer the more options for making money you have. I book all different kinds of modeling, I also speak Spanish which has helped me book a lot of work as a model. I book acting work and I also do film and video editing, belly dancing, acrobatics, and I trade in the stock market on the side, plus I have Only Fans, so when one area of work dries up there is always another way to make money, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you need to be versatile. Now that the actors guild is on strike I’m still getting through this difficult time because I have my other skill sets to rely on.
Being an artist, until your really famous, is a consistent hustle, over the years more work just seems to land in my lap because my reputation precedes myself, but I still have to hustle, I make it my goal to apply to castings several times per week to keep generating leads. As an artist you have to cast a wide net, say you apply to 100 castings, maybe 30 will ask for an audition and 10 will eventually book work, maybe 2 of those ten will be a consistent long term opportunity to make a lot of money. It’s nothing personal it’s just a numbers game, its prospecting and sales really.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Julyah Rose and I am a model and actress. What sets me apart from my competitors is I am not just a model and actress, I am an artist who’s job is to lend my creative mind to my client’s project to make it the best it can be!! I offer much more than just being a model and actress because I wear many hats; producer, director, creative director, editor, make up artist, casting director, acrobat, belly dancer, singer, composer, hair artist, wardrobe stylist, etc.. I have a lot of knowledge about art and about the entertainment industry. I have experience in all different creative roles so many times I double as the model and the casting director, and the make up artist and the stylist. My clients like this because I add value to their projects without charging extra. However, on some projects, especially big productions, I also know when to stay in my lane and JUST be a model. I strive to make my work the absolute highest level of artistry, I strive for a world class level, I’m a perfectionist, which is why I have been published in top magazines from around the world, walked in New York Fashion week, have worked for top clients like Mac Cosmetics and Bloomingdales, and worked with directors like Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. For more information on creative services I offer please visit my website: julyahrose.com and feel free to send me an inquiry through the website.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think non-creatives outside of Hollywood and outside of the entertainment industry generally do not understand us creatives at all. It’s not just creatives vs. non creatives, people generally do not understand or have empathy for people who are not like themselves. That’s why it’s so important to be woke, being woke means being awake, not asleep, it means being aware of other people’s experiences. Generally I think people are cruel, people say really mean things especially about models and actresses because they are jealous and because we are easy targets because we’re in the public eye.
Recently one of my mom’s friends, Janice, wrote me a letter in the mail, which was SUPPOSED to be comforting but instead she mentioned every negative aspect about me she could think of; she said that I am, “scarred for life”, “lost” and she commanded me, “be a role model women want to look up to!!” as if I’m a bad role model just because I work in Hollywood, am bisexual, and am open about my sexuality. Obviously there are people out there like you who DO think I’m a good role model, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked me to do this interview.
Other people have said similar things to what Janice said, mostly conservatives, they love to bully artists in Hollywood and bully the gay community. Recently my cousin also criticized me for starting an Only Fans to pay off my medical bills from breast cancer. People say very mean things about the gay community, and all the anti- gay political banter lately makes me upset as a bisexual person, it makes me feel like they’re treating me like I’m some sort of subhuman, alien, freak just because I like both sexes. People also say mean things about people in Hollywood in general, that we’re a bunch of weird, twisted, perverts.
Obviously people like Janice who say these things don’t even remotely understand me, because if they did they would not say things like this. Janice doesn’t understand what it’s like to live and work in Hollywood, she doesn’t understand my generation, she doesn’t understand what it’s like to be bisexual, she doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a sexual abuse survivor. But instead of listening, which is what people should be doing more of, people think they can lecture someone who they don’t even understand. I’m trying my very best to play the hand I was dealt in life, it’s not my fault I’m like this, I didn’t choose. People don’t know how much strength it takes to walk in someone else’s shoes, just because my life seems glamorous as an actress you don’t know the pain and hardship I deal with behind closed doors. It takes a lot of mental and physical strength to be an actress and model, and to overcome the challenges I did. Many people are strong in their own way, fireman are strong in a different way than actors are strong and mothers are strong in a different way too. It really hurt my feelings when Janice implied I was a bad role model because ironically being a good person is very important to me, I think of myself as a model citizen, I have no criminal record, I recycle, I don’t litter, I pay my taxes, and I vote in every election, I strive to be an active community member and I have many friends who love me. Just because I’m open about being bisexual and just because I’m sexually deviant doesn’t mean I’m morally deviant, there is a big difference. People like Janice and those that criticize me just make me feel so defeated, it seems no matter how hard I try to be a good person people like this will find something wrong with me, so I just give up, I don’t care what people think anymore, I’m just myself and luckily there are plenty of people who like me for who I am.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Society can best support creatives by paying us what we are worth for our art. Sure the big stars make plenty of money but most artists are not stars and don’t make a lot of money and many artists struggle. Many times people have asked me to model for free and it’s very insulting and degrading, it’s one thing to do an unpaid internship or work for free to build your career at the beginning, but you should never ask an established artist to work for free. Surgeons don’t perform surgery for free, postal workers don’t deliver the mail for free, so artists shouldn’t be expected to work for free either. When people ask me to work for free I tell them, ” that’s called slavery and it’s illegal”.
This is the whole battle with the actor’s and writer’s strike going on right now, wealth disparity has been growing over the last few decades in America, because of corporate greed, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, so we creatives are on strike because we just want to have our fair share of the pie and to have a decent life. The entertainment industry is a multibillion dollar industry, big studio corporations can afford to pay us what we are worth and still have huge profit margins.
Contact Info:
- Website: julyahrose.com/
- Instagram: @ModelJulyahRose
- Facebook: facebook.com/JulyahRoseModel
- Twitter: @ModelJulyahRose
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JulyahRose
- Other: imdb.me/julyahrose https://spotify.link/42fiYp8eADb
Image Credits
Evgenia Ribinik Gerry Villaroman