We recently connected with Mara Francesca and have shared our conversation below.

Mara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I always knew at such a young age that I had so much love for the arts. Apparently it started at age 3 when I discovered a standing fan and started singing to it as if it were a mic. I liked how it sound, the vibrato, so I started mimicking it without the fan. Whatever it was in the arts, drawing, writing, dancing, singing and acting, I am in love with it. I taught myself mostly how to play the guitar and the piano, as I always had a penchant for writing random songs when I was a teenager. I do have very crafty and artistic parents, but they also grew up in an era that working for the arts is not deemed successful. Though both are very supportive with music, and arts, I also knew that they thought of it as an extra curricular activity and not a career. But here we are now.

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 always had that love for the arts and my parents although very stereotypical Asian, encouraged me to explore that side of me. At a young age, my grandfather who is a local healer at his town, always told me to read and explore the curiosities of life. So I discovered the power of writing and poetry. Blend it altogether, I found a way to express my thoughts into songwriting, essays and little stories I would create. Even at such a young age, I always saw the world differently.

I moved to Las Vegas from the Philippines (that’s a long story – I moved around when I was a teenager from my parents separating) as a bright eyed 19 year old. Music was still a part of my life, and wanted it to be a part of my life, no matter how much of a small role I play, I wanted to be a part of it and contribute to the art of song, the art of creativity. I had the opportunity to explore that while figuring out what to do with my life by joining in two bands. I had the honor to even tour for the last band I joined.

In 2011, I was unfortunately let go from the last band. To be honest, it was the timing of what society perceives as an artist – I needed to be a skinny, size 4 entertainer in order to be a successful performer, and also was very shy to entertain and interact with the audience. It was a devastating experience that led me to a surmount of mental health struggles and depression – this was always a trigger of mine: my weight as I have been bullied about it since I was young.

I woke up one day, and found myself reintroducing a discipline I discovered from Madonna – Yoga. I was so curious about it that I stole a Yoga book from a library when I was 15. I started the practice and it completely changed my life.

I fell in love with the practice, that I did trainings and went on to become a Yoga teacher for 10 years. I fell in love with it not only because of its intricate shapes, but also it’s entire philosophy of being kind to yourself, being kind to others and learning to accept to be who you are as you evolve; and the art of chanting mantras.

During my stint as a Yoga teacher, music played a role in what I do. I took my time creating a “choreography” of poses using the beats, the melody. And at the end of classes, I would start to chant. A student of mine once told me, I had a wonderful voice that led me to the idea: what if I sing a song that I can connect to a theme in Yoga by end of classes? I did. and it worked.

For many years, and getting used to interacting with people, I started to think that my Yoga classes were my way to connect with an audience, as I have lacked this when I was performing. But instead of just small talk, I would walk around the room and talk to each and everyone. Some students felt like this is so vegas – a yoga class and a show. We would talk about their lives, I had this little “program” within that class called “Good News Thursday” where everyone who wanted to share their good news to uplift their energy. I also shared my other passion, which is astrology and tarot.

And Covid hit and series of difficulties happened during that time as most of us went through the ringer. I started befriending one of the greatest tools you could utilize: social media. I started teaching yoga online, then one of my students asked me what their horoscope is that day, and I started evolving my page into a place where you can learn about woo woo things.

I started hosting online lives called Tarot Tuesday, where everyone can get a tarot reading from me. I opened up a business that has two brands, because of it. But, before I even begin to shuffle the cards, I would still sing a cover or two. Music still played a role in my life.

Just this year, a couple of my videos went viral whilst I was singing hitting a couple of million views. I even became more vulnerable and shared my not so secret but I try to avoid to share too much of it – my alopecia. That today is still raking up my views.

Unfortunately, while 2024 seemed like I was on a high; personally I was going through a devastating loss as that grandfather, the healer, passed away this year. I know it’s his spirit that’s leading me to the path of maybe I should come back and invest a little bit of more time with my first love: songwriting and music.

I had a songwriters block for 14 years but found a way to make beats on my own and wrote 15-20 songs in a span of a month. Like I unlocked something that I thought I lost and was gone for this lifetime. I released a silly and fun song on October 15, called If I were a worm. And about to release another single called Solid 8 on the 31st. And about to release an album for Christmas, titled “Christmas Songs I wrote”. And there will be more releasing in 2025 – specifically an album that is about my woo woo astrology.

So, I relied on the arts quite a bit, especially with my experience as a child sexual abuse survivor and also with quite a bit of trauma to say the least. It may have not been a great experience, but as I’ve gotten older with the help of blending psychology and the practice of spirituality, it led me to be where I am – using your pain and challenges as a source of empowerment. That you can utilize your challenges and struggles and turn trauma into something beautiful.

Some people might say, I’m a jack of all trades but a master of none. And I fully embrace that. A very dear loved one once told me “but that’s not the complete quote”:

“A jack of all trades but a master of none; is often better than a master of one”

How I see life is colorful and complex, and I am grateful for all of it. It taught me the power of manifesting and it works if you have good intentions and aspire to a better version of yourself everyday.

Sorry this is a long read, I feel like I’m 38 turning 150.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was always the odd one, the weird one that can get lost in daydreaming, books and music. Maybe because of trauma, being a child sex abuse survivor that led me to being diagnosed with PTSD.

While I used to use it as a way to escape, with therapy, yoga and spiritual practices I utilize the creativity aspect as a way to empower myself and hopefully others as well.

I never thought as vulnerability as weakness. Showing emotions through art of music, writing, painting and creating content has been my source of speaking about life experiences.

If we just concentrate on the struggles and its negative experiences alone, I wouldn’t be taking the risk of putting myself out there. I would still be in this little box, afraid to be seen and be in the dark. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not running away from my trauma, I just learned walk beside it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My particular goal or mission is to discover myself in this creative journey. To inspire others to do the same – find a way to healthily pursue happiness.

Whether if it’s to write, to sing, to dance, to act, to travel, to do content – carving out time to do things you love in a healthy and balanced way can bring you a sense of completion within the self.

I’m a big fan of this saying “If you know who you are, not what you do, not what you have, but really who you are – you’ll know what you want”

And you won’t find that elsewhere, not from anybody but yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @marafrancesca
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialmarafrancesca
• Youtube: @marafrancesca
• Other: Tiktok: @marafranc3sca
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1yW9HL9PP0jtFRJhRG4IEq?si=zUiSMcIQSg-u1qCx_UQ3wg