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

TY, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

The legacy I want to build is a God fearing life full of published works and activists work that helps people deal with the hurts, pains, provide aid, and educate the lives of others around me. I am also currently involved in activists group I help create called OSP (The Oklahoma Sunrise Project) it’s a lgbtq+ mutual aid organization. Through my writing and my activism i hope people will have kind & wise things to say about me. I hope my work as an author, activists, friend, family man, & community member will allow people to express the influence I had on them in someway. I also Hope people come to know who God truly is through the examples and legacy I leave behind. (Don’t worry I don’t think I’m Jesus or anything) but I was taught that sometimes you are the only example of Jesus that anyone might see. So as a follower of Christ it’s my responsibility to be a living example to the best of my ability in my daily life. So I hope as an author/activist/follower of Christ I want to be remembered for being a man that did his best to make the world better. I want people to remember the stories I given them to read, the mutual aid I provided them to help better their lives and communities, and to remember me as just a man who loved the friends & family around him.

TY, 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?

I don’t have any written work published as of yet, but my brand is called: StoriesByTRE. (TRE stands for, TY Renard Elliott, my full name). Before I came out as trans my old brand name was called: LafredaElliottStories. I got into writing around 7th grade. I first started writing in journals and diaries all the time. Just expressing my thoughts and feelings anyway I could, I didn’t have the best upbringing so I had to find an outlet to release my pains and hurts. Originally an old friend of mine back in the day, her name was Precious Edwards. She started out being the writer in our class. Then one day she let me read one of her stories and I was hooked and sucked in. It was like I was escaping into another world away from my real life, whenever I would read her stories. Having an abusive childhood I liked the idea of escaping into another life or world. So I too, started writing short stories in class. Thanks to precious I found me a new hobby that I loved. I didn’t have the goal of wanting to become an author until I moved to Colorado after my 9th grade year of High School. That’s when I started getting into more creative writing classes and language arts classes. As far as looking at how my work and/or brand has helped people, I haven’t published any of my stories yet. I have been dealing with personal things in my life and I have been hitting a lot of snags that has caused me to put a pause on my writing career. Back in 2018, I started college to get my associates degree in journalism to better my writing skills as a potential author, but while doing that I ended up becoming a caregiver to my disabled brother. My mom got sick so she couldn’t be his caretaker anymore so I had to take the helm. I still work on some of my unfinished pieces from time to time, but mostly I been focusing on becoming a caregiver and honing in on those skills. I will say out of everything I am proud of my decision for going to college for my journalism degree, at half-way through I almost dropped out cause I didn’t know how these classes I was taking for this degree was tying into my career as an author, but the experience has proved me wrong. As I went through college I have gained a lot of fresh and new ideas of how I want to publish and create the stories I write. Especially in the day and age of social media and the internet, I can use graphic, audio, & video production to make my books more interactive, I also came up with the idea of audio book soundtracks (it’s like how movies have soundtracks for the film.) but I want books to have one too. As a kid I always liked reading my books with music playing because sometimes the songs I was listening to, went with the scene in the book so perfectly that it kept me wanting to read more. So I want to give my readers the same experience, and taking a video/audio production class in college has taught me how to make that possible. College has also taught me how to write with different purposes when entertaining, informing, or persuading the readers. I’m glad getting my degree wasn’t a waste of time after all. Once I get back into writing full time what I learned in college and other life experiences…my brand will be better than how it started.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative and/or artists is the FREEDOM. The freedom to express what you know, feel, experience on a day to day basis, and insight into your imagination and the best part about it is that it’s all subjective. Art wether it is written, painted, made in a music studio, sculpted, or made in a pottery class (which I also took in college by the way. Very peaceful & fun) it’s all subjective and you can create whatever meaning out of your work that you want too. And once you release it out into the world, it gives your viewers/readers the opportunity to either come to the same vision as you or they will create their own and come to their own insightful conclusions. Because wether someone gets or understands your art or not…someone out in the world does and they are relating to you and are being inspired by the same freedom you get to live by.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

One of the biggest regrets I have ever had was back when I attended William J. Palmer high school. It was my senior year. Excited to be eventually done for the summer and what not, and at this school seniors were required to talk with their counselors about their futures. So i was talking to my counselor and she was giving me college options and military options, which I hated cause I refused to step foot in the military (which stems from more childhood trauma, but another story for another day). Then I looked over at some pamphlets to my left about SATs and GED testing. I picked them up and I asked my counselor about them. I asked her if it was too late to go ahead and take these test. My counselor proceeds to tell me that It wasn’t too late, but that I would have better chances if I started studying and taking the test back in my sophomore year. I was shocked and mad cause not only didn’t I know that you could test that early In High School, I also wasted so much time skipping classes and getting bare minimum grades when I could of been taking these test in 10th grade. Got my GED early, and Got goo score on my SATs and gotten into a good college with a possible scholarship. All before the age of 18! I would of been golden! I could of gotten started publishing books earlier, I would of had my own place, a job, and just had my life way more together back then. However, I was a typical goof-ball youngin figuring out life my own way and I have missed alot of resourceful opportunities along the way. But I will say I did gain alot of lessons learned and experiences that I can bring into the life I’m trying to make for myself now for sure.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authort.r.e_92?igsh=cjVhN3Rhazlxends&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TEstorymaker21
• Other: You can also check out some of my writings on WATTPAD:

  https://www.wattpad.com/user/AuthorLRE_92

Image Credits

The image credit goes to me: TY R Elliott. (Photo was taken with my personal phone)