We were lucky to catch up with Victoria Simmone recently and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria , appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
Often times I find myself getting lost in my thoughts, wondering where I would be in my journey by now had I been more dedicated from the beginning. However, the lessons I’ve learned and knowledge that I have gained along the way has been beyond rewarding. I always knew I wanted to be a creator of some sort. I was blessed with many talents, but the problem was I didn’t know how to take advantage of those said talents. So for a while they kinda laid dormant. When I reached my sophomore year of college that’s when I realized that all these years I could’ve been online teaching girls how to do their own hair, makeup, self care, and many other things! My mother definitely played a MAJOR role in this discovery. All my life she taught me everything she knew about life as a woman (even to this day) both the physical and mental aspects of it. I am able to show and teach woman of all ages everything she taught me,, along with the expansions of it. My platforms consist of beauty, fashion, and lifestyle content where I keep it raw and authentic with my followers (subscribers). The road has been long and hard, yet worth every moment. Although I am not where I want to be, I acknowledge that I have came a long way and thank God for it. I don’t regret not one moment because those moments are what got me here today! I am so anxious and ready to see what’s in store!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
On the arts/creative side of what I do, I am completely self taught. Aside from what my mother taught me about beauty, everything I know came from trial and error (LOL). On the other hand, the production (editing/filming), I learned and adopted skills from college. I attended Alabama A&M University, where I earned my B.A. in communications media with a concentration in production. I learned everything there is to know about the production of movies, commercials, radio shows, and the list goes on! These skills assist me with taking my ideas and turning them into reality so others can enjoy and learn! In a world where everybody wants to look and be like everybody, I take pride in being authentic throughout all of my social media platforms. Creating content that can be relatable to all and not just some. As a beauty, fashion, and lifestyle creator it gives me a wide variety of the type of companies I can work with as well as what kind of content I can generate. I never want to be referred to a “one trick pony”, I can and will do it all.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
While in college there were times I would have to complete projects or classes that didn’t align with what I wanted to pursue in life. For instance, a couple of semesters I had to serve as a news anchor, I didn’t enjoy one moment of it. Although I was GREAT at it, I didn’t like the feeling of not being my true self in front of the camera. I would only be on set for a couple of hours at a time, which may not seem like much the others but not being able to express myself through how I looked was honestly not something I could see myself doing. for my career. I knew I was a natural in front of the camera but I wanted to do it MY WAY. I said all of this to say, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative, would be the freedom to express yourself through your work and creativity. It is the best feeling!
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The creative world would thrive even more if society would stop trying to keep us in a bubble, Reflecting back on the importance of being an authentic creator, it’s at time hard to evolve as a creator because society only wants to accept one kind of content or art from a creator. Artist evolve and go through things in life that reflect in their work. In a forever changing world you can’t expect the people that inhabit it to be stagnant, that’s insane.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFFxBrO5a8/au3W4RrE4qPg1YdHl7nxZQ/view
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevictoriasimmone/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-cochran-1a8537202/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC3Ys_q6mVSBJzIopxJM2QJA
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRrWBXp6/