January 7, 2020

Meet Trailblazer Danielle Akinwande

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Akinwande.

Danielle, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I first started getting into my creative side when I was younger. As a child, I always loved to sing for people and found singing very therapeutic for me. Growing up, I had always spent so much time in my mother’s closet and found myself developing a passion for fashion.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I would not say my journey has been easy. I have come across a lot of people who made it not okay to be myself. I found my mind to be filled with insecurities and doubt because I did feel like I fit the image of what society shows as beautiful. My advice to young black women everywhere is to be comfortable in your skin and never let anyone make you feel bad for being uniquely beautiful.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I guess you can say I do a lot of things. As mentioned before, I love singing and I am actually in a band called Dimestore. I would describe our music as Lush RnB. We have played a couple of shows around the Atlanta area and established venues like 529 and the Drunken Unicorn. Since I have a deep love for fashion, I style people here and there. I specialize in vintage thrift and prefer to style people in second-hand clothing. I am currently a stylist in a modeling organization called Infinite Appeal. Finally, I also am trying to sell my vintage clothing so I can redefine what plus size fashion looks like by making women like me comfortable in the skin that they are in.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
I believe that the biggest barriers that we face in this industry is that we do not support one another. Seeing females in leadership positions is such an amazing thing because it is such a rare thing to see. Even though girl bosses are more prevalent, you see that some people do not get recognition for the hard work that they put in.

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