Solely Tonia on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Solely Tonia. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Solely, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
I’m most proud of building me. I’m so incredibly proud of the woman that I am today. With all of the challenges I’ve faced in the past to the challenges I continue to overcome now, along with all of the work I’ve put into building who I am, I can’t be anything but proud of myself. I can’t take all of the credit though, because without my beautiful mother and Nana, I wouldn’t be half of the woman I am today.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Everything I’ve done from the beginning of my social media career has been based off of the word Solely, which means: not involving anyone or anything else; only. In my first interview I was introduced as SolelyArt. Drawing has been a safe haven for me since childhood, but unfortunately my Nana recently passed away and art hasn’t felt the same since. My Nana was a huge supporter of my art and creating brings more pain than pleasure at the moment. I know I’ll find my way back to creating art, for myself and for my Nana, but as of right now I’m allowing myself to heal before doing so. Although I love creating physical art through drawing, I’m much more than just that. Since my initial interview I’ve built an online brand of over 80,000 followers across multiple platforms that continues to grow everyday. I created a loc page (SolelyLocs) dedicated to showing my loc journey which took off in a way I never would have imagined. Although I love the communities I’ve built on both my art page and my loc page, I always feel called to implement comedy and who I am authentically into my content. Besides, that’s where my social media journey began over 8 years ago as SolelyTonia. As of right now I’ve decided to pour into my social media platforms in the only way that I know how, which is through comedic relief. I don’t believe in only focusing on one niche, especially if you are multifaceted. I also don’t believe in my content ever being “too serious”. Life is already serious enough, so my goal is to bring happiness and laughter to others through any kind of content I choose to make. Not only is this healing for me, I believe it’s healing for others as well. I’m putting my energy into building myself online as an individual rather than an individual who does ONE particular thing. We all have multiple interests, so why not show that online rather than doing it the way they say you should and only focus on one niche. I am the niche, and will continue to show that on my platforms.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I always believed I had to be the strong one. I didn’t like seeing others sad or upset especially if it had anything to do with me. So I would act as if I was okay in order to make others more comfortable. Then I grew up, got tired physically and mentally, and realized that while I’m being strong for myself and everyone else … who’s being strong for me? Unlearning something old is way harder than learning something new, so I still struggle sometimes with “being the strong one”. But I try to catch myself as much as I can and allow myself to be sad, mad, hurt, vulnerable and most of all, human just like everyone else.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me all of the valuable lessons I continue to use in my everyday life. Success is beautiful and we all strive for it, but without suffering what would we truly learn? The worst times of my life have taught me the most important lessons. We often forget all of the good times but the bad times stick with us for a reason. Without the suffering I endured, I wouldn’t be the woman I am now who constantly wants to learn, grow, and evolve.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
The public version of me is almost the real me. First of all, little do my followers know, I’m actually shy. They’d never believe me because of how goofy I am on social media, but they also don’t realize how easy it is to talk to yourself when you’re alone in your room. I get it, it takes a certain type of person to be able to share your content and be judged but strangers, but I’ve had a lot of practice over the years. I can say that posting content and being able to be my authentic self while recording has pushed me out of my shell more than I realized it would. With that being said the shyer version of me is slowly but surely dissipating overtime, which will fully align the public version of me and the real me.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you laid down your name, role, and possessions—what would remain?
If you take away my name, role, and my possessions, a healer would remain. I feel that we’re all put on this Earth to heal one another. Whether it’s through art, comedy, music, movies, food, medicine, agriculture, public speaking or any other practice, job, or title that’s associated with a person, it all has the ability to heal. That’s what I’m here to do: Heal in any way, shape, or form God allows me to.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: SolelyLocs, SolelyArt_
• Other: TikTok: SolelyTonia, SolelyArt_