Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabel DeJesus.
Hi Isabel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Isz and I am a writer, live streamer, model, host and small business owner. I feel like that’s so much so I really don’t know where to start. I have been writing since I could remember. I write poetry and spoken words. I am currently in the process of completing a spoken-word audiobook. I love words, I love the fact that with words you can feel and fuel. So I guess I’ll tell you how I got started in the shortest way possible. I have always been able to escape within words. Reading the words of others or writing them myself has always created an alternate reality for me. It started in middle school and as I got older I did a few short poems here and there but that was it. At that time I didn’t see writing as something I could be good at because there were so many others good at it . It wasn’t until a few years ago I started streaming on an app called Tagged. I knew nothing about live streaming when I started. I was just trying an app out. Being curious. I was reading my poetry one night on my live stream and one of my views asked me to go down to Highly Unique Radio to be featured as a guest. I went on as a guest a few times as a host and was asked to do it regularly. I was so surprised because I didn’t think I was doing anything special, I learned over time I was so wrong. I didn’t know that me being present and sharing my experiences was helpful to other people. That was the last thing I expected and since then door after door has been opened.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Every success has a struggle, mines for the longest was depression. Over time I learned some safe self medicating therapies and the main one became writing. Being a writer was never in my plan for life or something I saw me generating revenue from. It has however been the one thing that I have always come back to. As a writer I had what I thought at the time was one of the worst things that could have ever happened to me. I found myself writing a lot. I finally was excited about writing a book. So excited that I was writing anywhere and everywhere. So about two years ago while out with some friends at a local bar I lost it! I lost an entire book of both finished and unfinished work. I was heartbroken. I was even more devastated when I tried to replace some of the work from memory and I couldn’t. I could recall most of it and when I tried to finish I became frustrated because I knew it wasn’t the same. As a writer this was the worst and best thing . I could not see it when it happened but I learned later as I rebuilt my collection of poetry. I look back now at the loss of my book as I started it and think the person I was when I started writing was not ready to be printed. I know I evolved as a writer after that. I had to work harder to bring the same satisfaction of a completed piece for myself. I am my worst critic and I believe I will always be.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Poetry and the love of it began for me when I was in junior high school. I remember reading Maya Angelou, Robert Frost and Langston Hughes and being so inspired. As a writer I wish I could have coffee with each one of them, all to be enlightened by the experiences that brought them to that space in life. To know the who, what, when, where and why of their poetry. One of the reasons I am doing an audio book is because I often read others poems and think is this what they meant? Is this the emotion they felt? I wondered what others would get from my own work? What would they feel? Did they understand where I was coming from? That’s the thing about art. In any form its meaning is an individual discovery and not everyone feels it the same.
What’s next?
As I am working on my book I have been also working on my brand Isz Betta and all things Isz. I plan to release my book by September 2021 the latest. While that will be here before I know it I also have Hosting, Modeling, Acting and being a Top Badge on Tagged to keep me busy and continuing to build my fan base.
Contact Info:
- Email: IzzDoesItBetta@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/izzdoesitbetta/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IzzieDoesItBetta
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChmmhJjtmURs6zKv9A0MIJQ
- Other: http://www.tagged.com/izzdoesitbeta
Image Credits
Pat Haynes- https://www.instagram.com/phaynes305/
Phew – https://www.instagram.com/phewdoitbetta/
