Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Maya Clary

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Maya Clary. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Maya, 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 is a normal day like for you right now?
A normal day for me is pretty consistent, but I have a lot of flexibility around my days. I haven’t used an alarm clock in years. I just wake up whenever my body decides it’s ready to wake up. Thankfully, I have to ability to do that now. I might spend maybe 30-45 minutes in bed, allowing my body to adjust. I sit in silence for some time. I’m not really a person who jumps out of the bed and immediately starts running around the house or turning noise on. I move slowly and silently haha. My day as far as activities and work that I have to do starts around the late evening of the day so I have a lot of free time and space in my mornings to relax or whatever I want to do. Once I’m up for the day the first thing I usually do is see what my due dates are and if I have anything coming up that needs to get done in a timely manner. It’s usually writing or editing for an article with Trill Magazine or I might need to write or edit a book that I’m working on. I may have work for school that needs to be done. Once I’m done working on those things I clock into my regular job from home. I go to bed around 3 AM sometimes 4 AM and I’m usually using that time in the late night to dive into whatever niche interest I have at the moment ha ha at this time it’s circuses. I don’t know why but I’m really interested in the history of circuses and everything circus and carnival related or i’m shopping online.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Maya Alisa I am a lifestyle journalist, self published author and Film &Media production student. I worked as a makeup artist for about 10 years and eventually decided that I wanted to pivot into something different around my late 20s. So, I published my first book, which was a children’s book named Keanna. I went on to publish 20 other books including Blonde, and My Father‘s Heart. I realized that I love to write, but I didn’t have as much of a passion in writing children’s books as I hoped that I would have. After about a year I realized that I really missed
make up artist and beauty, but I did not necessarily want to go back into doing make up so I merged my two worlds of writing and beauty and I started writing lifestyle and beauty content for Trill magazine. I am now working on a book called Dolled Up giving some of my tips, tricks and secrets to beauty and all the things that I’ve learned not only as a professional in the industry, but just as a woman growing up learning how to take care of myself and grow from girlhood to womanhood. The pre-order will be available in two weeks.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Believe it or not gaining weight. I talk about it in my new book that’s coming out in 2026, Dolled Up. I actually lost friends because I gained weight. I grew up around people who looked like me so I didn’t deal with racism or feeling insecure about my skin. I was always average in size so I didn’t deal with fatphobia or anything like that, I wasn’t bullied in school over my looks. It wasn’t a thing for me but after the pandemic I gained a lot of weight really quickly and dealt with some physical and mental health issues. I immediately saw a huge difference in the way people treated and talked about me. People who I actually had known my whole life were saying the most absurd things about me and even started gross rumors. It completely changed the way that I view people and the way that I respect people who are considered “outsiders” and have to constantly deal with that type of behavior because they don’t fit into a certain look. I absolutely don’t like people the same anymore haha. I’ve always been a very guarded person, but I’m a lot more reserved and closed off now more than ever before. I keep to myself and I have to really want to be around you to show up to anything that isn’t for my work now. Even though I am now getting close to my lower weight I still carry that time in the back of my mind, I don’t think it will ever go away . I’ll never forget that experience. Dolled Up was inspired by those kind of life experiences. I decided maybe I can use my knowledge and expertise in beauty, because let’s be honest, we live in a vapid world that cares about outer beauty more than anything else, to help another girl or even a guy out there feel like their best selves then hey why not.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
my 20s were the worst I lost pretty much every friend I had. I was in a really toxic relationship that completely drained me emotionally mentally physically and financially. I was fighting with my family and I ended up having really bad health issues that landed me in the hospital. My 20s were just like battle after battle and there was a point around the time I was 26 where I was so defeated and so unhappy that I just mentally checked out. I didn’t even look like myself anymore. It was like my body was here on earth, but my soul was dormant. Someone even told me that my eyes looked lifeless. I was fully prepared to settle for a life of misery. I was just going to say you know what clearly there’s nothing better for me and just let go and let life run me over. Around the time that I turned 28 something just happened. I don’t know. I can’t really explain it. It was like divine intervention. Something just sparked in me that said no you have to give life one more try and you have to give it your all and I woke up with a fire and a passion to change my life around. I had to fight my way out of depression and make new goals for myself. I knew that I had a long way to go but I had to do a full 180. I started completely over from scratch. I was really scared because starting over meant starting at the bottom with nothing and having to rebuild myself back up and entering my 30s starting over was really intimidating. I felt a lot of mixed emotions. That’s where I am now. I’m at the slow rebuild, but I can say that I feel the best that I have felt in at least 10 years. I feel more confident. I feel mentally clear and I feel like for the first time since I was a kid, I can dream big again.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
The public version of me isn’t a fake me or real me. It’s just that, a version of me. One piece of me that I don’t mind sharing for public consumption. and of course I’m aware of perception and how people judge us so the piece that I choose to share is of course the better parts of me haha. I’m a very private person. I’m very guarded as well so I only let people see what I want them to see. Even friends and family. There are a lot of people who don’t really know me at all even though I make people feel like they do. I don’t think I could ever fully expose myself to the public because I think there’s a beauty in some parts of yourself being reserved for yourself or someone you really trust. It’s how I keep my most fragile and vulnerable parts safe.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Procrastinating. I’m the worst procrastinator in the world. I’m sure I could hold a world record for it. I wish I had way more discipline to get things done at the very moment it needs to be done. If I have a chance to put something off tomorrow or the day after, then I will. I’ve missed out on a lot of good opportunities because of my procrastination. I hate it. I’m working on it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themayaalisa?igsh=MXU3cWtoZ3M2eXVzZQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: https://www.trillmag.com/author/maya-alisa/

  https://medium.com/@mayaalisawrites