Local StoriesDecember 17, 2025

Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Zhanae of Atlanta

Local Stories

We recently had the chance to connect with Zhanae and have shared our conversation below.

Zhanae, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What is a normal day like for you right now?
My normal days usually consist of me stretching, reading, working out, and trying to get as much done as possible for that day off of my lengthy to do list. A lot of times I’m adding to it so it’s almost never ending, but in the grand scheme of things, I do see the progress in my life so I’m glad that I can make my way through it.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Zhanae a Creative Director, Musician, and Author. I’m also the founder of my production and publishing company Josiari Jahsir along with my cosmetics brand Jahnea Lauren Beauty. My main focus through my projects is to encourage self-love, personal development, and overcoming adversity.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I definitely remember before the world had any chance to interfere with how I presented myself, as a child I was fiery and outspoken. I’ve always been really bubbly and wanted to put a smile on people‘s face or see them loving themselves, but for so long people would tell me that my personality was too big or basically try to make me dim my light and a lot of my work has been returning to the good things about myself that I chose to hide away for acceptance from others.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I’ve had a lot of really dark moments that I’ve had to experience alone in my life and for a long time I was taught that everyone doesn’t need to know what you’re going through or to not look like what you’re going through. That became my shield and my superpower for so long and one day, I just got tired of keeping up the mask and I decided that there must be a reason to my suffering and someone else might need to hear it or see the journey of me overcoming what I’ve been through.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m extremely committed to accomplishing everything that the younger me said she wanted to do and I’ve done a pretty good job of getting things done with the list being so long. I’ve had no choice but to learn patience along the way so I don’t care how long it takes but a lot of what I do is to make my younger self proud.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I can tell you already that people have misunderstood why I chose to vlog my experiences or my dancing career or even why I won’t just stick to one path, but my legacy will be me being experimental and finding myself through figuring out my likes and dislikes no matter what people have to say about me. At the end of the day when I’m gone I won’t be able to hear their crap anyway.

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