Today we’d like to introduce you to Myers Carlethia.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
It all started the day I was born actually, parents named me Myers Carlethia Singleton and from then on, my name alone made people stop, look and listen. For whatever reason, no one wanted to believe that my first name is Myers and that starts up a conversation almost immediately. Fast forward to 2013, I’m 19 and I decided to join the army after a one-semester stint at GSU with the hopes of finally figuring life out. I was always fascinated with either being a school teacher, a journalist or a model and the way my life has been set up, I got and get to do all three. The following year, I decided to become a freelance model, heavy on the freelance! My parents supported my decision 100% and found me a photographer off Craig’s List to start my portfolio and the rest, I dare say is history in the making. Being on the taller side, I remember in high school getting asked if I played basketball and on rare occasion if I modeled and I would shyly speak on my one time experience in a pageant never seeing myself as the model type, I never felt pretty enough but the world just thought my height was enough, so why couldn’t I model. I still struggle with self-image especially since making the decision to cut my hair back when the only bald chick out here were butch women and Amber Rose. Times have changed and thanks to the women of Wakanda “You’re the only one I’ve seen pull that looks off” greets me when and wherever I step in a room and that light gets me through the day. I tend to always find myself in some sort of art scene in Atlanta whether it be Bonfire on Sundays or the Art Mondays at the old Apache café art is me I am art and it shows through my muse work.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth? More like the crunchy peanut butter that you never really see people eating but somehow, they still sell it in stores. Basically, I’m saying being that I decided to become a freelance model in Atlanta not really knowing the actual definition of freelance but knowing I didn’t want to work up anyone has been a journey that I definitely have learned from. Yes, I know many names in the modeling world, a good photographer here and there, but I had to also learn what I really wanted out of this modeling thing and learn that well, of course, what I don’t work for won’t just fall in my lap. Integrity plays a huge part as well when I first started modeling, the plan was to become known for fashion editorials and the runway but thanks to Instagram and the brilliant photographer Kevon Richardson, my career took a turn to artistic nudes and then veered back to fashion. Professionally, I am a special needs parapro and working in school systems while trying to model has its issues and I had and have to be sure my material is never problematic. Despite minute hiccups, I’ve successfully been able to connect with people in my art world and my professional world and they became copasetic. I’ve learned that through intention and prayer, success does not come easy, but it does come. My father has always said “technique and speed will come” and mother taught me the saying “P O P I, positive out positive in.” She would also say “if you ask a yes or no question, get ready for a yes or no answer” and that has always stuck with me. Modeling in a big city like Atlanta sometimes makes you feel like you have to check all the boxes, I don’t though, and that has actually been my key to success.
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am what I like to call people’s muse. That model who is down for the impromptu photoshoots at 3 am when a photographer friend has some crazy idea that won’t let them sleep until it’s executed. At one point, I had my own massage business and that too got me in touch with a lot of different artistic people in my area and abroad. I am now in the works of looking for an agency so I can broaden my modeling portfolio and that search is a job in itself.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me should have no definition, definitions imply that things are just so, definite, no room for error or change. I think success is a feeling, intention, and purpose. Success today may be a goal just to wake up and breathe and just be while tomorrow, success may be making one more person smile than you did last week. I don’t know, success is a distant cousin of mine and I have just been winging it my whole life, I just recently started to speak with positive intent because I would quickly tell people I don’t know what I’m doing and it just comes to me naturally when they ask me how I got to be where I am today. While yes, some events in my life seem to be serendipitous, it took and takes me every five minutes to remind myself that I’m really here, I’m really doing this and I’m good at it. Success to me is simply if you speak on it, it shall come and you just have to be patient and just be present, no matter who is in the room, remember you are in the room too.
Contact Info:
- Email: myerscarlethia@gmail.com
- Instagram: IG @richlittlepoorgirl_
Image Credit:
photographers: Mike Monday, Monica Ealey, Ty Davis, Marie, Marjoni Janee’
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