- 16 hours ago
Ebonee Davis spoke with Sophia and Rechelle of Magic Unfiltered about all thing black girl magic.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00all right so as many of you guys may not have known girls united has is a beautiful initiative
00:07where we are really empowering young women and that started with our day of service which we
00:11kicked off festival so one of our things that we're doing right now is our magic unfiltered
00:17podcast where we are uncloaking everything that black girl magic has to offer so with that ebony
00:25hey i would like to get to know you a little bit better so can you please give us two truths and
00:32a lie two truths and a lie oh my goodness um i'm from seattle okay um i have three siblings
00:44um this is my first time in new orleans
00:48does anybody can anybody guess anyone is one two or three
00:55what is it i see a lot of threes i've been in new orleans so many times i love it here
01:06so that was a lie all right so ebony thank you so much for being here thank you so much for having
01:13us to everyone out there watching girls united is a platform for young black women and everyone
01:19out here we see so many young black women so many different interpretations of beauty we've got weaves
01:25we got locks we got box braids i'm loving the blue lipstick it's a whole look all right hey
01:31so we just really wanted to sit down and talk about what it means for us
01:37to exist in this world yeah right to have the opportunity to sit down with ebony and to kind
01:42of get to know her a little bit better so ebony what do you want to be known for i want to be
01:48known for creating space i want to be no i want that to be my legacy i want that to be my impact
01:55i want to be known for being as true to myself as possible i think you know when i'm not no longer
02:03on this earth and people are talking about the impact that i made i want them to say ebony kept it
02:10real wherever she went ebony didn't change when she was in any room she kept the same energy around
02:16every person and because she did that she created space for herself and others have you ever found
02:23yourself feeling as though you've had to change to be in a certain room or to play a certain part or
02:29had to alter yourself to fit into someone else's reality absolutely i have been modeling for seven
02:35years now and i think now we're starting to see the industry open up and accept a wider range of
02:41beauty and not have such rigid rigid standards and ideals around beauty but for a very long time that
02:48was very narrow is very cookie cutter and when it came to black models they wanted one particular
02:53type of model or two rather they wanted someone with eurocentric features who kind of looked european
03:00but dipped in chocolate or they wanted someone who was very very dark african looking uh tribal looking
03:06and those were sort of the two um accepted standards of beauty within the modeling industry now we see
03:12so much more range and so much more diversity but i think even beyond the modeling industry because this
03:18is a social issue you know this is a systemic issue um there's you know colorism there's so many
03:24things that tie into this um you know i felt like i wanted to change myself from the time i was a child
03:32walking into the beauty supply store with my grandmother and pointing at a just for me box and
03:37being like that's the girl that i want to look like you know not feeling like my natural hair was good
03:42enough or not feeling like who i am naturally is enough to uh feel beautiful and have self-esteem
03:48so quickly take us through your whole modeling journey so you grew up in seattle or you're born in seattle
03:54um how did you get to modeling what was that whole path like because as everybody knows modeling is a
04:01very very very inclusive or exclusive um thing so how how did you take on that industry and what are
04:10some gems that you can give to the audience for battling that i wanted to model from the time i was
04:15really really young like i used to sit and watch america's next top model and be like oh my gosh one day
04:20i'm gonna be on this show and i manifested it because one day i was on the show cycle 18 don't
04:26look it up that is so embarrassing put it out into the earth put it into the universe yeah put it out
04:31into the world but after that i decided that i wanted to pursue modeling uh full-time and i went to
04:38college for a year in seattle after going going to college for a year and seeing what that was like
04:42i decided i wanted to drop out and move to new york city wow so um at 19 so how did you kind of
04:48come to this realization like okay this is like take that step because i think for a lot of people
04:52is everybody has goals and they have dreams but what really made you be like okay it's time to go
04:58after my dreams right now right here and i'm gonna do it because i'm a black woman and i can do anything
05:04that i put my mind to that definitely wasn't my mindset going into it i really was coming from a
05:10very disempowered place a place of really not appreciating my own beauty or the beauty of my
05:16culture um and i just you know i had this very um fairy tale idea of what it would be like once i
05:25became a model and it you know it my idea of success has changed so much over the years because
05:31i thought success had everything to do with visibility and people knowing who you are and
05:37getting the covers of magazines and that's not success to me anymore success is impact success
05:42is how many souls are you touching how many lives are you saving how many people are you setting free
05:48because we're still not free you know like this country has a real problem with putting people in
05:53cages um and those cages can be litter uh literal you know physical cages or they can be mental cages
06:00and so it is my goal to continue to free people from both the physical and the mental absolutely i think
06:08liberation as a whole is so key understanding how you can be liberated financially liberated from your
06:16educational situation that you might feel like you're tied to for instance i graduated high school
06:22last year i'm not in school right now so how do you outstep those boundaries that were set for you
06:28right how do you liberate yourself in those spaces where they're not created for you right right coming
06:33in to a big event and wearing your afro out right yeah being able to just be you and be the most
06:39authentic version of yourself is really what freedom is 100 freedom is about choice and like you said being
06:46uh the most authentic version of yourself and there was definitely a time when i felt like a nice event or
06:52event where i'm on the stage and all that stuff like i can't wear my afro but i can go to a formal
06:57event i could shut down a red carpet with an afro like why is an afro not as elegant as straight hair
07:03or any other type of hairstyle to me this is super elegant absolutely absolutely so did you receive
07:09any pushback with going natural because i know that was a huge thing and i know we're not used to seeing
07:15that in the pages we're not used to seeing that growing up and you know what have you experienced
07:21in the industry that made you like did you ever get discouraged was there any times when you're like
07:25i don't know if i can do this i definitely received pushback when i made the decision to go
07:30natural i remember when i walked into my agency i'm no longer with them i'm with another one they're
07:35amazing but i walked into my agency at the time and they basically said to me your rolled out of bed
07:41hair isn't gonna work sis do you know how much energy goes into this afro like this ain't no rolled out
07:47of bed look you know how much energy and effort goes into this um they also told me i would lose the
07:53clients that i had and you know i depend on modeling for money that's my source of income
07:59that's my livelihood so if i lose the clients that i'm working for then how do i survive how do i pay
08:04the bills so basically it was a threat to my survival my authenticity was a threat to my survival
08:09how crazy is that like think about that statement being myself threatened my livelihood but i decided that
08:16it was more important for me to be myself and since then so many doors have opened up for me and
08:21that's what like i really want people to understand is when you are walking in your truth you will get
08:26the opportunities that are meant for you you're gonna miss out on them if you're trying to be
08:29someone else absolutely and i think that's one of the key things kind of what we spoke about briefly
08:35about liberation and freedom right i think that's almost the perfect embodiment your ability to go
08:41out and wear your afro is freedom and their reaction to that was completely wrong right but if you
08:48were proper if you're liberated then you could wear your afro anywhere you could stand up to anything
08:52you could be anywhere and be your most authentic version of yourself and sorry no go for it um it's
08:58so much deeper than my afro too because what started with hair ended up as a very very deep spiritual
09:04journey it started out as this very physical thing this thing that you can see it's tangible but
09:10there's so much unseen work that had to be done so much unpacking a beliefs that didn't belong to me
09:16so much trauma passed down to me from my parents so many beliefs that they had you know and i had to
09:22be like what do i believe about myself and what do i believe about the world who am i outside of my
09:28parents influence outside of social influence outside of tv outside of the characters who have
09:34been created for black people to fit into why am i a character in someone else's narrative i think
09:40that's what we have to realize more than anything it's like if you're not picking up the pen
09:45every single day and writing your own story someone's gonna write it for you when the stories
09:49aren't being told by us they're very very singular and we're very very one-dimensional in those stories
09:55like i said it's characters we're not human beings the human part is being taken away and you're being
10:00assigned characteristics and behaviors you know that that um basically just feed stereotypes you know and i
10:08think when we tell our stories we're able to tell them with compassion empathy and nuance and when you do
10:14that whether you're telling a story about trauma or sadness or violence or whatever the case may be
10:19you're still telling a human story yeah and more than anything nobody's doing a better job than you
10:25are doing right now oh yeah so i would love for you to tell everybody about your daughter's foundation
10:32and the comic book that you just released because that is huge like she created a comic book like she's
10:39like you think that she's just up here talking on stage talking about you know creating your own
10:43narrative she's living it she's walking in it right now she's doing that so please let everybody know
10:48all the great things she's doing wait can we clap for her real quick real quick all of us do thank you
10:56thank you um so i just started a non-profit organization called daughter we take scholars to
11:03ghana twice a year uh we will be taking our first six scholars to ghana in august um i'm super excited for
11:11that we'll be spending two weeks just reconnecting because i went to ghana for the first time in
11:16december and i realized that there was a huge piece of my identity that was missing because really that's
11:21what all of this comes down to it's your search for your authentic identity right so i realized there
11:26was so much of me that i had no idea about and it was really a life-changing experience and i wanted
11:30to be able to give that pass that on you know give that experience to other people so we'll be taking our
11:35first six scholars to ghana next month i'm super excited um and then the comic book i just created
11:41i did a 10 page comic um i wrote it i worked with an illustrator and basically i just talked about some
11:49of the experiences that i had growing up the environment i was growing up in and and how i was
11:54growing up in high school my interactions with teachers and how that affected me how i felt about
12:00myself um my mental health um it got pretty dark but in that darkness in that dark place i was able to
12:10find my true power and that's what i wanted everyone to take away from that i think we we get into this
12:17darkness and we kind of take it on as our natural state of being without realizing that it's a portal
12:24like that's taking you to the other side the next stage of your evolution the next stage of who you're
12:29supposed to become so if you can make it through that and sit in that and just feel it allow it to
12:36be and then move through it because what i realized is there was a calling on my life like and there's a
12:42calling on all of our lives sorry i'm gonna take you to church real quick the reason i had to go
12:45through that darkness is because there was a calling on my life and what god was asking for me was to
12:51step into the next version of who i was supposed to be so that i could be sitting on this stage making
12:55an impact hopefully helping some of y'all out so all of us have the next stage in order for me to do
13:02that i had to do so much reprogramming unlearning making different choices who i hung out with where
13:07i was spending my time that's why i had to sit in darkness that's why i had to be by myself you know
13:12that's why i had to go through that because i had to get to the next stage so don't ever be afraid
13:17to be in that dark place that's not your natural state of being that's a portal to get you to where
13:21you're going that was amazing that was yeah girl you got it you're it's not just all about the
13:29physical but it's all about what's up in here and so much you went through all of that so that you
13:34could give that advice to us exactly you can give that advice to everybody listening and making sure
13:38that we're not just making sure it exists within the confines of this room but we're taking it outside
13:42of here we're applying it to our everyday life ebony what is a magic moment like as in where you
13:50believed in magic or you believe anything was possible i believe in magic every day
13:55today was magic like new orleans oh my god you know why i love it here because the magic is so
14:02palpable it's like as soon as you touch down and get to the airport you just feel it in the air
14:06yeah i don't know what it is about this place but i just it just gives me chills like it just makes
14:10me feel like anything is possible but truly i believe in magic every day i believe you know magic
14:16is not as like mystic as people try to make it seem i think it's about setting an intention
14:21and focusing your energy toward that intention and then making your choices uh in alignment with that
14:28intention because when you're doing that everything else is in support of you the universe is in support
14:34of you god is in support of you but it really takes you focused and setting that intention and then
14:39making the choices that align with that yeah absolutely all right so before we go is there
14:46anybody that knows how to beatbox in the room come on we don't make me harass myself no so you don't
14:54want to hear her beatbox guys before ebony leaves she has to do a little freestyle for us
15:00oh yeah so last call do we have any beatboxers here
15:05y'all don't want this y'all don't want these bars come on come on oh we got a person we got
15:14good hey y'all get our beatbox jumpsuit do y'all really want bars she's about to spit bars
15:21can you come up oh good name all right i feel like i should stand we should just stand oh yeah
15:27i think we're let's get the news you know bring her ready all right we need everybody to hype her
15:32up all right we need to hype her up right now so if you could stand up stand up and like let's
15:38let's try to make this let's try to get her comfortable right here let's go yeah
15:42essence fast beauty carnival all right oh my goodness here we go
15:45oh she fucking it up
15:59okay uh uh let me catch the beat let me catch the beat uh let me catch the beat uh yeah uh my name is
16:11ebony and i'm at essence fest i love it here because black people is the best i'm from seattle
16:17so i'm repping that west i am a hot girl and i'm gonna say it with my chest
16:22oh hey hey hey hey that was all right everybody thank you we are girls united
16:31special thank you to our guest summer 2019 ebony davis everybody hot girl summer is commencing
16:39rap review album coming soon
16:41and i'm gonna say it's okay
16:44you
16:44you
16:46you
16:48you
16:50you
16:52you
16:54you
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16:58you
17:00you
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