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  • 2 days ago
Teyana Taylor reflects on her incredible 20-year journey as a creative visionary, artist, and leader. She shares her thoughts on why women are the blueprint of vision and creativity, lessons from 20 years in the industry, how she balances faith, self-belief, and creative freedom and more!
Transcript
00:00Every single day that you see any woman, no matter who she is, every day you see a woman,
00:05you are watching a visionary. You're watching a walking visionary, a walking vision board,
00:11because us women are the blueprint.
00:22Being honored with the Billboard Woman in Music Visionary Award is truly an honor.
00:28The last 20 years of my life, not only extending my vision to myself, but extending my vision to others
00:34and other creatives and helping them bring their visions to life.
00:38Like I always had the vision since I was younger, whereas like I would walk up to different dance groups
00:44and be like,
00:44hmm, this should be like this. You know, I would walk up to a mannequin and say, hmm, the mannequin.
00:50So I've literally always had eyes that just seen beyond.
00:54To look back at younger me and see what I'm doing now has really been amazing that I've been able
00:59to, you know, be a vision for not just myself,
01:02but for others, especially in a time right now where, you know, you don't get the biggest budgets for things.
01:09I think it's really dope that I can step in and help other creatives get their vision out there and
01:14bring their vision to life.
01:15And also just like elevate their vision because, you know, creatives have their own vision.
01:20I think every single creative have their own vision.
01:22But when you step into a world of collaboration, it is a skill to trust.
01:26It is a skill to be able to collaborate in a way where you feel that trust and know, okay,
01:32I'm safe with you.
01:33It feels really amazing that, you know, I've been able to be a safety net for the creatives that I
01:41work with.
01:42It feels really good because I am used to more so being on the other end of it where I'm
01:47pouring into everyone.
01:48It feels really great to be seen and acknowledged and poured into and celebrated.
01:53Like, it really feels good, especially with everything that's happening.
01:57It's just everything that's coming at once.
01:58And I just don't take any of it lightly and I don't take any of it for granted.
02:02I'm very, very humbled.
02:04I'm very grateful.
02:05I'm just filled with so much gratitude.
02:08And it's a really amazing feeling.
02:10And I really appreciate, you know, Billboard for seeing me, hearing me, and, you know, just loving on me.
02:17Hopefully a full circle moment for all the young girls out there, you know, that look to me and say,
02:22Oh, my God, I look up to her or she influences me to want to be a director or want
02:28to be a dancer or a choreographer or, you know, singer, whatever it is.
02:32Like, I just, I love that I can inspire people and even, you know, young boys.
02:37And to anybody who look to me and love and respect what I do in this space, I'm happy that
02:45they can see this, this part and know that you can do it too.
02:49And no matter how long it takes, you will get your just due.
02:53The wait is not punishment.
02:54It's preparation for what's already written for you.
02:56So it's already written.
02:57I've worked with so many creatives throughout the years and they've taught me so much.
03:02A lot of the wisdom that I have now, because I literally call myself Spongebob Squarepants, so I'm going to
03:07soak up everything, you know.
03:10But I think that they really just, they describe on an even higher level everything that I just said about
03:16what it means to me.
03:18Because this is not something that just, like, came out of, you know, a random place and I just did
03:24it, you know.
03:25It's definitely through how they've inspired me and then how I can inspire the up-and-coming generation after me
03:31and, you know, just different things like that.
03:32These are people that had a vision.
03:34These are people who had that passion to understand what it meant to invest in themselves to get their proper
03:40visions out.
03:41Creative freedom is out of pocket.
03:43They've inspired me to know that that's what it takes and that's why I invest in myself and why I
03:50invest in certain companies
03:51or why I invest in things that can help others because that's just what it's all about, you know.
03:56Creative freedom is not free.
03:58Freedom is not free.
04:00I love Angela Bassett and I love Julia Roberts.
04:03Those two are, like, everything for me.
04:06I'm a movie head, so I love everything.
04:09Angela is really where I go when I want to get into those emotions.
04:16Things coming from the heart and just the way she moves and how she navigates this space is amazing.
04:21The same thing with Julia Roberts, especially in that rom-com place and you just, you feel with her the
04:26humanity of it all, you know.
04:28It's just something that I love.
04:29I enjoy watching them.
04:31Like, I can watch a movie that Angela's in a billion times and, like, each time watching it, like, it's
04:36my first time.
04:37Like, mm.
04:38It's like my little comfort films, you know.
04:40Same thing with Julia Roberts.
04:41Like, I can watch them in their comfort for me.
04:44Those are two for sure.
04:46Like, I love, love, love, love, love.
04:48Everything about women is super.
04:50We're a super mom.
04:51We're a super sister.
04:52We're a super daughter.
04:53We're a super wife.
04:54We're a super lover.
04:55We're a super girlfriend.
04:55We're just super women.
04:58We don't really get to take our capes off.
05:00Every single day that you see any woman, no matter who she is, every day you see a woman, you
05:06are watching a visionary.
05:07You're watching a walking visionary, a walking vision board, because us women are the blueprint.
05:14We give life.
05:15We turn houses into homes.
05:17We give love.
05:18We see that.
05:20We see the plan.
05:20We see the future.
05:22We see what's far ahead of us, what's behind us, and what's directly in front of us.
05:27Taking the lead in my journey to making sure I'm focusing on being present, you know, because as women, we
05:34are forced to be present and happen to be present in the now.
05:37We're always planning, even if it is a PTA meeting, whatever it is, just as women, we are always planning.
05:44We're planning what we want our hair to look like.
05:46We're planning what we want our makeup to look like.
05:47We're planning what we want to wear to go on this date.
05:49We're planning how we want to be.
05:51We're planning the kind of love that we want, you know.
05:54We're planning the kind of job that we want.
05:55It's just we are the visionaries.
05:59We are the vision.
06:00We are the blueprint.
06:02I'm proud of myself because in 2020, I told myself that I was going to be a big director
06:07one day.
06:07I told myself that I was going to be a great actress one day.
06:10I told myself that I was going to help other creatives.
06:13I told myself that I was going to, you know, I had all these plans that I manifested.
06:18And in that moment when everybody thought that I was bugging, I stood in my truth and
06:22I took that leap of faith and I began the real faith walk.
06:27Here I am now, 2026, doing all of the things that I said I would do in 2020.
06:31So I would like to go back in time and just tell my 2020 self that I'm very, very proud
06:37of her and that I see her and I feel her and to continue to follow her heart, whether it's
06:43her against the room or not.
06:44You have to be willing to follow your heart and take that gamble, the only gamble I'm going
06:47to take is with God.
06:48We're going to come together and he said, hey, we're going to the casino.
06:50What you want to do?
06:51You want to walk this faith walk or you want to stay here and stay mad?
06:55I'm not going to do that with you because I got plans for you.
06:58He stared me in the direction that I needed to go and said, walk straight.
07:01And that's exactly what I did.
07:03And I never turned back.
07:04And that's why I can go back to 2020 and not regret a decision that I made.
07:08Because again, I'm not focusing on what's behind me.
07:10I'm focusing on what's directly in front of me.
07:13I'm not even focused on what's far beyond me because life is so fragile.
07:17Life is so short and tomorrow's not promised.
07:19So we're not present in the now.
07:21How can we show up for later?
07:24My goal right now is to just be present in the now.
07:26This is not an overnight thing.
07:29This is 20 years of tears and happiness and ups and downs and trials and tribulations and
07:33a lot, most importantly, a lot of prayer.
07:36A lot of prayer.
07:37A lot of trust.
07:39A lot of trust in yourself.
07:40And most importantly, giving yourself grace.
07:44Give yourself grace through this faith walk.
07:48All of us, we all got to give ourselves more grace because we do worry about the pressures
07:54of what we have to do to be women.
07:56And even for men, it's just a pressure of what we have to do to be humans that we don't
08:00give ourselves enough grace, especially for women.
08:02We don't give ourselves enough grace.
08:05But I love seeing that we are stepping in this spot and standing 10 toes down on giving
08:10ourselves grace and putting ourselves first and being present for us, you know, and then
08:16everyone else.
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