Honoring Domestic Violence Awareness Month and with nail and makeup artist @MiaJenae, who shares her love for advocacy and her mother!
Can you share why domestic advocacy is a cause close to your heart?
Domestic Violence affected my family very much as a child growing up I lost my parents at the age of 12 from domestic violence murder suicide. I feel like watching that as a child affected me in my teenage years and my adulthood, kind of not knowing what the definition of love is, whether it’s from friends or family because that was the only visual I kind of had of it.
Today we’re on location at your former elementary school, can you share with us why this location holds so much importance for you?
Every night my parents would argue. It would very often end with the police showing up and then we had to go to sleep to get ready for school. So being at school, even though I did have to focus on my school work, at least I had my friends around to cheer me up or going to art class to do activities or violin, it was already something to take my mind off of it. I never thought about what was going on at home until I had to leave school.
Describe your relationship with your mother and how you viewed her growing up.
I can only remember the fun times we had, which were like playing in her makeup or we putting on her clothes or trying on her heels. Making jokes that I wanted to like to go out with her at the club. I kinda of wish that we had more time. At this point, I’m still a child so she couldn’t talk to me about real life stuff ….like there was no real advice I took from her apart from “this is cute, this is pretty dress suits”, you know more stuff along those lines.
I always thought my mom was a celebrity I actually really thought she was famous so I would come to school and brag that she was famous.But I thought she was I thought her and my aunt were like the coolest sisters ever they were always dressed perfectly my mom would come pick me up from school in her big heels and big hoop earring in like a fur coat or she would come in like her the Escalade and honk the horn I would be so proud to just show off that was my mom!
She was a gem in my eye, she was my Beyonce!
How did witnessing domestic violence affect relationships moving forward and what advice would you give to others who might be in a similar situation currently?
I think when it first happened or just in general looking at it at first, I was always so angry with my dad and never understanding why if you love someone you would do something like that and if you loved us, your kids, like why you would leave us behind without any type of explanation.
He would always threaten to take her life, but it was never a question of would he do it, but when and why and the question was always WHY? I think as I got older to better understand just how we kind of work as people it’s all a mental thing and I forgave him once I realized that he was never okay himself and that wasn’t the true definition of him right or my mom too! She loved her kids so much that she stayed in a situation, she was scared. I think even being in relationships, I never really knew what I was supposed to be looking for because that was the only example of a relationship that I could remember. I knew it wasn’t normal but because it’s so normalized, even the emotional trauma I dealt with in relationships, I thought this is how people are.
Advice I would give is to choose yourself at the end of the day. It’s easier said then done and being in the situation you’re in survivor mode, so it’s not easy to think about what you’re suppose to be doing, but choosing yourself, protecting yourself!
Loving yourself is important as well, you should be able to make yourself happy and anyone who comes along is adding to your happiness.
What inspired you to join the nail industry?
I needed my nails done and couldn’t at the time, so I just picked up a KISS manicure set at Walgreens or Target and I did them myself. When I was doing it, I had so fun and like why not! I was already doing makeup and I thought it would be cool if I added nails to my services. I started practicing and I stuck to it.
You’re also talented when it comes to makeup, can you share about your love for that artistry as well?
So the love comes from my mom watching her do her makeup to go out her best friend Vanity, who was a makeup artist. She would come over and they would be in her room and do their makeup together. Vanity would do my mom’s makeup and I would go in her makeup kit or go to my mom’s makeup, so I can do my own makeup with her and pretend I was going out with them.
When she passed away, I had my mom’s makeup and I was 12 at the time and we’re living with my grandma and I was doing my makeup at school with my mom’s makeup and my grandma was like you need to take that off and go to school, I was like “please no, this is the only thing I have”.
I would take her makeup to school. I would leave the house without makeup, take her makeup kit to school, go to bathroom and do my makeup and then take the makeup off before going back home and I was just have fun doing it and every time, I did it I thought of my mom and it was almost like we were getting ready to do things together.
Then it stuck with me. I was consistent with it and I started taking it seriously at the age of 16, taking clients and promoting myself as a makeup artist. It really didn’t feel like a job to use more of an outlet and now I just kind of use my passion for purpose!
I would take her makeup to school. I would leave the house without makeup, take her makeup kit to school, go to bathroom and do my makeup and then take the makeup off before going back home and I was just have fun doing it and every time, I did it I thought of my mom and it was almost like we were getting ready to do things together.
Then it stuck with me. I was consistent with it and I started taking it seriously at the age of 16, taking clients and promoting myself as a makeup artist. It really didn’t feel like a job to use more of an outlet and now I just kind of use my passion for purpose!
Along with nails and makeup, you also enjoy music and writing songs. Share with us how art in general has always been an important part of your life and who you are as a person.
Art is my outlet. I don’t think of anything else when I’m creating art. It’s almost as if the whole world around me tuned out. I love music, I love dance, I love singing, I love anything artistic and it was a way for me to express myself without any judgment. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and hard on myself sometimes but I also have to realize, it’s my alright and it’s what makes me but was something that was there for me when my parents were arguing. I had a keyboard, I would put my headphones in and play my keyboard to tune out the arguments or drawing or coming to school and being in art class and painting. So art has kind of been with me since I was young.
Tell us about the Tracy Legacy Organization that you and your sister have started.
Tracy Legacy Organization started to spread awareness for domestic violence. Every October, I like to do purple makeup and purple nails as a challenge for people to join in kind of as a fun way to introduce the topic because Domestic Violence is so dark. I like to find creative and fun ways to talk about the subject.
Everyday there’s someone who is dealing with domestic violence, some of them they don’t know they’re in a situation and I feel like it’s something that people don’t talk about often so Tracy Legacy is here to be a safe space for people to talk about domestic violence.
