About me

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My family immigrated from South Africa to Australia in 2000. As a determined, carefree and multi-talented 16 year old at the time, I had made the definitive promise to myself on the aeroplane, that I would no longer be the geeky, pigtailed, outcast, who was constantly the butt of everyone's jokes. I never wanted to be the same again. I chose to re-write my story and become the version of me who (I thought) would be accepted by society. 

I dived deep into re-discovering and re-actualising who I thought I was meant to be. I changed the way I spoke, dressed and even the things I liked to do. I threw away my art supplies, hung up my Karate-do black-belt and medals, packed away my violin and poetry, and I started hanging with the cool kids - the stoners and those who would frequently cut class. I got mixed with the wrong crowd, started having regular and intense arguments with my parents, and I chose partying over studying. My grades plummeted and I quickly became somewhat of a cool attraction amongst my 'friends'. Like an alien from another world. 

However, my past life's persona came back to haunt me. How dare I dim her light. I couldn't shake her shadow off me, and eventually, I gave in and brought her back to life. I started telling captivating stories of my life in South Africa, wrote and performed emotionally profound monologues in plays that would bring people to tears, and serenaded those who wanted to listen in the schoolyard, at the station by the bus bays, or in the local shopping centre food-courts. 

Coming from a mixed-race family and being a migrant to Australia, I found it really hard to fit in because my accent made me stand out. It had the ability to draw people in and hold them there just by speaking, just like my singing. As the years passed, I became more aware of my voice's power and my ability to create, re-create and embody the many versions of my expression in the world simultaneously. Endearing, mysterious, boss-bitch diva. And it all started with my voice.

No one really came to understand me and  I had no real community with people who deeply connected with me. I was born to be different and run in my own lane, but, I still had no sense of who I was, who I was meant to be or whether this version of me was going to stick for life. But, I knew that who I had to become had everything to do with who I chose to show-up to be, every day. 

My voice became the catalyst and my inspiration to help others.