How Reyna Biddy Is Helping To Usher In A New Era of Poets
I've mesmerized the melody between your every heart beat,
just so I could sing it back if you ever get lonely....
I learned the gaps between your fingers just in case you ever need a hand
I made sure mine fit perfectly- Reyna
Reyna Biddy was all smiles when she strolled in.
Dressed simply in a black tank top and black cardigan, though the January temperature in L.A. hit an unusual 72 degrees that day. Her long signature curls were traded in for a short cut, to the dismay of fans and friends, that made its grand debut on her social pages New Year's day—a personal decision that unexpectantly garnered nearly 40,000 likes and just as many negative comments.
“I always knew that people found me attractive, and I always knew what was expected of me," she says to me as we sit out back on the patio of an Italian restaurant. “Everyone would always come up to me and be like are you a model? Are you an actress? I never ever looked at myself in that light because I was always, I think, too intelligent to ever resort or base my entire career on just my looks. I never wanted to be in the limelight; I never wanted to be known for something or be pressured to stay looking that exact same way."
A noble thought, though in the age of social media where people connect to your image just as much as your words, it's nearly impossible to be heard without being seen. But to her credit, this isn't a path that she went looking for, becoming a poet wasn't exactly on her to-do list when she stepped onto the campus of Pepperdine University just two years ago. It's something that found her during some of her darkest days when a failed relationship had her questioning what it meant to love and be loved by another, and more importantly, to love herself.
She didn't expect that when she posted up diary-like entries on Twitter and Tumblr that she would get thousands of followers. She didn't expect that her first book, I Love My Love, would become an Amazon Best Seller just a year after self-publishing. She probably didn't even foresee that she would get placement on a major R&B artist's album, because when she started penning words from her pain, it was purely for the art, not the fame or the fortune. And despite her growing success, she wants to keep it that way.
MADE IN LA
I tell her that I'm a new L.A. resident, that I haven't even been here a year yet. She tells me she grew up in The Valley near Studio City, but that her family was far from well off.
Her mom, who had her at 16, was a nurse and her dad an artist. Growing up in the city of dreams, it's no surprise that she caught the creative bug. She got a taste of the industry through her uncles who dabbled in acting and music, but Reyna, shying away from the spotlight, wanted a career that was a little more subtle with a lot less pressure for perfection, so when her English teacher encouraged her to look into writing, she was much obliged.
But not for long because writing, as she was told, wasn't a real job and didn't make real money. Be a model, her aunt told her. What else do you do? Her peers asked her. The constant questioning planted seeds of self-doubt, so she drank the Kool-Aid that detours many from their purpose, and tried more acceptable career paths.
Before college, she took a year off and went into music as a songwriter, but lacked the desire to write for others or to play the role of an artist. She then enrolled in school, thinking that if she couldn't help people through music, she could do it as a therapist. “Then I took psychology class and decided that I don't want to be a therapist," she says.
Okay, maybe a teacher. “I started looking into not only the salary, but the time that goes into it and I was like um, I don't want to do this."
Or wait, a Black History major. “I went to a black [guidance] counselor and he was like that's the dumbest thing you could do."
So at 21, just a year into school, she dropped out.
“I was like this is like the universe telling me that none of these things are for me," she says between sips of her minestrone soup—one of the few dishes on the menu that fit her vegan lifestyle. “My dad was like that's not it. My mom was like are you sure? My friends were like don't do it. But I've never been the type of person to care. It took me awhile, of course, to truly believe and walk in that light, because you can say you don't care but then you hear something and you start to doubt yourself. But my parents always taught me you only have one life, live it how you want it. Be a leader, not a follower."
It was, perhaps, her first lesson in womanhood—not allowing other people's perceptions to dictate your destiny. “Once I really decided to put my foot forward and to really drop out and take this writing stuff seriously, instantly I saw my future in it. And I saw how I could change my lane or how I could pursue this in a different way from what others have already done."
And she's definitely blazing her own trail.
THE LOVE DOCTOR
At 5AM Reyna rises with sun from her newly-purchased home in Woodland Hills, turns on her laptop, and spends the next couple of hours answering messages from her fans—over 100,000 on Twitter and half as much on Instagram—who turn to Reyna when they need a word of encouragement, or a simple reminder that they're worthy of love.
It started out as an online journal, love letters to herself after her ex-boyfriend, a baseball player, told her that she was a distraction that was holding him back, and that she wasn't doing anything with her life. “It wasn't the moment that I was upset the most, it was the moment that I was lost the most," she says. “Not only is he dropping this bomb on me, but also he's letting me know why I can't fit in his life. And so in him saying that I think that's what led me to start searching for myself after we were over."
Her soul-searching process turned into a quest for love. Understanding it. Getting it. Giving it. She dug deep within herself to discover her own truth about what love is—and what it wasn't. It wasn't her ex, who made her feel worthless in attempt to preserve his own ego. It wasn't the love she witnessed growing up with a father who she later found out had a secret family on the side. And it certainly wasn't the love that she had shown herself, allowing people to treat her less than what she deserved.
Each trip down memory lane was penned over the course of three months in a collection of letters to herself, reminders that her love was infinite, and that despite what she'd been through, still worth giving and receiving.
She poured. She released. She exhaled. She healed. And when she was done, she made it her mission to put it in the hands of those who needed to do the same. Because when it comes to real love—self-love—it's always urgent like a motherfucker.
“I don't want to say I was in a rush, but I felt burdened to get this story out, and I'm glad that I did," says Reyna. “I self-published because I proved myself right, and I proved everyone else wrong because I self-published three months after I dropped out."
At the time that her book was released in December 2015, Reyna had 50,000 followers between Twitter and Instagram, a fan base almost twenty times from what she had the year before, built through consistent posts of her personal thoughts and inspirational quotes.
She caught the eye of another popular poet, Malanda, whose constant sharing helped catapult her audience, and when her book released she expanded her reach through Tumblr posts, amassing another 20,000 followers over the course of a year. Most of her audience, she says, varies from one platform to another.
It's not uncommon for writers to build a loyal following through standard social channels. Writers like Alex Elle and Melissa Tripp have also built an impressive number of devoted readers from their poetic prose. But Reyna tapped into another audience when saw an opportunity to combine her love for music and poetry on the music platform Soundcloud.
She teamed up with “trap house jazz" artist Masego to turn a collection of her most popular poems into ear-capturing tracks.
“I saw the reaction of it and I was just like whoa, I didn't know that was the reaction that I was going to get. I got like 100,000 plays in like three days."
Her words have not only connected with fans and fellow poets, but also artists of similar caliber. You can listen to her featured on the intro for R&B singer Kehlani's latest album, SweetSexySavage—a perfect fit for two creatives known for baring their souls.
“Reyna is the kind of girl you know is outstanding before meeting her, then once you hear her art, you search for a deeper word to describe her but can't," says Kehlani. “She's very human, but almost like a human that's been here many, many times. She's a phenomenal woman. I love her."
Just a year out from walking away from a college degree, Reyna has been able to earn a comfortable living at the very thing she was told would leave her in the poorhouse. No sponsorship funding, no flat tummy tea endorsements, just genuine love and dedication to her craft and a relentless desire to win. Her seemingly overnight success didn't come without putting in work though, something that she informs many other writers who reach out to her in hopes that a co-sign will lead to their big break.
“No one is going to give you anything easy," she says. “I've never asked for a handout. I've never been that type of person to be like hey can you post this link for me, so I think that maybe I'm not the person to teach someone a tough lesson, but I think that in trying to become an artist you have to learn how to do it yourself."
After reaching out to a number of publishers, she finally caught the eye of one major name who will be backing the re-release of I Love My Love, and also her second book that's yet to be announced. “I realized that this poetry industry is really small, and it's really small because no one has ever believed in it. When I was shopping my book around, I would hear so often that poetry doesn't sell."
While it's a big win for Reyna, she's not popping bottles just yet. The 22-year-old has a bigger dream to take the genre beyond just books, social platforms and small stages— though a major publishing deal is a step in the right direction.
“I want it to be bigger than what you would expect from a poet because I believe that just in general I'm a different poet. I tell it all. I do it very different because I want it to be bigger than just books. I want it to be a physical thing. I want to go on tour like a real artist. If Kevin Hart can sell out arenas, poets should be able to do the exact same thing, but we never strive to do that because we've never seen it. No poet has ever done anything like that."
“If Kevin Hart can sell out arenas, poets should be able to do the exact same thing."
The pressure that she tried to escape being a model or a music artist she's now placing on herself as a visionary. Some days it's a lot—from breaking barriers in an often overshadowed industry to taking on the problems of her followers who fill her inbox with requests for advice on life and love. She admits that she's looking for a therapist, someone to talk to when she doesn't want to burden her boyfriend or close friends with the weight of her world. Balance, at the moment, is a foreign concept to her.
“The thing with me is I know when I'm overdoing it and I know when I'm heading towards a bad place and depression is on its way, and it's not until it hits that it's like I got to stop," she says. “I have to go away from everyone. I think in that time I give myself a chance to heal, to be ready for the next couple of months."
Prayer and diving back into herself keeps her grounded, and the journey of learning to love and sharing that with the world keeps her motivated.
“I still don't think I know what love means," she confesses. “I just know the way that it feels. I think that I've placed myself in situations that feel right, and to me that's a part of not only regular love, but also self-love. You shouldn't put yourself in situations that you know are going to drain you. You shouldn't put yourself in situations where you know you're going to leave feeling less than when you came. So I think for me, I don't know what the average person's idea of love is, but I know that for me love means when things just feel right."
What many spend a lifetimes searching for, Reyna is discovering day by day. Love isn't a destination, it's a journey. And it requires room to learn and grow from mistakes and embrace the triumphs that are experienced along the way.
Check out the audio version of "10 Reasons I Could Never Stay" below!
Kiah McBride writes technical content by day and uses storytelling to pen real and raw personal development pieces on her blog Write On Kiah. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @writeonkiah.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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These 11 Married Couples Share Their Keys To Long-Term Marital Success
The late actor Audrey Hepburn once said something that I think a lot of married couples who have at least 10 years under their belt will agree with: “If I get married, I want to be very married.” In my mind, this means very committed, very complementary, and very willing to go the distance — otherwise, what’s the point?
Really, what’s the point?
Thing is, with the divorce rate still being higher than it ever should be (for the record, a husband is not a boyfriend, and a wife is not a girlfriend; a marriage is serious business, y’all) and acting married being praised (or at least acknowledged) more than actually being married seems to be — folks who 1) are married and are looking for some hacks that will help with relational longevity or 2) want to be married someday and want insight on how to make their future marriage last are constantly seeking truly beneficial material.
Can you Google articles with random bullet points? Sure. And I’m not discouraging it. Every little bit of wisdom that you can pull, I fully support. However, the reason why I like to do articles like this one from time to time is there is something to be said from hearing real talk from multiple sources on the same topic who have some solid wisdom and knowledge on a particular topic.
Today? 11 married couples who were willing to talk about how they’ve been able to make it to several wedding anniversaries with a smile on their face and no regrets for choosing who they chose. Let’s all sit at their feet for just a moment.
*Middle names are always used in my content that’s like this so that people can speak freely*
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1. Kyle and Adrienne. Married 12 Years.
Kyle: “Some of your readers aren’t going to want to hear this but it’s worked for my marriage: people need to lower their expectations sometimes; I mean, men and women. We go into marriage with stuff that movies told us, social media told us, friends who are always single told us about what we should expect from someone, and then want to fault the person when they’re not what we made up in our head. Everyone should have standards but if you’re expecting your spouse to be some living version of a fairy tale character, you’re going to be disappointed almost every day of your life. Drop those expectations some and watch your relationship be a lot less stressful.”
Adrienne: “Talk to people who respect your man about your marriage. I’ve never believed that you shouldn’t ever go to anyone when you need some support. Even the Bible says that there is safety in wise counsel [Proverbs 11:4]. Too many women talk to women who don’t respect men, in general, let alone their husbands, and so that’s where things go left. Sometimes, you need an ‘outside in’ perspective. But if that woman is always taking shots at men, doesn’t respect marriage, or isn’t someone who holds your man in high regard, don’t ask her for advice. Really, you should ask yourself why you’re friends with her at all.”
Shellie here: I’m big on engaged and married couples having a “village” of sorts for their relationship, too. Check out “Why Every Engaged Couple Needs A 'Marriage Registry'” to get a good idea of what I mean.
2. Levi and Paulette. Married for 15 Years.
Levi: “Some of you have probably heard of the 7-7-7 rule. It’s where couples go on a date every seven days, have a weekend getaway every seven weeks, and go on a romantic trip of some sort every seven months. My wife and I do the 2-2-2 rule instead because sometimes our schedule and budget make ‘7’ difficult. It has gotten easier since Shellie told us about the sex jar. Bottom line, if you’re waiting for time to just open up to be with your spouse, that ain’t gonna happen. Schedule intimacy, including sex. Prioritizing it is better than saying you’re gonna be spontaneous and…never are.”
Paulette: “Initiate sex, dammit. When Shellie told us that men initiate sex most of the time, and then I thought about how often I used to push my husband away whenever he did it — I never really thought about how that made him feel until I put myself in his shoes. We’ve got to stop having all of this understanding for why women cheat when it comes to them not feeling desired or not getting attention when we’re the same way to our husbands. Your marriage isn’t ‘Young and the Restless’, where you’re just supposed to wait for your man to make the move. If you want to feel wanted, do the same thing for him.”
Shellie here: What’s a sex jar, you ask? You can read more about it via “5 Reasons Why Every Married Couple Needs A Sex Jar.”
3. Matthew and Gaia. Married for 17 Years.
Matthew: “Reenact some of your favorite times together. My wife and I do that semi-often. We’ll go back to where we had our first date, or we’ll go back to the hotel where we had some of the best sex before. Bringing back memories of when you felt the best together can give you the motivation to stay together to create some new memories to ‘play out’ later on.”
Gaia: “If you want to ‘mom your husband,’ you need to have kids — or at least get a dog! I didn’t realize how bossy I was until I got married. It’s because I saw my mom be that way with my dad. In my eyes, I thought that’s what love looked like until I watched how my in-laws were. They don’t try to change each other, and they definitely don’t make any demands. They’re very polite. I think a lot of married people are rude to their partner. Don’t be that.”
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4. Joseph and Carletta. Married for 10 Years.
Joseph: “Go to therapy for your childhood. I’m dead serious. No one is going to show you yourself like your wife will, and I realized that a lot of my hang-ups came from unhealed childhood stuff. It’s hard to be an adult in your marriage when you’re still emotionally a kid in a lot of ways. If you’re at the point where you think therapy is needed, go alone and deal with your childhood first. It did miracles for me and mine.”
"No one is going to show you yourself like your wife will, and I realized that a lot of my hang-ups came from unhealed childhood stuff. It’s hard to be an adult in your marriage when you’re still emotionally a kid in a lot of ways."
Carletta: “Meditate together once a day. Even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes, you need to carve out a moment to be mindful, focus on each other, and slow the world down. [Joseph and I] have been doing it for a couple of years now; it’s totally changed the way we communicate. Meditation reminds us to put each other first; that if we’re focused on each other, we can take on…whatever.”
5. Zeke and Rachelle. Married for 12 Years.
Zeke: “An argument is not a fight and a debate is not an argument. Learn that and you’re home-free. That’s all I got.”
Rachelle: “That advice that you just got? That sums up what it’s like to live with my husband. He’s very cut-and-dry, direct, and not wordy. That used to bug the hell out of me until I realized how wordy I was and then accepted that I wouldn’t want ‘two of me’ in the house [LOL]. He’s right. You can have a difference of opinion, and it be a debate. You can not find a middle ground on something and it turns into an argument. Neither of those is a red flag. It just comes with being with someone who is as much of an individual as you are.”
6. Taurus and Madison. Married for 22 Years.
Taurus: “Be prepared for your partner to change — not a couple of times, quite a bit. And when they change, that alters the relationship because now it’s not the person you stood with on your wedding day; it’s someone else. People get divorced so much because they are inflexible; they expect their spouse to never switch up and that’s just not how life is. If you’re rigid, controlling, or don’t know how to adjust, you don’t need to marry anybody. You’re gonna be miserable, and so will they.”
Madison: “Pray before sex. Before my husband and I got married, we had quite a bit of sexual history that caused us to do some comparing, and that led to resentment. In marriage, we had to adjust to how it’s more than just what we’re getting from another person. Married sex comes with so much more spirituality and responsibility. Prayer before sex reminds us to see it from a spiritual lens — and that makes the experience more intense and sacred. It might sound weird at first. Just try it. I don’t think you’ll regret it at all.”
"Married sex comes with so much more spirituality and responsibility. Prayer before sex reminds us to see it from a spiritual lens — and that makes the experience more intense and sacred."
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7. Karl and LaTasha. Married for 9 Years.
Karl: “Check in with your partner twice a day. In the morning before leaving the house and at night before going to sleep. If you work outside of the home, a lot can happen during the course of one day, so you shouldn’t assume that the person you left in the morning is who you are coming home to. I don’t mean sharing each other’s schedules or to-do lists. I mean, asking your spouse, ‘How are you doing? How are you really doing?’. It’s a smart way to take note of their mood and needs so that you are never blindsided.”
LaTasha: “Give each other some privacy. I have never been the kind of woman to go through a man’s phone, and I won’t start. If you think that you have to be a detective in your relationship, why are you in it in the first place? I know that Karl would give me codes and passwords if I wanted them because we’ve talked about it all before. Knowing that he would is enough for me. Marriage is an institution, but damn, it shouldn’t feel like jail.”
8. Thomas and Wynter. Married for 15 Years.
Thomas: “Ask your partner what their sexual needs are. Never assume that they haven’t changed because if we all agree that we are constantly growing and evolving as people, why would sex be exempt? Don’t personalize what they say about it either. All of us have sexual fantasies and interests that we keep to ourselves because we don’t know what our partner will think or ‘cause we think that they will create stories in their head about what made us think that way. I’ve learned that intimacy is feeling okay with sharing the deep stuff. The more comfortable a man, especially, is with doing that, the better the sex will be for everyone because talking about stuff like that is like taking down some walls.”
Wynter: “It’s okay to take one vacation a year with your girls and one by yourself. Just don’t go with people who don’t have the same standards as you, and as far as your solo venture, it doesn’t need to be longer than a long weekend. One thing that they don’t tell you about marriage is how there are times when you will feel like it is monotonous because of the routine of everything. A girls’ trip reminds you to get back to you outside of being someone’s wife or mom, and the trip alone is when you can sit around and do whatever you have to negotiate most of them. And yes, your man should be given the same courtesy.”
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9. Allen and Yvette. Married for 11 Years.
Allen: “STOP. BRINGING. UP. OLD. SH-T. SH-T. Nothing creates walls in a marriage more than you telling someone that you forgave them, and then the minute something else happens, here you go with the rap sheet of wrongs. Forgiving someone means that you are pardoning them, and that’s not what you’re doing if you’re constantly holding stuff over their head. One thing that marriage will show you is how bad of a forgiver you are. Most people suck at it, if we’re gonna be real about it.”
Yvette: “I already know that some women are going to assume that my man must’ve done something to say all of that (LOL). He’s a much better forgiver than I am, believe it or not. The real plot twist is, what gets on his nerves more than anything, is when I bring up stuff that he’s forgiven me for. Allen is the kind of man [who] hates to live in the past. I’ve grown a lot because of that. I think my advice would be to stay focused on solutions and tomorrow instead of problems and yesterday.”
Allen: “Sh- t, that’s bars, babe!”
Shellie here: INDEED.
10. Brennton and Danyelle. Married for 16 Years.
Brennton: “Why anyone who is trash at forgiving would get married is beyond me. It’s delusional to the nth degree to think that you are worthy of forgiveness and others aren’t — or that what you do isn’t ‘as bad,’ and that’s why you deserve forgiveness and others don’t. My wife and I have a lot of time under our belts. I’m here to tell you that there will be something, daily, that you will need to forgive your partner for on some level. If you can’t see yourself being open to that, marriage simply isn’t for you.”
Danyelle: “I don’t know who taught so many of us that being passive-aggressive will get us what we want, but it’s a damn lie. If something is wrong, stop saying ‘nothing’ when your man asks you what’s up because, if you’ve got a man like mine, he’s gonna say ‘Okay’ and go on about his day. Brennton often says that my refusing to speak isn’t his responsibility, it’s mine. That used to piss me off because, deep down, I knew that he was right. Oh, and chill on the grudge-holding too. With guys, that’s not going to get you anywhere either.”
11. Christopher and Yvonne. Married for 26 Years.
Christopher: “Have more loyalty for your spouse than you do your closest friend. Too many people don’t think like that. If you’ve got a friend since college, you’ve been through some things and you’ve learned to forgive and move past it. If you can’t see your wife or husband in this way, why did you get married? You should never have more grace for someone who you didn’t take vows with; that’s ludicrous. Before anyone else, I’m going to prioritize reconciling with my wife. It’s because I value her more than anyone. That’s what marriage is.”
"Before anyone else, I'm going to prioritize reconciling with my wife. It's because I value her more than anyone. That's what marriage is."
Yvonne: “Even if you’re not about ‘traditional gender roles,’ discuss what the expectations are for the home. People don’t divorce over cheating as much as getting sick of beard clippings in the bathroom sink or cars that look like pocketbooks. When you sign up for marriage, you are doing daily life with another person. Articulate your expectations. Listen to theirs. Be flexible until you both can make it work. Do that, and you’ll look up, and it’s been 20 years already.”
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Gems. Pure gems, y’all.
You know, popular consultant Barbara De Angelis once said, “Marriage is not a noun; it’s a verb. It isn’t something you get. It’s something you do. It’s the way you love your partner every day.” And love? Love is a choice.
And so, whether you’re married, engaged, or simply desire marriage in the future, hopefully, these tips will help you to choose how you love your spouse (or future spouse)…better.
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Featured image by Jasper Cole/Getty Images