For any woman who has heard the dreaded c-word during a doctor's visit, becoming an inspiration for others has to be the furthest thing from her mind.
Feelings of doom, depression, and sadness can set in immediately, and insecurities about how the illness might affect appearance and the daily responsibilities of taking care of bae, family, and work start to add to the stress and trauma of it all.
Michel Sproles, wife of NFL running back Darren Sproles, hit a period where she was indeed distraught after being told she had cancer.
Courtesy of Michel Sproles
"Everything, for me, [happened] so fast. I didn't even have time to process it. It was like, I was diagnosed on a Wednesday, I chose a very radical treatment--- the double mastectomy--- and I had surgery that following week," Sproles recalled during an exclusive chat with xoNecole.
"I was 28, newly married, and I had just had my youngest daughter. I had all these questions like, 'Why me?'"
After encouragement from her husband and family, Sproles decided to turn her Stage 0 diagnosis on its heels and use the experience to help women get their sexy back through her latest venture, The Pink Line. She wanted to be able to use what she'd gone through to not only satisfy her entrepreneurial bug, but to be a resource for others facing the same issue.
Sproles had previously owned a hair salon where she sold hair extensions, and she thought relaunching the line with a charitable bonus was just the perfect way she could shift focus from agonizing about her illness to sparking a movement.
Being known as an NFL wife can have its negative connotations (reality TV, anyone?), and it seems like everyone and their mama has a hair line out now. The difference here is that 10% of proceeds from The Pink Line go toward custom wigs for cancer survivors, and Sproles has been able to leverage relationships she's built to give back to her community through the business.
Many women who are told they have cancer think about both the mental and physical effects of treatment, and they often have to deal with losing parts of themselves closely associated with womanhood and beauty. In the aftermath of survival, women are seeing something in the mirror that can be more than disheartening, to say the least. Even Sproles had to come to terms with the decision she chose to make in removing both her breasts, and she could relate to the feelings others had about how their bodies changed after treatment.
"Though I didn't have to do radiation or chemo at that time, I came across so many women who had to [lose their hair]," she said. "One of the main things they were concerned about was wanting to feel beautiful while going through that process."
Courtesy of Michel Sproles
The Pink Line offers a diverse range of textures--from kinky curls and waves, to sleek and straight tresses--and she recently launched the Legally Blonde collection, giving any woman, whether a cancer survivor or not, a chance to turn heads and flaunt their style on their own terms.
"We wanted to offer something that women could be able to color and manipulate without losing the quality of the hair, so that's where the blonde collection came from. We also have customers who just want to rock bold, blonde hair, so we needed to provide for that woman as well."
Her customers get the opportunity to slay and pay it forward with each purchase of the line's bundles, closures, and frontals, while Sproles uses part of the profits to get wigs custom made by talented stylists from her network. Cancer survivors who either nominate themselves or are nominated by a loved one are gifted the wigs, helping them throw out the stress of worrying about how they look. (Who wants to be stressing over an ill-fitting, unflattering, bulky wig while trying to focus on healing and getting back to their best lives?)
Her company also partners with healthcare organizations to raise awareness, share updated information, and keep open and engaging conversations about detection and treatment.
"We've done community outreach projects where we're able to give inner-city women free mammograms, and we've [launched] other special events and efforts to give back through the line, which goes beyond just selling the hair and providing wigs," Sproles said.
Not only is she using her platform to bring more awareness to breast cancer, but one glimpse at both her business and her personal Instagram accounts--which boast more than 32,000 followers combined---shows she's super-down to empower all women in embracing womanhood, self-confidence, fitness, and family, and defining for themselves what cancer survival should look like. "I think it's important to use the platform I have because I am able to reach certain people and to be authentic in my truth."
"Being an NFL wife is amazing---I'm able to pay my bills, drive beautiful cars, travel and do all these things---but none of that mattered when I got that diagnosis---when looking in the mirror and I have no breasts."
As a sports lover and track coach, Sproles has always found strength in girl power, teamwork, perseverance, and discipline---all qualities she has to embody as a mother of Devyn, 9, and Rhyan, 6. She and her husband also recently welcomed their third daughter, 17-year-old Brianna---who she has mentored and coached since age 12---to their family via adoption.
Courtesy of Michel Sproles
"It's important for my kids to see their mom working hard. It's great to have a supportive husband who is a provider, but I also want them to understand the importance of hard work and knowing as a woman, they can provide for themselves. I want them to be equipped to be great providers for themselves, be educated, and do all the things they aspire to do as young black women."
Sproles encourages other women to essentially turn lemons into Beyonce-level lemonade, using their stories of challenges, survival, and triumph as catalysts to fulfill a sense of purpose and make a difference.
"I went through a period where I was ashamed or embarrassed that that happened to me. There are so many other people who suffered silently that go through things, and just to be able to share who we are authentically is important. There's always someone who has experienced something similar. Whatever it is that you're passionate about, create a plan. I think sometimes we have these great ideas but we don't have a clear vision as to how you're going to accomplish. And then, just do it. Life is short and we're not promised any day, so just do it."
For more about Michel, follow her on Instagram.
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak